Crops

Zander Spammer, an agricultural resource manager at Southern Oil, spoke to Zunel van Eeden about the growth of the canola industry in South Africa and the main uses for this versatile crop.

Growing cherries in a suboptimal climate requires manipulating trees and temperatures. But with a considerable market advantage, it is worth the effort. Lindi Botha visited ZZ2’s Toscana farm, which for four weeks of the year takes prime position in the cherry market.

So-called experts often tell farmers what the problems are with their crops without being sure and just hoping for the best when suggesting solutions. Rather use your own experience to figure out the cause, says Bill Kerr.

Macadamia farming is a long-term investment that could keep paying off for decades to come if a solid foundation has been laid. Farmer Johan Swanepoel spoke to Lindi Botha about establishing new orchards, and the benefits to be reaped from managing soil health from the start.

In today’s agricultural playing field, the focus is being directed at sustainably producing crops for a growing world population. Concepts like ensuring food security, soil quality and fertility, nutritional value of crops, and environmental impact on the natural resources are the order of the day.

The decision of what to plant should be based on average market prices in the long term, which enables vegetable growers to calculate what the market price fluctuations will be, says Bill Kerr.

Blueberries have been identified as an ideal crop for boosting agriculture’s contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product. Given the labour-intensive nature of this crop and its lucrative export market, investing in it was an obvious choice for Pan African Resources and Primocane Capital as a means of supporting rural communities near Barberton in Mpumalanga.

It is one thing to have a good product, but we need to bring its outstanding features to the attention of the purchaser, writes Bill Kerr.

In 2019, dairy farmer Jonathan Willows and his business partner, Laine Collett, launched a pineapple operation on a dairy farm in the Eastern Cape. They spoke to Mike Burgess about why and how they rebooted a once-successful pineapple farm to set them up to produce 7 000t of the Cayenne variety a year.

With the support of his wife, Andrew Doré has changed his approach to macadamia farming by adopting organic practices. He spoke to Sinenhlanhla Mncwango about his farming experience, challenges, and how he expanded his business into processing macadamia nuts into health products.

Featuring an array of delicious fruit from peaches to cherries, stone fruit is attractive to a variety of bugs that can be effectively controlled with integrated pest management, writes Zunel van Eeden.

Sorghum can transform rural economies by boosting food security, supporting local processing, and enhancing soil health. Nate Blum, CEO of Sorghum United, spoke to Octavia Avesca Spandiel about the potential of this drought-resistant grain.