Self-development: shaping young farmers into future leaders
Dr René Uys, director of Thinking Fusion AFRICA, argues that young South African farmers need to have the emotional fortitude to face up to the often harsh realities of agriculture...
Who will pay to save the planet?
According to the Estimates of National Expenditure, which was tabled along with the budget in Parliament when Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his budget speech recently, the money allocated to...
Prepare for the supermarket of the future
Disruptive change is coming to supermarkets and this will have a ripple effect throughout the food industry supply chain. According to Bjorn Thumas, director of business development at TOMRA Food,...
The sugar crisis is your problem
The South African sugar industry is facing a crisis, and the South African Cane Growers’ Association warns that this R14 billion/ year industry is in danger of “imminent collapse, putting 350 000...
Co-ops are making a comeback
The farming sector has a long tradition of depending on co-operative models that, in essence, offer groups of smaller or medium-sized farmers the same scale of benefits that would otherwise...
SA farmers need SAA-sized bailout
When agriculture sneezes, the whole economy catches a cold, the saying goes. We saw clear proof of this in 2018, when South Africa experienced a technical recession after the country’s...
Kenyan model shows how to support emerging farmers
Professor Cyril Nhlanhla Mbatha of Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership outlines some key production and marketing strategies to help promote the economic sustainability of smallholder farmers, and therefore more...
Data sharing in the fresh produce industry
According to Ed Treacy, vice-president of supply chain efficiencies for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), blockchain technology holds great possibilities for improving efficiency and traceability in the fresh produce sector....
Saving our medium-sized farms
Last year, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the Decade of Family Farming for the period from 2019 to 2028. The purpose of this initiative is to provide a framework for...
Africa’s swelling population problem
Overpopulation and managing population growth are some of the most difficult subjects to write about.
Homeland consolidation: a forerunner of land reform?
Zimbini Coka, a junior lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Department of Agricultural Economics, visited areas that became part of the Ciskei homeland through consolidation in the 1970s...
Time for Africa to treat agriculture as a business
Rural economies in Africa have become zones of economic misery. According to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, stimulating economic growth in these areas through agriculture and...
It’s time for smallholder farmers to enter value chains
The expropriation without compensation debate has been making national headlines since last year, with many proponents arguing that it would economically empower the poor. However, Zamikhaya Maseti, a senior specialist...
Years of heightened uncertainty
South Africa ended the year with some good news when fuel prices, which had soared to record highs in November, came down sharply in December, and Statistics South Africa announced...
Food-to-go: Retailers tuck into a growing trend
The report, ‘Business models to ride the food-to-go wave,’ released by Rabobank, explores the growing trend of precooked and ready-to-eat meals, and how retailers and foodservice providers can work together...
Degrees: a poor indicator of ability
At the end of November, the Twitter feed of South Africans interested in local politics was briefly overrun by the fracas between EFF and DA members of Parliament over DA...
Ending non-tariff barriers could unlock Africa’s riches
The Continental Free Trade Agreement, which South Africa has signed, is key to increasing trade revenues, job creation and economic integration on the continent, writes Sifiso Ntombela, head of trade...
Use them or lose them: Why hunting is key to conservation
South Africa is world-renowned for its biodiversity conservation and resultant variety of wildlife. However, public opinion is often divided on the subject of wildlife utilisation. Dr George Hughes, former chief...
How long can SA’s farmers last?
South Africa is not an easy place to farm. Even if you ignore the threat posed by radical land reform, most farmers in this country still have to contend with...
Land reform failure: a strategic plot?
If you have been involved in the farming sector in South Africa for the past decade, you have also probably heard the rumour that state departments are embroiled in a...
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