Economic slip and unemployment slide
Sometimes I think that if we could only somehow bottle the eternal optimism of the average South African, the profit we’d make would be enough to solve the country’s economic...
Soil erosion: an overlooked threat
The land debate has been dominating headlines in South Africa since December last year, and in the run-up to the national election in 2019, every politician hoping to win a...
Dawn of the DIY democracy
On the rare occasions when I manage to escape the city early enough on a Friday to drive the 450km from my office in Johannesburg to the farm where I...
Cracking into the almond business
Local and global demand for almonds is on the increase as consumers begin to favour healthier food. Saturated production in the world’s largest production regions presents South African farmers with...
SA is ruining all hope of real change
Transformation in the farming sector, or any other sector, has not failed because too little effort and money have been invested in it.
Dear Minister Zokwana, you have failed our farmers
Let me start by apologising to all the civil servants working for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), those hard-working citizens who show up at the office every...
How do we attract women to agriculture?
This week we celebrate National Women’s Day in South Africa, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to say to, and about women in...
Wildlife Ranching SA’s transformation plans
Newly-elected president of Wildlife Ranching SA, Tebogo Mogashoa, says transformation of the game industry and advocating for the legal trade in rhino horn will be among the top focal points...
Getting comfortable with ambiguity
I am still busy processing the vast amount of ideas and information that were shared by the speakers and other participants at the 12th Agribusiness Africa Conference, hosted by Farmer’s...
Blockchain: the future of agricultural trade
Many farmers are investing in new technologies that can help increase production and efficiency at farm level, but the uptake of digital trading technology has been slower. As a result,...
Let’s talk about farmworkers
Chris Clayton, a journalist from the US whom I met at a conference in Argentina about five years ago, recently wrote a column about a study on the rate of...
Can agriculture really create jobs?
After reading the report ‘Overcoming Poverty and Inequality in South Africa’, which was published earlier this year by the World Bank, I started wondering whether we have begun taking for...
Unlocking export markets for SA’s vegetable industry
Global opportunities are opening up for South African vegetable producers and exporters with the emergence of new markets in some Asian and African countries. This is due to an increase...
Time to exit the commodity game
For some farmers, this might be easier said than done, but to make a living from farming in the future you will either have to go big or be unique.
Is fair trade a fool’s paradise?
The biggest story coming out of the recent Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada is the heckling by US President Donald Trump on Twitter, which was directed at other...
Why plenty of food means plenty of conflict
A large body of literature claims that where there is a lack of food, conflict is bound to increase as people battle over limited resources. However, researcher Ore Koren suggests...
A letter to young farmers in South Africa
A friend I met through our mutual interest in farming recently introduced me to the book Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, compiled by the...
Cattle theft made brutal by Africa’s illicit arms trade
The circulation of illicit arms has made cattle rustling more violent and harmful. East Africa has lessons to share on prevention, say Duncan E Omondi Gumba and Nelson Alusala of...
How agriculture can ease the global urban water shortage
A new study that looks at the water competition between cities and agriculture has found that urban water demand in 482 of the world’s largest cities will increase by 80%...
Crime – what SA is best known for?
In the past few weeks I have travelled to a number of countries and met journalists, farmers and agribusiness professionals from all over the world.
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