A new old broom for agriculture
I was left with two overwhelming impressions after reading through Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza’s Budget Vote speech for the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development that was delivered...
Low prices: a plague for farmers
If I had to draw a single conclusion from the ‘Agricultural Outlook: 2019 to 2028’ published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the...
How to turn Africa’s food fortunes around
Should African countries fail to increase food production and processing to become at least partly self-sufficient, it will be one of the greatest missed opportunities of the century.
Cannabis industry is in need of legislation
Almost two years have passed since Farmer’s Weekly first published an article exploring the potential to establish a legal farming industry in South Africa for the production of medicinal cannabis.
SA’s sugar industry is in a meltdown
It would not be fair to say that the dramatic unravelling of Tongaat Hulett these past weeks was caused solely by the larger crisis facing South Africa’s sugar industry.
Our sorry, calloused souls
Any person who has endured tragedy will know that bewildering feeling that settles in soon after the traumatic event when you realise that for other people, and the world around...
A better agri trade deal for Africa
The Agribusiness Africa Conference will be hosted by Farmer’s Weekly for the third time this year in Johannesburg on 10 July.
Who should you vote for in the general election on 8 May?
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...
Losing the food security fight
Despite significant improvements in agricultural production over the last two decades, food insecurity has been on the rise for the past three years.
Agri training falling further behind
A widely held sentiment among farmers and agribusiness leaders is that South African agricultural colleges can no longer be trusted to produce appropriately trained, technically skilled professionals.
Who will pay to save the planet?
According to the Estimates of National Expenditure, which was tabled along with the budget in Parliament when Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his budget speech recently, the money allocated to...
The sugar crisis is your problem
The South African sugar industry is facing a crisis, and the South African Cane Growers’ Association warns that this R14 billion/ year industry is in danger of “imminent collapse, putting 350 000...
Co-ops are making a comeback
The farming sector has a long tradition of depending on co-operative models that, in essence, offer groups of smaller or medium-sized farmers the same scale of benefits that would otherwise...
SA farmers need SAA-sized bailout
When agriculture sneezes, the whole economy catches a cold, the saying goes. We saw clear proof of this in 2018, when South Africa experienced a technical recession after the country’s...
Saving our medium-sized farms
Last year, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the Decade of Family Farming for the period from 2019 to 2028. The purpose of this initiative is to provide a framework for...
Years of heightened uncertainty
South Africa ended the year with some good news when fuel prices, which had soared to record highs in November, came down sharply in December, and Statistics South Africa announced...
Degrees: a poor indicator of ability
At the end of November, the Twitter feed of South Africans interested in local politics was briefly overrun by the fracas between EFF and DA members of Parliament over DA...
How long can SA’s farmers last?
South Africa is not an easy place to farm. Even if you ignore the threat posed by radical land reform, most farmers in this country still have to contend with...
Land reform failure: a strategic plot?
If you have been involved in the farming sector in South Africa for the past decade, you have also probably heard the rumour that state departments are embroiled in a...
DAFF’s 1 000 overpaid employees
The high cost of wages for workers in the public service is one of the major uncomfortable truths that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will have to grapple with as he...
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