Farmer's Weekly 10 June 2016

South Africa’s economy has stagnated, and by the time you read this, Standard and Poor’s may well have downgraded the country’s credit rating to junk status, setting the scene for our economy to slip into recession. How do we set the economy on a different course? Dr Martyn Davies, managing director of emerging markets and Africa at Deloitte, suggests that we can start by being a less angry and divided nation. Speaking at a state of the nation breakfast hosted by Deloitte in Johannesburg, Davies said that South Africa would never be internationally competitive “if we are so angry with each other, internally”. He said that research showed that three things destroyed wealth in a country – conflict, ideology, and corruption. “Having one of these present is bad, having two…

“Talk to anyone involved in farming and the word “passion” soon crops up. Apart from having access to land, working capital and know-how, you won’t succeed in farming unless you are ‘passionate’ about it. This view is held not only by farmers across the board, but by the various organisations attempting to assist developing and emerging farmers. Government, however, appears to be passionate about something quite different: the redistribution of land from white South Africans to black South Africans. This helps to explain many of the failures of land reform, among them the view that success is measured by the quantity of land redistributed, and not whether it remains in production or not. Among the results have been neglect of rural infrastructure, failure to implement individual title on communal land,…

Avid Farmer’s Weekly reader, Gregory Stubbs of the Three Streams aquaculture company near Franschhoek in the Western Cape, shares his view on the reality of the aquaculture production environment in South Africa. The letter titled, ‘Time to act on aquaculture potential’ (FW, 13 May) refers. The writer, Eamonn Ryan, is quite correct in saying that aquaculture promises to be a leading food production sector. Globally, it continues to outstrip all forms of agriculture in terms of growth. It is also true that Africa will play a considerable role in its future growth, particularly when one considers that established aquaculture nations’ resources are fully tapped, and Africa has immense underutilised resources, such as Lake Kariba, Lake Victoria and Lake Volta. As much as Operation Phakisa has noble intentions, the notion that…

Farmer’s Weekly reader, David Lucas from Port Elizabeth, wanted to teach his sons, Brian (11) and Sureshan (8), a valuable life skill by showing them how to grow their own vegetables. Water from the washing machine is used to water the vegetable garden through a system of sprinklers. “The boys have also learned that stringing up the tomatoes gives much better yield and they only cut enough lettuce and spinach leaves for a particular meal, so the plant continues to grow. Several of our friends have started gardens as well, and when we have more of a certain variety of vegetable than we can use, we swop with each other,” David says.…

The Canon IXUS 180 has an 10x optical zoom lens which helps you keep your subject in the frame by automatically detecting the number of people and adjusting the zoom level to determine the optimal size. The IXUS 180 also features Intelligent Image Stabilizer technology, which constantly adapts to the scene to ensure the best images and movies, even when you are on the move. Equipped with the best of Canon’s imaging technology, the IXUS 180 packs a 20 megapixel sensor and advanced DIGIC 4+ processor for ultra-fast responses and superb image quality. Visit www.canon.co.za.…

CONFERENCES & EXPOS 9 JUNE Potatoes SA Transformation Symposium, East London. Visit www.potatoes.co.za. 19 TO 23 JUNE International Food and Agribusiness Management Association’s 26th Annual World Conference, Denmark. Visit www.ifama.org. 21 TO 23 JUNE Agri Food Expo, Johannesburg. Email admin@exhibitionsafrica.com or visit www.expoza.all.biz/ agri-food-expo. 21 TO 23 JUNE AVI Africa Trade Show, Emperor's Palace, Johannesburg. Visit www.sapoultry.co.za. 27 TO 29 JUNE Agriculture and Horticulture International Conference, Cape Town. Visit agriculture-horticulture.conferenceseries.com agriculture-horticulture.conferenceseries.com. COURSES & TRAINING 7 TO 9 JUNE Three-Day Basic Conservation Agriculture Course, Beula Park, Meadowdale. Phone Neill Jackson on 082 407 6774 or email neill@foundationsforfarming.org. 11 JUNE Distillique's Liqueur and Infusion Workshop, Hennopspark, Centurion. Phone Hendre’ Barnard on 021 653 6871, or visit www.distillique.co.za. 20 TO 22 JUNE Artificial Insemination Course, Krugersdorp. Phone Di Rothman on 082 772 1208…