Opinion

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 resource use), but every now and then we need to pause and re-evaluate the path we are on.

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 fragmented approach, and offered suggestions on sustainable land restitution.

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 real change will only happen once we start changing human behaviour to shift perceptions, so that we can meet as equals.

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 time as I could at the beach, surfing.

I cannot imagine a greater childhood than growing up on a farm.

Chinese consumers’ growing affinity for wine, particularly imports from international premium wine producers, presents a growth opportunity for the South African wine industry, according to research conducted by Buyambo Mantashe of agriculture investment company, MM Agrivestment.

These past weeks have seen the release of two of the most prominent decision-making tools for the farming sector: the local and global 10-year outlooks for the agricultural sector, published by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) respectively.

There is something about the utter absurdity of watching President Jacob Zuma stand in front of an audience of honest, hard-working South Africans, saying things like, “Funds that are allocated for public services must be used for public services and nothing else”, and “Nobody is above the law in our country” that deepens the frown lines on my forehead and causes me to exhale uneasily.

On a recent visit to Cape Town, I experienced what Capetonians have been coming to grips with over the past few months: learning how to drastically curb daily water usage.

In an article in this week's issue (28 July 2017) of Farmer's Weekly, former finance minister and current ANC MP, Pravin Gordhan, urges farmers to “make the first move” and “get the ball rolling” on transformation in the agricultural sector

Independent consumer researcher, Nadia van der Kolf, urges farmers to keep consumer trends in mind when planning production expansion.

Consumers face a barrage of confusing, sometimes dubious, claims on food labels. This could end up harming consumer trust in the food value chain, and substantially damaging the industry and the environment.