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Many aquaponics operations focus only on plant yield and ignore fish production. These are merely hydroponic systems that use expensive means to fertilise their plants.

Africa’s agricultural potential can only be realised if smallholders gain access to finance. But loans cannot be focused on just one aspect of the value chain at the expense of others. Antois van der Westhuizen, managing director of John Deere Financial, suggests ways to design integrated financing models for smallholders.

One of the reproductive tools for the beef industry discussed in depth at the 10th annual Aldam Stockman School last year was the use of fixed-time artificial insemination. Sabrina Dean explores the concept as explained by three international speakers at the event.

Extension officers are slowly gaining ground in the fight for food security in rural areas, but many challenges remain. John Mthembi explains to Gerhard Uys why he has targeted schools.

Strategies to synchronise produce availability with times of general undersupply can prove highly lucrative, as KwaZulu-Natal fresh produce farmer Andile Ngcobo tells Lloyd Phillips.

Compared with most other agricultural industries in South Africa, the farmed fish industry is in its infancy. With no legal framework yet in place, fish farmers and animal welfare organisations are at loggerheads about how to kill fish with the least suffering.

Many farmers are highly knowledgeable about growing grain or running livestock. But relatively few hold even basic skills in financial literacy. Are you one of them?

Establishing a healthy orchard starts with choosing the correct plant material. In South Africa’s only laboratory of its type, banana plants are cultivated from tissue culture to produce clones that offer farmers vigorous growth and high yield.

This article looks at the beefwood, balloon vine and other species that, by law, have to be controlled or eradicated.

From halting agricultural imports to bringing agriculture back to schools and the gathering of a great many minds for a land CODESA, these proposals are all contained in the many promises made by political parties as to how they will ensure that agriculture thrives and land is shared fairly should they be voted into power.

Despite being continually under the spotlight, rural crime in South Africa continues to plague farmers. Some respond by leaving the sector; others struggle on after having lost property or even loved ones. However, studies show that while the justice system receives much of the blame, farmers should be doing more to secure themselves.

Agriculture employs 70% of the workforce in Africa and constitutes 30% of total GDP. Yet the continent relies heavily on imports and food aid. Lindi Botha spoke to three leaders | in the African agriculture sector to explain this anomaly.