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...
‘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...
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.
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...
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.
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....
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.
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...
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...
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...
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.
Why smallholders need to think like entrepreneurs
As irrigation schemes are found mostly in areas with high poverty levels, smallholder irrigation presents major opportunities for reducing rural poverty. However, smallholder irrigation is performing below expectations. A new...
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.
Study shows which policies succeed in developing agriculture
Research by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the International Institute for Sustainable Development analysed progress in agricultural development in 117 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to...
ADVERTISEMENT
MUST READS
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
