South Africa

Limpopo farmers face significant financial setbacks following a severe black frost that struck over the weekend, causing extensive damage to crops across the province.

The South African Weather Service has issued a level 8 warning for disruptive rain in the Western Cape as another intense cold front is heading towards the province.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been a cornerstone of economic relations between the US and sub-Saharan Africa for over two decades.

Free State Agriculture (FSA) urged farmers and landowners to prepare in earnest for the coming veld-fire season. The first few notable fires of the season had already occurred in, among others, Bethlehem, Clarence and Wesselsbron.

In a significant crackdown on stock theft, the commercial farmers of the Ugie, Maclear (Nqanqarhu) and Elliot (Khowa) areas in the Eastern Cape witnessed a breakthrough.

The Guava Producers’ Association (GPA) has adjusted its guava production estimate down from 25 200t to 22 500t, making the harvest 16% smaller than the 26 641t harvested last season and the smallest harvest in the past three years.

During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent cabinet announcement, he stated that the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform would be split into two ministries.

Farm attacks and murders spiked in June and have continued with a bloody start in July. A 65-year-old farm manager was stabbed to death in the early morning hours of Monday on a farm near Porterville in the Western Cape.

South Africa’s new cabinet ministers for agriculture, and land reform and rural development, might hail from different political parties, but their ideologies are much aligned in theory to that of the ANC.

In the recently released World Bank and S&P Container Port Performance Index 2023, the Port of Cape Town fell from 347th place in the 2022 rankings, when only 348 ports were ranked, to the bottom of the list at number 405.

The Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) has fallen by 2 points to 38 in the second quarter of 2024, indicating that agribusinesses remain downbeat about business conditions in South Africa.

The elephant in the Competition Commission’s Fresh Produce Market Inquiry (FPMI) has yet to be addressed despite the provisional report being released on Wednesday.

An untenable environment in which farmers have to operate has been cited as the reason transformation has mostly failed within the fresh produce sector in South Africa, and why participation from small-scale and historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs) is low in the market.

Former agriculture minister Thoko Didiza was elected National Assembly Speaker at the first sitting of the National Assembly on Friday. In her place, Senzo Mchunu, the minister of Water Affairs and Sanitation, was appointed acting minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.

Proposed methodology to measure the environmental footprint of apparel and footwear are threatening the feature sustainability of natural fibres.

Eskom’s latest plan to drastically elevate charges on fixed costs in the agriculture sector would only worsen the power utility company’s challenges and made no economic sense, Francois Wilken, Free State Agriculture (FSA) president, told Farmer’s Weekly.

While the pork industry is showing optimism in terms of production and market growth, producers have been warned to pay more attention to animal welfare issues to maintain the positive growth.

The Namibian Directorate of Veterinary Services lifted its ban on poultry meat imports from South Africa on 20 May 2024.

In a unified effort to address environmental challenges, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment is calling on all South Africans to commemorate World Environment Day.

Heavy rains and gale-force winds caused destruction in some parts of the country, but brought welcome relief in other parts.