World

Agricultural policy-makers in the EU have expressed concern about the ageing agricultural population, with the average age of occupiers of farms in the bloc continuing to rise.

A recent decision by EU agriculture ministers to set aside a portion of the bloc's common agricultural policy (CAP) budget for programmes that protect the environment has come under fire from environmental organisations for not going far enough.

A recent investment of US$372 million (about R6,14 billion) will allow French company, Ÿnsect, to complete its new insect farming enterprise.

There is mounting concern about global wheat supplies, as dry weather conditions persist in the Black Sea region, the US and Australia, sending international wheat prices skyrocketing to a near five-year high in recent weeks.

No farmer wants to be the person who loses the multi-generational farm. This was according to Prof Joan Mazur, deputy director of the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention at the University of Kentucky in the US, speaking out about soaring suicide rates among farmers around the world.

Indonesia has started the development of a controversial new, large-scale food estate where rice, maize and other crops will be grown in an effort to mitigate the country's reliance on imports.

Despite a recent agreement between the EU and the US on lobster tariffs, it is unlikely to be followed soon by similar accords, given transatlantic differences about agriculture, EU vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis has said.

The biodiversity cost of the world’s expanding population and economic output has been significant. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) ‘Living Planet Report 2020’, which was published recently, while more food and energy than ever before were being supplied, the over-exploitation of plants and animals was increasingly eroding nature’s ability to provide them in the future.

Chinese and South Korean authorities have announced that pork imports from Germany will be banned after the first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed there in the second week of September.

"We knew it was going to be something really special. He was just an outstanding animal, backed up by all the best genetics. There were about seven or eight people who really, really wanted him and that's what led to the price.

The global agriculture sector has been undergoing a radical transformation in recent years, and researchers around the world are increasingly looking at alternative farming opportunities, such as seaweed farming and other mariculture operations.

Researchers from Rothamsted Research, headquartered in the UK, are currently testing the latest in artificial intelligence for farming, the world’s largest agricultural robot called the Field Scanalyzer.