drought - search results

No one knows exactly how many Angora goats succumb annually to sudden cold snaps in South Africa. Farmers prefer not to talk about these fatalities - it's too much like a death in the family. But as Roelof Bezuidenhout discovers, breeding for more fashionable finer fleeces might be responsible.
Issue Date: 30 April 2007

Trade liberalisation has resulted in huge market expansion for South African fruit. It has, however, also resulted in numerous new challenges for producers. Glenneis Erasmus reports.

The barley industry hopes to develop the barley feed market in order to enhance profitability and diversify market risks. Current production primarily focuses on the beer market.

Biodiversity literally means the variety of living organisms, both large and small. In theory it sounds good to safeguard or to restore the biodiversity of what is left of our natural ecosystems. To do this, however, one must have a good knowledge of the environment and the myriad of species that inhabit it, as well as sound ecological insight into the principles underlying the concept of diversity

Farmers in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have joined forces in an effort to help their colleagues in the Free State who have lost thousands of hectares of grazing land to massive veld fires
Issue Date: 13 April 2007

If you believe natural is best, then inoculate your soil with the right mix of root fungi or mycorrhizae, says habitat planner Ben Breedlove. They can help in crop production, land-use applications such as roadside management, and also veld rehabilitation. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.
Issue Date: 30 March 2007

A weak currency and keen demand pushed wool prices to their highest levels in four years, with the Cape Wools market indicator rising 4,8% to close at R41,90/kg clean.
Issue Date: 30 March 2007

A group of South African citizens and non-governmental organisations have declared the country's Draft Biofuels Industrial Strategy flawed after finding government consulted extensively with industry on the document while not giving them the same opportunities.
Issue Date: 30 March 2007

The University of Fort Hare's Nguni Cattle Project, launched in 2003, is successfully managing the resurgence of the Nguni cattle breed in its traditional home of the former Ciskei and Transkei. Mike Burgess reports on how this acclaimed development initiative has brought the Nguni back to its traditional roots to uplift poor rural communities.
Issue date:23 March 2007

The South African dairy industry is currently in turmoil, with milk producers complaining of poor milk prices, milk buying companies being charged with anti-competitive activities, and retailers being accused of playing suppliers off against one another.
Issue date:23 March 2007

Grain has resolved not to support the adjustments to the draft AgriBEE charter proposed by land and agriculture minister Lulama Xingwana.
Issue date:23 March 2007

The hot, dry weather affecting most of SA's major maize-producing areas is expected to decimate yields this season and, together with an increased demand for ethanol production in the US which has increased global prices, has raised fears that prices could start pushing import parity.
Issue date:23 March 2007