South Africa

The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has revealed that several poultry abattoirs have at one time or another been negatively affected by municipal water supply or quality problems.

Plans are underway to increase the efficiency of extension services, expand veterinary services through compulsory community service and deploy mobile veterinary clinics in order to maintain South Africa’s newly acquired foot-and-mouth disease-free status.

Police in Elandslaagte, KwaZulu-Natal, have been criticised for their slow response to a call for help from a 74-year-old woman on Houtkop Farm on 15 February.

A total of 1,3 billion people are still without access to electricity, according to the World Energy Issues Monitor 2014.

France’s senate has rejected a move by the government to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize.

The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs has given interested and affected parties 30 days to comment on sections of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004.

South Africa’s multi-billion rand red meat industry is ecstatic at news that the country has had its foot-and-mouth disease-free status reinstated.

Agbiz has called on agribusiness decision-makers to participate in this year’s Agribusiness Executive Opinion Survey.

The African Farmers Association of South Africa (Afasa) has queried the ‘success’ of the land reform programme, saying that President Zuma’s figures are inaccurate.

Companies in the fibre, processing and manufacturing (FP&M) sub-sectors, including forestry, leather, pulp and paper, and wood products, registered with the FP&M Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) have until 30 April 2014 to submit applications for mandatory grants for the financial year 2014/15.

Foresters and other land managers in SA can update their knowledge and skills on fighting wildfires with the newly released second edition of the Fire Manager’s Handbook on Veld and Forest Fires.

Aggrey Mahanjana, general secretary of the ,African Farmers Association of South Africa (Afasa) has lashed out at bureaucrats who fail to execute their duties at the expense of SA’s smallholder farmers.

The new SA import regulations will have a severe impact on Namibia’s livestock industry. This was according to Mecki Schneider, chairperson of Namibia’s Livestock Producers Organisation.

A lack of resources has made black farmers more vulnerable to stock theft, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

Farmers will have to brace themselves for another increase in transport costs if more toll gates for Limpopo are approved.

President Jacob Zuma said the next administration will need to take forward a number of policies to further redress the dispossession of the black majority of their ancestral land.

Excessively high E. coli counts in South Africa’s water has raised concerns over the country’s water management systems.

Agriculture is being driven forward by genetic improvements and better cropping techniques. But lack of understanding of how food is produced has left many consumers scared of biotechnology and doubtful of food safety.

Tepsy Ntseoane and Ismail Motala were elected interim committee members for Gauteng and Western Cape African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) respectively after two years of leadership challenges.

President Jacob Zuma will have to deliver more than promises tonight (13 February) when he delivers the state of the nation address in parliament to convince South Africans that the country’s governance is in good hands.