South Africa

Summer is in full swing in South Africa with rising temperatures and rain showers. This make for ideal conditions for snakes to become more active, according to Johan Marais, CEO of the African Snakebite Institute.

Thousands of tons of fresh produce worth an estimated R10 million is rotting on the Johannesburg Fresh Market floor as the premises has been without electricity since Saturday.

Vodacom South Africa and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF SA) recently teamed up to pilot the use of a technology to safeguard marine mammals against entanglement.

For years, people have been talking about Africa’s potential to improve global food security. Various role-players at the Africa Agri Investment Indaba, recently held in Cape Town, talked about how this can be achieved.

A few isolated cases of fowl pox have been reported in South Africa over the past few weeks. However, authorities say there is no need for panic as the virus was not likely to spread and could be managed through vaccination and good hygiene.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is urging consumers not to resort to panic buying eggs.

The Kalahari Red sire ‘Sta Soft’ (777-20-051), bred and sold by Bushra Stud in Botswana, recently fetched a record price of R165 000 (BWP120 000) at the annual Trifecta Elite Sale held at the National Agriculture Showground in Sebele.

The Soil Science Society of South Africa (SSSSA) celebrates its platinum jubilee this year, making it one of the oldest soil science societies in the world.

Grain SA chairperson Derek Mathews has welcomed the appointment of Dr Tobias Doyer as chief executive officer of the organisation, describing him as the ideal choice.

The agriculture sector in South Africa continues to show its strength creating 61 000 new jobs in the third quarter of 2023.

Various articles were published in the media over the past week that made it sound as if government had published “new rules” in the Government Gazette that would force farmers to meet black economic empowerment (BEE) requirements to continue exports to Europe.

In spite of the limiting impact of the ever-decreasing national vineyard surface area, isolated cases of frost and extensive flood damage in some regions, the wine industry is optimistic about the new season’s potential, according to Rico Basson, CEO of South African Wine.

Sheep farmers are at their wits end as damage caused by warthogs is threatening their livelihoods.

The South African Poultry Association (SA Poultry) recently voiced its concern over a suggested temporary rebate provision on broiler meat.

Free State Agriculture (FSA), in collaboration with LGV’s PSiRA-registered Private Stock Theft Investigators, has retrieved more than a million rands’ worth of livestock since FSA announced its Private Livestock Theft Investigators initiative four months ago. Fourteen arrests in six cases of stock theft followed.

More than 600 KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) cannabis and hemp farmers were granted permits to cultivate, store and transport the product with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of not more than 0,2%.

The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) brought little good news when it was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

The South African Weather Service (Weather SA) has advised farmers to keep their animals safe from the bitter cold, wet and windy conditions that started on Saturday and are expected to last until Wednesday in parts of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and Northern Cape.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development does not have funds to compensate farmers for their losses as a result of the deadly avian influenza outbreak across South Africa, according to the department's chief director Dipepeneneng Serage, who was responding to questions posed by the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development this week.

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) continues to sweep through South Africa, with the latest wave annihilating colonies in Gauteng.