Opinion

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 reform’s Dohne Agricultural Development Institute.

Independent power producers, an independent water regulator, formalisation of the taxi industry, and hints about a state-subsidised agricultural insurance scheme are just some of the suggestions put forward by National Treasury in a new economic plan for South Africa.

Last year, Coldiretti, Italy’s largest agriculture industry association, released a statement announcing that in 2017, Italian organised crime generated a turnover of €21,8 billion (about R370 billion) from 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 Bank, ‘The Changing Nature of Work’, the use of certain digital technologies could make a meaningful contribution to improving employment opportunities in agriculture, especially in developing economies.

As details about South Africa’s economic mess becomes clearer, and government fails to respond with any clear plan to navigate the country out of debt, many conversations inevitably turn to a discussion about options for leaving South Africa, or, at the very least, sending money away to a safe harbour.

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. According to Silotrat’s Werner Rossouw, hedging is a valuable tool that maize farmers can use to reduce the risk of fluctuating prices. However, in order to benefit from the system, they must learn the rules of the game.

South Africa’s food poverty line, also known as the extreme poverty line, which refers to the amount of money that an individual will need to afford the minimum required daily energy intake, has increased from R547 (figures adjusted for inflation) in 2018 to R561 this year.

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 jail time, writes James Brand, a natural resources and environment senior associate at law firm ENSafrica.

Feeling stuck in life is awful. It is demoralising, makes you unproductive, leaves you feeling gloomy about the future, and the longer you remain stuck the more difficult it becomes to escape.

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 in Parliament recently.

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 how livestock farmers can change this perception.

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 United Nations at the beginning of July, it would be that South African farmers will require much better assistance from government if they are to remain globally competitive.

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.

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 matter of urgency, writes Dr Kobus Laubscher, agricultural economist and fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science.

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 key role to play in turning this situation around.

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.

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.

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. Researchers Doreen Atkinson and Mark Ingle explore this phenomenon and its implications for land reform.

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 you, life simply moves on, and this only amplifies the tragedy for those who are touched by it.

The Agribusiness Africa Conference will be hosted by Farmer’s Weekly for the third time this year in Johannesburg on 10 July.