Towards climate-smart livestock farming
Natural selection is pivotal in adapting livestock farming to climate change in Africa and beyond, says Prof Charles T Kadzere of the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian...
How technology is creating better jobs in agriculture
Increased use of technology and automation in agriculture carries with it the risk that certain farm jobs will become redundant. However, according to a new report published by the World...
Grain hedging: lessons from the farmers who get it right
Since South African agriculture converted from control boards to the free market system in the 1990s, farmers have had to learn how to contend with extreme volatility on commodity markets....
Consider the environment when expanding your farm
Obtaining environmental authorisation with the help of technical consultants prior to expanding farming operations on virgin soil will help farmers avoid prosecution that could lead to hefty fines or even...
‘Green’ livestock production: the facts and the fictions
Global livestock production is increasingly under attack from certain societal groupings who claim that the sector is causing unnecessary environmental harm. Dr Jude Capper, of UK-based Livestock Sustainability Consultancy, explains...
SA agri training needs drastic digital overhaul
Digital technologies and innovations have the potential to revolutionise the world’s food systems. This is why agricultural education and training, particularly in South Africa, needs to be revisited as a...
Commercial farmers’ vital role in rural development
Largely failed land reform initiatives are leading to increased tension and uncertainty in the agriculture sector as a whole. Veteran rural development expert Jimmy Lonsdale believes commercial farmers have a...
On the verge of success: SA’s ‘municipal farmers’
A new class of emerging farmer working the land on municipal commonages have similarities to the ‘kulaks’, the highly productive, early 20th century entrepreneurial Russian farmers drawn from the peasantry....
Bees the victims of irresponsible pesticide use
Honeybees are the world’s best-known pollinators of natural flora and a vast array of food and fibre crops. Yet they are frequently harmed by human activities, writes CropLife South Africa’s...
Integrated financing for smallholder farmers
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...
A sustainable approach to feeding the world by 2050
There is a large shortfall between the amount of food being produced in the world today and the quantity needed to feed an expected 10 billion people by 2050. A...
The difference half a degree of global warming can make
The ‘Global Warming of 1.5˚C’ report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights several climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1,5˚C, compared with...
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