drought - search results

With 99% of the crop delivered, Swartland wheat producers reported an average crop of good quality. Frequent rain during the critical harvesting operations caused much frustration, but no damages.

Imported, inferior-quality chicory has severly hurt local production. Almost half South Africa's producers left the industry in the last few years, causing a huge drop in production. But Chicory SA's Loddie Greyling believes the industry can be saved. Lourens Schoeman spoke to him.

From restaurant manager to Grain SA's 2010 Developing Grain Producer of the Year - how did William Matasane from Senekal do it? The secret to his success is chasing profits, he told Annelie Coleman, when she visited his farm Verblyden in the Free State.

The recovery of the mohair market continued at the sixth sale of the 2010 winter season, with 97,7% of the 96 818kg on offer sold, and the average market indicator 8% up from the previous sale to close on R83,84, according to Mohair SA managing director Deon Saayman.

A livestock farmer, plagued by stock theft, turned to feeding sprouting grain in a feedlot to protect his sheep. And his trial has yielded some impressive results. Robyn Joubert reports.

Primary production is the least profitable sector in a value chain, and the farmer's share of the consumer rand is shrinking. But farmers can share in the profit made upstream through their own farmer-owned businesses.

Evergreen agriculture combines conservation farming and agroforestry to create what proponents call an 'out of the box solution' to increase crop yield, improve soil, make better use of scarce rainwater and absorb atmospheric carbon. Alan Harman investigates.

Phangisile continues her investigation of the forestry sector and finds a co-op that has empowered emerging black farmers since the 1970s.

Africa is the only continent which doesn't grow enough food to feed itself. But a revolution is underway that can change that, and it's affecting everyone from smallholer farmers to governments and corporations. So says Kofi Anan, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, former secretary general of the UN from 1977 to 2006 and chairperson of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in AFrica, which is working to improve the continent's agriculture.

Charl Senekal's achievements over the past 30 years have made him a 'super farmer' - he's got big ideas and the guts to follow them through. He told Robyn Joubert about his success with mechanisation and economy of scale.

Harvesting of the 2010 Western Cape grain crop has started, with prospects in much of the Swartland wheat-producing region looking favourable, thanks to good weather conditions during most of the growing season. However, farmers in the eastern parts of the southern Cape are "reaping a nightmare", according to Grain SA's Schalk Viljoen.

Gamtoos Valley's three-year drought meant farmers were only allocated 40% of their annual water quota this year. And the catchment area of the Kouga Dam got little relief, despite recent good rains.