Opinion

When South Africa’s credit rating was left intact just before the festive season, a cautious sigh of relief reverberated throughout South Africa’s financial markets and government corridors. Why are credit ratings so crucial and what would a downward revision mean to farmers? Jaco Visser looks at the importance of these measures.

News coming out of the ANC’s National Executive Committee’s recent lekgotla is worrying. Minister Gugile Nkwinti’s 50/50 proposal was mentioned again, and the NEC is proposing that government implement land ceilings of 12 000ha or two farms per person.

Farmers are already using social media – and making it pay.

The summer crop season, which had a promising start, is turning out to be a tough one for farmers in my home province of North West.

A recent newspaper report indicated that 1% of the world’s population would soon be wealthier than the rest of us combined.

Take a break, learn more about Bos taurus and astound your friends.

To feed its own population of two billion by 2044, let alone become the world’s breadbasket, Africa will have to rely on commercial farmers. So says Brienne van der Walt, managing executive of Absa and Barclays Africa Agribusiness. In the same way, the success of land transformation in SA will depend on whether it is done through commercial or small-scale farming.

Recently, while driving between Jamestown and Molteno in the Eastern Cape on our way to visit my in-laws, my family and I came upon an astonishing sight – scores of people cutting grass and picking up litter.

If you have an agricultural service or product to sell, you need social media.

The European Union is increasingly coming down hard on indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock production, posing many challenges for farmers. Speaking at EuroTier 2014 in Germany, Dr Hans-Joachim Götz, president of the German Federal Association of Practising Veterinary Surgeons, outlined a new systematic approach to the problem.

The matric results confirmed that my son’s career choice of becoming an engineer (he wants to build robots) is a good one.

Some apps are available only in certain countries, so a change in ID is needed.