New grazing capacity norms coming

Researchers and other interested parties should get involved in the process of drawing up new national norms for the grazing capacity of the country’s natural pastures, Bongani Ngwenyama of the Department of Agriculture’s Directorate of Land Use and Soil Management told the Grassland Society of SA’s congress in Grahamstown. gwenyama said the department, through the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (Cara), is responsible for continually updating the official grazing capacity maps. “current norms are based on maps produced in 1993 on the basis of expert opinion. However, with the rapid growth in geo-information technology and increased access to other data, it is now possible to improve the accuracy of grazing capacity maps. This is critical for planning and the implementation of regulations under Cara,” Ngwenyama said. ince 2000 the department has investigated the use of coarse-resolution satellite data to improve the old maps. Two datasets are now available, namely a potential grazing capacity map, incorporating National Vegetation Map of Southern Africa boundaries, and predicted long-term grazing capacity maps. These will be incorporated into the Agricultural Geographical Information System (www.agis.agric.za) and all interested parties will be invited to comment on the accuracy of the outcome. – Roelof Bezuidenhout