Letter from the editor

Crime – what SA is best known for?

In the past few weeks I have travelled to a number of countries and met journalists, farmers and agribusiness professionals from all over the world.
The Land Bank’s missed opportunity

The Land Bank’s missed opportunity

I have often wondered, while listening to presentations given at conferences by agricultural economists, whether these learned men and women would make the best or worst farmers.
Farmers, the black sheep of the world?

Farmers, the black sheep of the world?

As part of an in-house project to look at how Farmer’s Weekly has evolved over the past 107 years, a couple of colleagues and I recently visited the National Library in Pretoria to page through the magazine’s archives.
New start for land reform department?

New start for land reform department?

As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for. After the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the ANC in December last year, and his subsequent election as president in Parliament in February, South Africans knew that one of his first orders of business would be a cabinet reshuffle.
Will technology end hunger?

Will technology end hunger?

South Africa is one of those countries in which you rarely have to travel far to witness first-hand the kind of disparity that exists in the supply of food.
SA’s maintenance emergency - time for change

SA’s maintenance emergency – time for change

As a journalist working for Farmer’s Weekly, you regularly get to experience the bumps, cracks, potholes and other obstacles that crowd out the smooth and flat parts of many provincial and regional roads.

Land: SA’s real watershed moment

Ever since the National Assembly voted to pass a revised motion brought by the EFF to launch a process to change the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation, every media platform in South Africa has been awash with stories, comments, opinions and statements from those who support and those who reject the idea, as well as those who have not yet taken a firm stance on the matter.
Climate change data cannot be faked

Climate change data cannot be faked

Now that all the most crucial changes on South Africa’s political landscape have come to pass, we can turn our attention for a moment to those challenges that will not only impact the social and financial welfare of South Africans, but the existence of all life on earth.
Land audit reveals no great insight

Land audit reveals no great insight

Since land ownership, and agricultural land ownership in particular, remains one of South Africa’s most contentious issues, we should ideally have clear, independent and accurate data available to inform any policy decisions about how best to distribute and utilise land.
A letter to farmers in drought-stricken regions

A letter to farmers in drought-stricken regions

It’s a feeling anyone who has grown up on a farm knows well: the excruciating helplessness of looking out over your parched veld or crops and watching rain fall from heavy clouds in the distance, on another family’s farm.
Uncertainty is the new normal

Uncertainty is the new normal

Try to think back, and ask yourself if two years ago you would have believed that a global first-class city would run out of water, or that a US president would openly make jokes about nuclear warfare or be overtly racist, and not only get away with it, but embolden his millions of supporters in doing so. I would not have believed it!
Ramaphosa’s land reform problem

Ramaphosa’s land reform problem

The general feeling of relief that South Africa’s business community may have felt when it was announced that Cyril Ramaphosa had won the ANC leadership race was short-lived for those in agriculture.

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