South Africa

The Western Cape office of the regional land claims commissioner has issued a warning to prospective claimants to beware of false land claims officials.

A record 2 163 young wines, 10% more than last year, were entered for the 2015 SA Young Wine Show.

The SA citrus industry has decided to proactively suspend exports of organic lemons to the EU.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) has approved the acquisition of a R15,5 million farm for eight recently qualified agricultural students in Limpopo, who are currently on a two-year learnership programme with Molemole Local Municipality, according to a recent press release.

Veterinary services in the Western Cape has requested the government to compensate Appie Viviers to cull animals that had contracted brucellosis on his farm Boeteka near Beaufort West, irrespective of whether they had the melitensis strain or not.

Potato cultivar evaluation trials and pests came under the spotlight at the Potatoes SA research symposium held at Bela-Bela in Limpopo.

A home in St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal, was the scene of an interesting police bust on the evening of 20 July.

Thousands of day-old broiler chicks at a hatchery east of Pretoria narrowly escaped being consumed by an inferno that eventually severely damaged the building and the incubation equipment that it housed.

Domestic fuel prices were expected to decrease by 35c/litre for petrol and 61c/litre for diesel on 5 August.

Free State Agriculture (FSA) strongly condemned the murder of Dr Hein Smith (77).

Mandela Day on 18 July has become synonymous with the expression of humanity through charitable acts.

A small number of technical amendments to the British Hunting Act have been suggested to more closely align legislation in England and Wales with that in Scotland, according to a press release by the UK government.

Contentious issues pertaining to land will continue to dog the agriculture industry over the next five years, according to political analyst Justice Malala.

The weekend of 10-12 July saw separate farm attacks on two elderly couples living in the Free State and Eastern Cape respectively. Although assaulted by their attackers, all four victims survived the attacks.

This past weekend, Castle de Wildt hosted the 4th annual Prestige Golden Breeders Game Auction, where a golden wildebeest bull sold for R2,85 million.

The Agri Securitas Trust Fund has allocated additional funds to fight crime in the farming communities of Senekal in the Free State as well as Steytlerville and Witkop near Burgersdorp in the Eastern Cape, according to a statement from the trust.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Nestlé South Africa, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Eastern Cape provincial government that may see 800 permanent and seasonal jobs created by 2019, according to a DTI press release.

In what could be a first for South Africa, a cycad poacher was recently sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail by an Eastern Cape court.

The demand for high-quality naturally-produced beef was on the increase globally and the implementation of a traceability system would enable local red meat producers to gain from the expanding markets, according to Prof Frikkie Neser, animal scientist at the University of the Free State.

The 2014/2015 Senwes financial results showed that agricultural companies had to do business in a volatile environment characterised by two contrasting agricultural cycles.