If you’re a farmer – new or already established – producing crops, you need to know how to handle and store pesticides and chemicals safely and how to protect your workers, and yourself, while doing so. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE EMPLOYER, IN THIS CASE THE FARMER, TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN A SAFE, HEALTHY […]
The freeze-drying machine at Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) which broke down about two years ago, will be repaired by June. After that, the company will be able to “produce vaccines at full steam” again. Luvuyo Mabombo, the interim Chief Executive Officer of OBP, said at a media event at the company’s head offices that experts […]
Organisers and hosts of the already much-anticipated 2023 Royal Show are determined that this year’s event, which will be the last at its historic location in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, will be “a grand and memorable occasion” for participants and visitors alike. Excitement is mounting among South Africa’s agriculturists and their supporters as the 2023 Royal Show, […]
The South African Reserve Bank’s newest attempt to tighten the belt can be felt in consumers’ wallets and farmers’ operations, says Paul Makube, a senior agriculture economist from FNB Agriculture. The repo rate currently stands at the highest it has been in the past 13 years after it was increased to 7,75% last week. Subsequently, […]
Research done by the KwaZulu-Natal Agriculture Union (Kwanalu) found that the province’s rural employment and economy are being threatened by the demands of the new national minimum wage. The 9,6% increase in the national minimum wage that recently took effect does not consider the “considerable pressure” it places on the South African agricultural sector in […]
As a third-generation farmer, Hlobisile Yende follows in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. Since starting farming full-time three years ago without formal experience, Hlobisile has learnt a lot through her father’s teachings, participation in agricultural groups, and online research. Peter Mashala visited her on her family farm in Heidelberg. The Covid-19 pandemic in […]
Crime syndicates have such a strong hold on the countryside in North West that many farmers forego a 5% discount on early delivery of inputs rather than risk having them stolen from their sheds. This is the second time in four months that he has been hit by input thieves. So says a farmer from […]
There is no excuse for either the government or private citizens who own rural land to neglect their responsibilities for the prevention and management of wildfires and the devastation they cause. The devastation, death and trauma resulting from a 25 000-hectare wildfire that tore through part of North West at the end of July may […]
The regenerative agriculture conference in Reitz discussed this agricultural practice in-depth. One of the pioneers of regenerative agriculture in the eastern Free State, Danie Slabbert, shared some of the Riemland study group’s findings over the past 13 years. Regenerative agriculture aims to be more profitable per hectare rather than chasing yields. Slabbert said the transition […]
With careful planning, cotton can provide a healthy cash injection for farmers in the drier summer rainfall regions of North West and the Northern Cape. Northern Cape and North West farmers who plant cotton within a crop rotation programme can be successful. This is according to Jozeph du Plessis, a member of Grain SA’s executive […]
