By Invitation

With the planet's human population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, agriculture must rise to the challenge of meeting the massive demand for food. Professor Aidan Connolly, vice-president of corporate accounts at multi-national animal nutrition company, Alltech Inc, shares his thoughts on the subject

Julius Malema's talk of changing the Constitution to allow for land grabs is merely a case of "opening one's mouth to change feet". A brief perusal of our Constitution shows that it protects landowners' property rights and also requires equitable distribution of property ownership.

Agri SA president Johannes Möller's New Year message to farmers is one of optimism and opportunity.

Roelof Bezuidenhout, a Farmer's Weekly correspondent who farms near Steytlerville, is experiencing drought first-hand. He believes government will have to reconsider their drought aid if they want to keep farmers on the land, ensure food security and prevent permanent damage to natural resources.

Dr Reuel Khoza is a black farmer and chairperson of Aka Capital and the Nedbank Group. His family trust owns a 200ha export avocado and macadamia farm near Hazyview and is a 50% partner in the export packhouse HL Hall & Sons.

Africa is the only continent which doesn't grow enough food to feed itself. But a revolution is underway that can change that, and it's affecting everyone from smallholer farmers to governments and corporations. So says Kofi Anan, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, former secretary general of the UN from 1977 to 2006 and chairperson of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in AFrica, which is working to improve the continent's agriculture.

In the "us vs them" game no one wins, and the divide between the government and commercial farmers has largely been created by "stone-throwing politicians", says Agri Eastern Cape president Ernest Pringle.

African countries need to implement home-grown policies to accelerate food production that are better suited to their state of economic growth and development, says Akin Adesina, former president of the African Association of Agricultural Economists. He highlights the main challenges of accelerated agricultural growth on the continent and gives some policy suggestions to overcome these obstacles.

Like any business, farming is a game. To win, you have to adapt to meet changing circumstances. You also have to help other players - at least those who show promise and a willingness to succeed - or one day there might be no game to play, says strategist, writer and public speaker, Clem Sunter.

Controversial Zimbabwean rancher Johann Zietsman has championed severe grazing and high-animal impact since 1995. He responds to our recent feature on Allan Savory’s revolutionary approach of combining high stocking rates with veld rehabilitation.

'It's time for agriculture to make a concerted effort at unity,' said Prof Mohammed Karaan, dean of the Agri-Sciences faculty at Stellenbosch University, at Kwanalu's 12th Annual Congress in Pietermaritzburg.

A new colonialism is on the rise, as governments and private companies grab land across Africa to feed and fuel demand in their own countries. They say their projects will alleviate poverty, but things aren't so simple, says the NGO coalition Friends of the Earth, which campaigns for sustainable, just societies and environmental protection.

It's a tall order, but why not take the politics out of farm labour and concentrate on what will actually work, asks journalist and farmer Roelof Bezuidenhout.

Recently there’s been a lot of buzz about the illegal practices of “off-market fresh produce agents”. But they can only function with farmers’ support, and it’s up to farmers to help the Agricultural Produce Agents Council (APAC) stamp out these activities, says the APAC’s Lizel Pretorius.

As an ally of the commercial farming sector, Prof Mohammed Karaan’s election to President Zuma’s National Planning Committee gave renewed hope to commercial agriculture in South Africa. Addressing the inaugural congress of the Young Farmer’s Forum in Rawsonville in the Western Cape, Prof Karaan outlined the global issues that will shape the future of farming.

Wonderful opportunities are often disguised as insurmountable problems. Take the low maize prices and the fact that many producers are facing bankruptcy. There's an elegant and simple way out of this seemingly dire predicament - buying maize instead of planting it will benefit all farmers, big or small, says Jozeph du Plessis, maize farmer and chairperson of the Schweizer-Reneke District Agricultural Union.

This year is the International Year of Biodiversity and it is time that we remind ourselves of the major impact that biodiversity has on our businesses says Dr Bob Scholes, ecologist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and chair of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network. There is after all a direct relationship between the economy and biodiversity.

Threats of nationalisation and expropriation will eventually stop the farming clock, writes Roelof Bezuidenhout.

Though Government has assured farmers and other stakeholders that it doesn’t plan to nationalise farmland, its written policy implies otherwise. The consequences would be disastrous, writes Frans Cronje, deputy CEO at the South African Institute of Race Relations. This independent think-tank that has produced cutting-edge research and policy critiques on South Africa since 1929.

Harald Pakendorf, seasoned political analyst and journalist, predicts that the ANC will lose its two-thirds majority in the coming election. Addressing some 500 delegates at the annual VinPro information day, Pakendorf said the solid supporter base of the ANC has been eroded significantly since 1994.