South Africa

Free State Agriculture praised the participants and the VKB Group for the 2016 VKB Drive for Safety Golf Day on 16 April, which raised R320 000 towards the organisation’s Safety Desk.

The wildlife and hunting industry contributes billions of rands to the economy, said Adri Kitshoff-Botha, Wildlife Ranching South Africa (WRSA) CEO, speaking at an Absa Agribusiness breakfast at the opening of Huntex 2016.

The Mangold Trophy for the most well conserved farm in the Bathurst region has been awarded to Tshilidze Matshidzula, a young dairy farmer in charge of the Little Barnet Trust near Alexandria.

The price of bread should have decreased since December 2015 due to lower international wheat prices, according to Grain SA.

The decline in numbers of new tractors and combine harvesters sold in South Africa since the beginning of 2016 is continuing.

Associated British Foods (ABF), which already owns 51% of Illovo Sugar, has offered to buy the remaining 49% of all the issued shares in the sugar company.

Export ties between South Africa and Asia were strengthened this week when the Indonesian Quarantine Agency granted ‘Country of Recognition’ status for South Africa’s food safety control system, thereby increasing the export potential for SA deciduous fruit, according to a statement issued by Hortgro.

Free State Agriculture (FSA) has condemned the possible involvement of “police officials” in farm attacks after the recent attack on the farm of Adrie Conradie in Bothaville district.

The 35 big turbines of Noupoort Wind Farm (NWF) in the Northern Cape are on track to begin producing renewable energy for the South African power grid in July 2016.

Berg winds caused sharp rises in temperatures in the Eastern Cape on Monday (11 April), with Coega, outside Port Elizabeth, the hottest at almost 40°C.

South Africa is ill-equipped to deal with the existing food and water shortage crisis facing the country, according to Prof Louis Kotzé, environmental law expert at the Faculty of Law, on the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University.

Grain producers are still concerned about the absence of significant rainfall, said Wandile Sihlobo, economist at Grain SA.

The agriculture sector globally has suffered a chronic shortage of investment, said Mark Holderness, executive secretary of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research.

Prospects for increased wool production and rising wool prices are positive, with the product in great demand worldwide, says HB van der Walt, newly-elected chairperson of the National Woolgrowers’ Association in the Eastern Cape.

The Institute of Market Agents of South Africa (IMASA) has reported that it has not received complaints from market agents regarding poorer quality fresh produce resulting from the current drought.

The third Global Conference on Agricultural Research (GCARD3), hosted by South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), is currently underway in Johannesburg.

South African consumers will be paying more for milk from May, due to the drought and milk supply shortages.

The 2016 Agricultural Research Council guidelines for the production of small grains in the summer and winter grain production regions of SA were recently made available to the industry.

The Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) has set the expected size of the commercial maize crop at 7, 065 million tons, which is 2,63% or 190 475t less than the previous forecast of 7,256 million tons.

The South African National Parks (SANParks) has tracked down the escaped lion, Sylvester, which escaped from the Karoo National Park last week.