Drought: a disaster for farmworkers
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the impact of widespread drought conditions across South Africa over the past three years has now become a humanitarian disaster.
The cost of South Africa’s food loss and waste
The 2017 ‘Food loss and waste: facts and futures’ report, compiled by the WWF-SA, investigates food loss and waste in South Africa. According to the report, a third of all...
Farm crime: an unbearable burden
It must be at least six years ago now that I first became aware of the real scope of one of the many harassments that farmers face.
Low rural calving rates threaten Africa’s food security
During the Agribusiness Africa conference hosted by Farmer’s Weekly, Dr Riaan du Preez, manager of scientific affairs at Afrivet, highlighted a disturbing statistic about cow conception on the continent: six...
#BlackMonday brought out the best and worst in us
As I write this, only one day has passed since thousands of South Africans took part in peaceful protests to say that they had had enough of crime, enough of...
DAFF going from bad to rotten
One plus one normally adds up to two. Unless you look at the performance of our departments of agriculture and land affairs.
Farming’s darkest challenge
When we speak about the challenges of farming, we almost invariably talk about economic difficulties such as the cost-price squeeze and attaining economies of scale.
SA needs compassionate business leaders
South Africa needs leaders from all sectors of the economy who are proactive, imaginative and understanding of the economic difficulties the country faces. This was according to former finance minister...
The beginning of the end of ‘Big Food’
These past two years have been some of the toughest ever for SA agribusinesses hit by supply constraints due to drought. These businesses have also been affected by cheap imports,...
Climate variability versus climate change
Climate expert Johan van den Berg recently addressed the Northern Cape Red Meat Producers’ Organisation congress on the outlook for climatic conditions in the future, and how to manage the...
Swiss farming: not as easy as it looks
On first impressions, it is difficult not to be envious of the Swiss and begrudge them their seemingly easy lives. It is one of the most peaceful and prosperous countries...
Global food demand and prices to decrease over next decade
The “Agricultural outlook 2017-2026” report, compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, forecasts that over the next decade,...
Co-ops the answer for smallholders?
One of the greatest frustrations farmers face in modern agricultural value chains is that they are, to a large extent, relegated to being price-takers.
The importance of data in agriculture
In May this year, The Economist ran a cover story that said that the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.
Farming in Africa: bigger is not always better, studies show
Improving the efficiency of smallholder farmers in Africa is necessary not only to help grow African economies, but also to improve the livelihoods of these farmers and their families. However,...
Agriculture’s labour time bomb
Labour relations in the farming sector made headlines again these past few weeks after news broke of an unscrupulous labour broker operating from a farm in Wesselsbron in the Free...
How many harvests are left in your soil?
Not to take anything away from the remarkable way in which large-scale commercial agriculture has managed to improve production efficiencies (for the past two decades, yield growth has far outstripped...
Take a cue from Asia on successful land reform
Speaking at the AVI Africa Poultry conference, Christo van der Rheede, deputy executive officer at Agri SA, questioned government’s commitment to land reform. In particular, he criticised its protracted and...
Resolving agriculture’s transformation deadlock
James Martin, an independent agricultural transformation consultant and facilitator, says that transformation is a critical goal, but expecting power imbalances and prejudice to simply disappear is unreasonable. He believes that...
South Africa is slipping…
You would probably not be able to guess this if you met me today, but when I was at school and during my years at university, I spent as much...
ADVERTISEMENT
MUST READS
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
