Opinion

Media reports and public debate often simplify and blur the sensitive issue of evictions. Typically, evictions are seen solely from the perspective of the landowner or from that of landless people, and there is a failure to distinguish between lawful and unlawful evictions. Annelize Crosby, policy head for land affairs at Agri SA, explains the various perspectives and the relevant laws.

South African farmers are finding their businesses increasingly at risk due to the effects of climate change. Broad-based access to a state-supported agricultural insurance scheme would enhance food security in the country, writes Dr Sifiso Ntombela, a senior agricultural economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council.

While still considered by many foreign investors as the ‘gateway into Africa’, South Africa’s dismal economic performance has been a drag on the rest of the continent, which, in 2019, was home to six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies, namely Rwanda, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Tanzania and Benin.

According to Mike Muller, a visiting adjunct professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Graduate School of Governance, low and unpredictable rainfall is not the only cause for South Africa’s water crisis. As a result, no single solution can address water challenges across the country.

Global agriculture has to increase its output dramatically to meet the needs of a rapidly growing human population. John Hassell, Koch Agronomic Services’ customer support manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, highlights the challenges and urgently required solutions for meeting this unprecedented demand.

Many South Africans will be watching President Cyril Ramaphosa deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 12 February, some hoping against hope and some with enthusiasm and renewed hope.

For the last year or so, I have often thought about what occurred in South Korea in 1997 and 1998 when the country faced economic ruin due to the impact of the Asian economic crisis.

Over the past couple of decades, we have enjoyed plenty of benefits because of the progress made in farming. More people than ever before are now able to access sufficient food that can help them live longer and healthier lives.

In theory, South Africa has strong laws to protect the property ownership and inheritance rights of all women. However, a 2018 study conducted by Bongi Owusu for her master’s dissertation in social science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal found that these laws are often not implemented in rural Zulu-speaking communities. She explains how this prejudices widows in particular.

If you had hoped to start the year off on a positive note by doing something good for your health and well-being, giving up social media for January might have been a much better option than giving up drink. (This would also have been a much better option for the local wine industry, which reportedly suffered a 23% reduction in wine exports, as well as a decline in local sales.)

Dr Sifiso Ntombela, a trade economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council, writes that as technological advances are being achieved at an ever-faster rate, countries that fail to invest sufficient resources in research and development risk falling behind and becoming uncompetitive.

Two important pieces of draft legislation that will shape the way that land reform in South Africa will be implemented were published recently, and are currently open for public comment.

A new empowerment model championed by a Limpopo-based farming company, Schoonbee Landgoed, and Thebe Investment Corporation aims to establish long-term partnerships between white commercial farmers and black institutional investors while helping new-entrant farmers achieve financial viability, writes Gert Schoonbee.

We have come to the end of a year, as well as the end of a decade, that seems to have tested South African farmers unlike any other.

The world’s drylands are becoming hotter and drier. Expanding commercial agriculture and investing in sustainable land management practices are two ways in which governmentscan mitigate this form of land degradation, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

One of the things I find most frustrating about politics is that what politicians say and promise can differ almost completely from what they do and deliver, yet there are zero consequences.

There is ‘no silver bullet’ to address South Africa’s plastic conundrum, according to Lorren de Kock, project manager for the circular plastics economy at the Worldwide Fund for Nature – South Africa. However, the fruit industry can start addressing the issue by moving away from packaging that is aesthetically pleasing to recyclable and reusable packaging methods.

The Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, provides a 10-year prospect for agricultural markets at the national, regional and global level. Prices for most agricultural commodities are expected to remain flat over the period as consumption of staple foods remains stagnant.

The local agriculture sector has emerged over the past two decades as a major asset in what has become an otherwise ailing economy.

Pollinators are responsible for the production of many crops grown for human consumption, but their numbers are declining. To ensure food security, world leaders and agriculture authorities must act now to save these crucial species, says the Food and Health Organization of the United Nations.