South Africa

Astral has denied responsibility for mistreated chickens found at a cull outlet near Johannesburg.

Existing financing models aimed at rural youth development in agriculture, were ineffective and not serving the needs of the youth.

A Groot Marico farmer has been fined R30 000 for neglecting to feed a herd of 600 cattle.

South African farmers and former Zimbabwean farmers dispossessed by land grabs in that country won an important victory after the Constitutional Court upheld an earlier judgement that Zimbabwean-owned property in SA be seized to pay a punitive costs order.

African and international leaders, as well as key stakeholders in the food security sector, met at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa recently to discuss hunger on the continent.

USA farmers have planted a record amount of soya beans and the largest maize crop since 1936, despite a wet, cold spring which slowed field operations.

If shareholders give their thumbs up at a meeting on 2 August, Rainbow Chicken Ltd will change its name to RCL Foods Limited and begin trading on the JSE under the new name on 2 September. Rainbow said the name would better reflect its’ strategy to become a food business of significant scale in SA and sub-Saharan Africa.

Senwesbel - the holding company of the agricultural services group Senwes - has appointed Dries Kruger as its new chairperson.

The Western Cape Farm Worker of the Year competition has received a huge boost from Shoprite.

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has set aside R10 million towards the support of rural co-ops to help stimulate the growth and development of the agriculture sector in rural areas.

The DA hopes to see changes made to the Labour Relations Amendment Bill after MPs’ poor attendance in parliament clouded the vote to pass the act. Denene Erasmus reports.

South Africa produces around 4% of the world's wine and is ranked as number seven in overall volume production.

Exports of white and yellow maize have traded places in the past three weeks, with SA’s yellow maize finding favour with markets in the East.

The depreciation of the rand forced the Department of Energy to announce an increase in the price of diesel by 78c/l from Wednesday next week.

Dan Kriek, president of Free State Agriculture (FSA), has expressed concern about the impact of unrealistic wage increases on the social-economic stability of the province’s rural areas.

Farmers in the Greater Kokstad Municipality (GKM) in KwaZulu-Natal scored a victory recently when their municipality changed its mind about increasing agricultural land rates by 13%.

Organisers of The Spring Show at the Tshwane Events Centre (previously the Pretoria show grounds) from 28 August to 1 September are confident that this year’s event will outperform last year’s in terms of breeder, visitor and exhibitor numbers.

SA’s timber industry is making headway with introducing a group Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme to community-owned and small-scale timber plantations.

The agriculture department is making slow progress in developing a support strategy for emerging livestock farmers.

Allegations have been levelled against officials of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), of deliberately holding up the settlement of the Wallmansthal land claim for personal gain.