Crops

Eelworm is generally considered the world’s worst crop pest.

The daily sales process is like a finely-tuned machine, and like any machine, it needs oil. In this case, that oil is communication.

There is more to a maize land than meets the eye. It is a mass production facility with thousands of efficient ‘factories’ per hectare, each storing the sun’s energy through photosynthesis. A system this complex and valuable needs careful management, says Grant Pringle, Pannar agronomist in KwaZulu-Natal.

Chard (Beta vulgaris) is also known as ‘Swiss chard’, ‘silver beet’, ‘mangold’ and other names. In South Africa it is usually referred to simply as ‘spinach’.

In late December, to market its Cuties mandarins, Sun Pacific introduced a marketing campaign on Snapchat, the social media messaging and imaging app.

Whitefly remains a notoriously difficult pest to control.

‘Off-season’ is a misnomer, says Marble Hall citrus farmer Piet Engelbrecht. This is when crucial tasks such as pruning take place. Gerhard Uys visited him.

The early part of the year is probably a good time to remind farmers about their responsibilities when dealing with a market agent.

A recent study published by the Water Research Commission highlights the urgent need for identifying on-farm treatment options to help reduce the high levels of microbial contamination in irrigation waters, thereby reducing the associated food safety hazards for consumers. Denene Erasmus summarises some of the report’s key findings.

Tobacco producer, Peter Kok, says that tobacco is a cash crop that can assist diversification and expansion.

When spraying different pests at the same time, many farmers try to kill two birds with one stone by making elaborate mixtures.

Almost every fresh produce market in South Africa has a licensing agreement with Freshmark Systems, the providers of the industry’s dedicated IT-based sales processing system.

As pointed out previously, the key to successful pest and disease control is optimal penetration of the spray mixture.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) play a crucial role in the workplace. So much so, that the Occupational Health and Safety Act lays down a host of precise legal requirements for employers and employees.

JH Laubscher Broers has one of the largest potato-growing concerns in the Western Cape, with 300ha under irrigation all through the year.

There is more to a spray mixture than chemical product and water. You also need an adjuvant – a substance added to the water to enable the sprayed product to work optimally in the prevailing conditions.

So today I’m offering a general optimistic comment on South Africa’s farmers that I hope will resonate with you.

All too often, I come across farmers who are not accurate enough with their sprayer calibration.

Seven years ago, Fritz Breytenbach, a wine grape producer in the Robertson Valley, embarked on his biological farming journey. Today, he is reaping the benefits by producing almost double the regional production average using the same inputs as neighbouring farmers.

Grain SA’s Grain Producer of the Year 2016, Jozua du Plessis, was one of the first grain producers in South Africa to implement precision farming practices in the late 1990s. He spoke to Gerhard Uys about how precision farming, coupled with conventional cultivation methods and a keen eye for opportunities, is the key to his successful and sustainable operation.