El Niño Return Could Negatively Affect South Africa’s Summer Crops
It is still unclear whether SA farmers will reduce the intentions to plant in the 2018-19 summer crop season because of the expected El Niño.
Brief Agricultural Take on President Ramaphosa’s Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan
I am back from Germany adventures and had planned to spend a day or two discussing a few things I have learned over the past few days, but there are more pressing issues on the domestic front. This morning President Cyril Ramaphosa tabled the government’s economic...
Achieving Sustainable Food Security In South Africa
SA is ranked as the most food-secure country in Africa and is 44th out of 133 countries worldwide
African Farming Must Plot Its Own Course
Tonight (September 16) I am flying to Dusseldorf, Germany to participate in the Bayer Future of Farming Dialog 2018, which will be hosted by the Crop Science division of the company. This will offer a chance to interact with their top crop scientists and gain their...
Here We Go Again, More Delays in South Africa’s Wheat Import Tariff Publication
Regular readers of this blog might remember that I’ve recently discussed the uncertainty caused by the delays in tariff gazetting in the South African wheat market. Coincidentally, after publishing that post on August 17, the tariff swiftly published on the government...
China, Soybeans and Ethiopia
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that China would now allow soybean imports from Ethiopia in an effort to ease reliance on the United States. But, what I am not convinced of is the part of “…effort to ease reliance on the United States.” This is not only because...
South Africa’s Soybean Success Story
Soybean development is one of South Africa’s agricultural success stories. Its production has grown significantly since the dawn of democracy, from 67 700 tonnes in the 1993/94 production season to 1.6 million tonnes in 2017/18. This was stimulated by growing demand...
Shifts in Weather Patterns Present Challenges for South African Farmers
With South African farmers set to be hard at work by the end of this month in preparation of the 2018/19 summer crop production season, which starts next month, this seems like an appropriate moment to make a few comments about new planting challenges brought by...
The Western Cape is Key to Africa’s Canola Production
The African continent produces roughly 200 000 tonnes of canola a year, according to data of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. For perspective, this accounts for a mere 0.2 percent in global production. The leading producers are South...