Opinion

The Agricultural Marketing Ministerial Review Committee's review of regulation in the sugar industry is in the final stages of completion. Rodger Stewart, chairperson of the SA Sugar Association, gives his views on what a transformed industry can expect.

Dr Jan du Plessis of the strategic management research organisation, Intersearch, contends that free and fair elections won't solve Zimbabwe's problems, and that Robert Mugabe has paved the way for dangerous, large-scale foreign intervention in the region. He thinks the survival of land reform could be much briefer than politicians thought.

Gesie van Deventer - Female Farmer of the Year in 2002, also named top female exporter and overall Farmer of the Year in 2003 - called on farmers to make a mindshift concerning land reform at the Canning Fruit Producers Association's annual meeting that was recently held in Worcester.

The reduction in farm labour is due to globalisation, agricultural competition, the lack of skilled labour, rigid ­employment legislation and ill-timed land tenure laws, says Prof Doreen ­Atkinson, visiting professor at the ­University of the Free State and author of Going for Broke, a new book about the history and plight of farmworkers.

Climate change will result in water shortages, which will affect agriculture and industry, as well as raise conflict potential between riparian states. Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van S chalkwyk spoke at the recent Climate Change Summit.

Yolan Friedmann, deputy CEO and conservation manager of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, warns that SA must radically change its attitude towards overexploitation of its fishing stocks if it wants to save them.

The French display an overwhelming support for their farmers, which is in stark contrast to the overall treatment of SA's commercial farmers. State policies are crippling the sector responsible for feeding 45 million South Africans, and TAU SA says our government could learn from the French. TAU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl explains. Issue date 15 June 2007

On 21 February at Pannar's Crop Extravaganza near Delmas, Mpumalanga, Ernst Janovsky, head of agriculture at First National Bank, gave two sessions of about 100 farmers each, insight into agricultural market dynamics and explained the predicted structural changes and management actions needed to be globally competitive

Reminding us that more than 500 000 South Africans could die of Aids this year, Victor Thindisa of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Limpopo looks at the pandemic's effect on household farm labour in rural communities.

Former state president FW de Klerk recently presented a lecture on the state of African governance at the University of Pretoria. De Klerk evaluated Africa's performance since the establishment of Nepad six years ago.
Issue date:23 March 2007

Following a Farmer's Weekly article about trading in 'grey' tractor parts, Roelof Bezuidenhout writes that warnings about the risks associated with cheap imported engines could pale into insignificance against the damage that poor after-sales service from local suppliers does to a client's confidence and patience.
Issue Date 16 March 2007

Fanie Brink, managing director of Biofuels Industry Development, said at a recent biofuels conference that the Draft Biofuels Industrial Strategy mainly caters for the requirements of the local petroleum industry to the exclusion of role-players such as feedstock and biofuels producers.
Issue Date: 9 March 2007