Staff Reporter
Farmer's Weekly's Staff Reporter team provides accurate, timely, and trusted coverage of South African agriculture, delivering expert-backed reporting on farming, livestock, crops, agribusiness, technology, policy, and industry developments.
Connect all your farm equipment with a single device!
The company FieldMicro has released a digital connectivity device that can be used to control a wide range of connected infrastructure, such as farm gates, irrigation equipment and machinery.
SA must take a ‘bold step’ towards fiscal sustainability
The re-evaluation of government spending, although much needed, will not be enough to address South Africa’s immense economic challenges. There also needs to be stronger political will and leadership to address poor implementation, writes Dr John Purchase, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber.
Cutting the waste from the agriculture department’s budget
Tshepo Moloi and Prof Johann Kirsten of the Bureau for Economic Research at Stellenbosch University suggest that a zero-based budgeting approach could offer an opportunity to reassess the role of the state in rural development.
Why SA needs commercial and smallholder farmers
While growth and development initiatives have tended to focus on growing the commercial farming sector, a new school of thought argues for the coexistence of smallholder and commercial farmers to achieve household-level food security in South Africa, writes Dr Sifiso Ntombela, chief economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council.
The basics of the Bapedi breed
These fat-tailed sheep, which are smaller than average, are kept for meat. They appear in various combinations of white, brown, red and black.
Episode 16: The value of cotton
Cotton is a unique crop as it is the only agricultural commodity that provides fibre and food for human and animal consumption.
How Beefmaster Group helps cattle farmers
In these times of uncertainty, cattle farmers can rely on the Beefmaster Group to help them overcome short-term challenges and access markets, says Roelie van Reenen, supply chain executive at the group. Beefmaster Group helps emerging and commercial cattle farmers that farm various breeds of cattle.
Higher temperatures increase risk of apple scab infection
The dramatic increase in South Africa’s average winter temperature over the past 40 years has altered the susceptibility of apples to fungal disease, with fungi showing a much faster adaptation rate to changing temperatures than apples, writes Dr Julia Meitz-Hopkins, a researcher in the Department of Plant Pathology at Stellenbosch University.
Growing Chinese cabbage
While deemed a ‘weed’ in countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, Chinese cabbage is a popular vegetable on local markets.
Standard Bank leverages specialised knowledge to assist local agribusinesses
COVID-19 has caused many disruptions to the agriculture sector, despite the sector being declared an essential service. It is because of events like these that Standard Bank employs a team of agricultural experts to better meet the needs of its agribusiness clients.
Episode 15: The economy and agricultural financing
The South African economy was already in trouble before the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the situation didn’t improve much from there.
Sponsored
The Case IH JXE-Series: A tractor for every application
Case IH introduced its brand-new, multipurpose JXE-Series tractors, suited for work in orchards and fields, at the Izmir AgroExpo 2020 in Turkey in February.
Biosecurity measures on an animal farm
With the increasing spread of infectious diseases, biosecurity needs to be taken seriously on every livestock farm.
The good farmers do
South African farmers are often reliant on the communities in which they operate as a source of labour, and their fate is intertwined with these communities.
Maximising efficiency against heat stress in cattle
Expected temperature increases due to the effect of global warming will have a negative impact on the productivity of livestock. According to animal science researchers at the Agricultural Research Council, beef farmers will have to follow certain breeding objectives to lessen this effect.
Fluence and The Lamphouse team up to deliver LED lighting solutions to SA’s horticulture...
The collaboration combines The Lamphouse’s local roots with Fluence’s horticulture expertise to serve the estimated R28 billion South African cannabis industry.
Using land for recreation
Recreation in natural areas is an excellent way of reconnecting people with the environment. Besides the educational function, it is also a possible income stream for farmers.
Land-use change drives drastic biodiversity decline – report
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.
How to make your combine harvester work harder
The combine is the single most capital-intensive piece of equipment on a grain farm. Utilising as much of its capacity as possible is important to overall farm efficiency, writes Stehan Cloete.
Episode 13: High-value export commodities
Fruit production in South Africa consists of a wide variety of fruit, from oranges and avocados, to table grapes and dragon fruit.
