South Africa

State and private vets as well as animal health technicians (AHTS) face many challenges in their efforts to control brucellosis in South Africa.

A large avocado harvest means the industry needs to access more export markets to remain sustainable, according to the South African Subtropical Growers Association (Subtrop).

Economists have warned that the latest fuel price increase could filter down the value chain and have an impact on food prices, and that the global oil price highs might mean a negative start to the new crop production season later in the year.

Plans for the first stage of the most comprehensive census ever conducted of South African agriculture were announced in Gauteng on Monday.

Livestock producers need to carefully manage their cattle herds and sheep flocks during the current cold spell because Pasteurella pneumonia is a real danger without sufficient cover and nutrition, according to Danie Odendaal, director of the SA Veterinarian Network.

In spite of good rains over the past week and Day Zero being averted in the Cape metropole, Western Cape farmers still need a lot of rain for the drought to be broken.

To date, discussions about land reform have concentrated on political, economic and legal aspects. While these are essential, they will not be enough.

The Crop Estimates Committee’s (CEC) fifth production forecast estimated that the 2018 summer soya bean crop could be the largest in South Africa’s history.

Animal health practitioners are urging livestock farmers to vaccinate their livestock against Rift Valley fever now, as all signs were pointing to the possibility of a large outbreak in the coming season.

South Africa’s laws governing the welfare of wild animals under the ‘physical control of humans’ need to be updated. This is the view of the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).

A project that began in 2004 at Vergelegen Wine Estate, Western Cape will be completed by October this year.

A collaboration of international partners is aiming to eradicate dog-mediated rabies in humans by 2030.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking him to intervene in an impasse with the director-general of the department, Mike Mlengana.

South Africa’s agribusiness sector remains generally optimistic about business conditions in the country, according to the latest data.

Reactions to the Rural Safety Summit recently hosted by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Pretoria have ranged from optimism to disillusion.

The ministerial task team appointed to assess the state of governance in North West has reported to Parliament that R413 million in irregular expenditure in the province could be attributed to contracts with the farming consulting company AgriDelight.

The current land reform process should be placed on hold and a new process started with the goal of preparing a new White Paper on land reform, which would set out new guiding policies and legislation, according to Prof Ben Cousins of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape.

A cold front expected to make landfall in the Western Cape this week has been forecast to bring cold, wet, windy weather that could be devastating to livestock, especially small stock.

To contextualise the welfare forgone by South Africans during the past decade in terms of GDP, based on income and jobs lost, it is estimated that the economy would have been R1 trillion bigger if the country did not experience the political dysfunction of the Zuma era, according to Goolam Ballim, chief economist and head of research at the Standard Bank Group.

The 501 tractors sold nationwide during May 2018 were well above Agbiz’s forecast of 444 units. Agbiz reported that, in hindsight, the above-anticipated tractor sales were unsurprising given that May was a busy month with winter crops planting underway across much of South Africa.