Table of contents for 16 August 2019 in Farmer's Weekly

South Africa’s food poverty line, also known as the extreme poverty line, which refers to the amount of money that an individual will need to afford the minimum required daily energy intake, has increased from R547 (figures adjusted for inflation) in 2018 to R561 this year. This was according to Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) National Poverty Lines 2019 report, released at the end of July. The contents of the reference food basket used by Stats SA to calculate the food poverty line will be of interest to farmers (read the full report at bit.ly/2GRIfPH). The cost is based on a 2 100-calorie per person per day diet, and the items chosen do not reflect a recommended healthy diet, but are instead a reflection of what people are actually buying.…

Dear Dr Mac, Somebody I know who wants to take on donkeys has been proposing feeding them maize and lucerne. Are these two feeds not too rich for donkeys? Apparently these donkeys will also graze on ‘healthy’ Karoo veld. Kind regards, Mrs E Thas Dear Mrs Thas, Donkeys have very different digestive systems to horses. Over generations they have adapted to eating poor-quality roughage, including straw. In Ethiopia, which has the highest number of donkeys in the world, working donkeys are fed teff and a very small amount of maize when they carry heavy bags through the streets of Addis Ababa to the mills. When donkeys are fed rich grass, as happens in the UK, or maize and lucerne, they are highly likely to get severe digestive disturbances and may…

While memories of Day Zero warnings in late 2017 and early 2018 may be fading in Cape Town residents’ minds, the effects of the water shortages are still being felt in some farming communities. Agricultural production here has not fully recovered from the damage of the 2017 drought. The slow recovery of Western Cape farming is evident in poor wine grape and horticultural products harvests in 2018 and 2019, despite the recent improvement in rainfall. MORE RAIN IS NEEDED IN THE COMING MONTHS TO SUSTAIN WINTER CROPS AND PRODUCE HIGHER YIELDS The province will have to receive average or above-average rainfall for a few more seasons for orchards to bounce back to pre-2017 levels. Nonetheless, the recent rainfall across the Western Cape has provided a good basis for improvement. In…

The trade in lion bones in South Africa has been allowed to increase unregulated and unchecked for many years, according to MJ Lourens, the head of communications at the Four Paws Animal Welfare Foundation in South Africa. Lourens said that since 2008, nearly 7 000 lion skeletons, weighing more than 70t, had been exported from South Africa to South East Asia for use in traditional medicine. The South African Predator Association (SAPA) said in a statement that the trade in lion bones was a legitimate business concern, and members were held to the highest standards to ensure ethical and socially sound lion breeding. The problem was that lions could legally be bred and raised by anybody in South Africa, Lourens said. He added that the ideal situation would be that…

Dam levels in Namibia are dangerously low, according to the latest statistics released by the Namibian Water Corporation. During the last week of July, the average water level of the country’s dams stood at 26,2%, compared with 40,8% at the same time in 2018. Ryno van der Merwe, president of the Namibia Agricultural Union, said the Hardap Dam near Mariental was only 17% full. “This is particularly disconcerting. Crops such as lucerne and grain crops such as oats are produced commercially in the region. The already low local supply levels of animal feed [as a result of] the drought will be further compromised should irrigation from the dam become impossible.” If the dam’s level fell to 10%, all irrigation would be stopped to ensure sufficient water for the nearby town,…

Livestock owners are being urged to vaccinate livestock proactively against vector-borne diseases such as Rift Valley fever (RVF), rather than reacting after an outbreak. The chairperson of the National Animal Health Forum (NAHF), Dr Pieter Vervoort, warned that it had been many years since South Africa suffered an RVF outbreak. “If you don’t vaccinate [against RVF], you get a [livestock] population that becomes very susceptible. “What really bothers me is that we haven’t had an outbreak in some time, and if I look at the [volume] of vaccine that has been sold, I think we have a very susceptible population out there.” Vervoort said that the last few seasons had been fairly dry, but regions such as the Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and the Highveld had fairly good…

The International Fund for Agricultural Development, together with several agencies of the UN such as the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, recently released their joint 2019 report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world. According to the report, the number of people in the world who live without enough food has increased annually since 2015. More than 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018, a 1% increase on the 811 million recorded in 2017. In all, 10,8% of the world population is undernourished. Nearly 20% of Africa’s population is undernourished. About 249 million people (22,8%) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are undernourished. Only 5,3 million of SSA’s undernourished people live in Southern Africa, however. If…

As a young farmer myself, I am always interested to know what agricultural organisations and businesses are doing to promote youth participation in the sector. To help me stay informed about the latest developments, I attend major agricultural conferences. Year after year, the low number of young delegates attending these events surprises me. The truth is that farming is challenging, and it’s really not for the faint-hearted. In addition, many young people who grow up in poor rural areas do not have the opportunity to witness examples of thriving and financially independent farmers who can inspire them to pursue careers in the sector. However, in the process of trying to attract young people to farming, we must ensure they are given the full picture of what a career in this…

• The Willie van Zijl trophy for the two teams that played the best match: Elsenburg and Grootfontein • The Boland Bank trophy for the team that played the most constructive rugby: Elsenburg • The Joe Venter trophy for the best forward: Brendon Botha, Elsenburg • The Pannar trophy for the best backline player: Slabber la Grange, Elsenburg • The Du Pont trophy for the player who scored the most points during the tournament: Slabber la Grange, Elsenburg • The Kohler Motors trophy for the team that scored the most tries in the Plate Division: Tsolo • The Corteva trophy for the team that scored the most tries in the Cup Division: Elsenburg • The Piet de Jager trophy for the winners of the Plate Division: Tsolo • The IPJ du Plessis trophy for the winners of the Cup…

Planting is a busy period on the farm. It’s at this point that farmers have the opportunity to give every single plant an equal opportunity to produce their potential yield. The priorities of the planter pass are summarised in order of importance on the ear potential pyramid (see Figure 1). Nutrition is considered the most important element after all these priorities have been addressed. Precision Planting, Cerealis Precision’s technology and consultancy business for precision farming, has examined the effects of each of these elements and developed solutions that place it at the forefront of planter technology. At the heart of Precision Planting’s technology offering is the 20|20 display. Every decision made by the operator on each planter pass is recorded and used to improve planting for the next season and…

Vegebot, a robotic lettuce picking machine developed by engineers from the University of Cambridge, can autonomously identify and harvest iceberg lettuce. The machine’s software has been programmed to identify healthy lettuces ready for picking, and has been successfully tested under a variety of field conditions. Although not nearly as fast or efficient as a trained human picker, Vegebot demonstrates how the use of robotics in agriculture might be expanded. THE CHALLENGE OF LETTUCE Crops such as wheat and potatoes are relatively easy to harvest mechanically on a large scale, but lettuce has proved difficult. It grows flat on the ground and needs to be cut at precise points, providing a novel challenge for robotic vision, as the machine has to focus on an individual head of lettuce in a sea…

In two separate incidents, family and friends of ours in Gauteng recently suffered break-ins, with both crimes taking place in broad daylight. The first was in Benoni, while the second was in Lonehill, Sandton, close to where we used to live. At the Benoni robbery, three robbers forced open the front gate and kept our family members locked up in a bathroom while they ransacked the house. No one was injured, fortunately. The Lonehill robbery was committed by four youths armed with garden shears. My friend, at home with flu, tackled them, knocking two unconscious, but they all managed to escape in the end, taking jewellery and a camera. For his trouble, my friend was stabbed in the hand with the shears. Not unexpectedly, both families were traumatised by the…

“Modern society is characterised by constantly changing technology, which has been enhanced by the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR era requires countries to invest in adequate research, development and technology innovation to remain globally competitive. The pressure to stay ahead in this era is partly at the root of the ongoing trade war between the two global economic giants, China and the US. Recognising the need to strengthen research and development capacity, industrialised countries, especially those belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, spend on average 2,3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on these activities, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa spend on average 0,5%. South Africa spends about 0,8% of GDP on research and development, which is equivalent to roughly R32 billion. The…

‘AN ACT LIKE THIS RESTORES CHILDREN’S TRUST’ At the end of July, agricultural service provider NWK distributed another 500 pairs of school shoes among needy pupils of primary schools in areas surrounding Coligny and Lichtenburg in North West. This was after the company handed out about 175 pairs of school shoes to pupils of Skuinsdrif Primary School near Groot Marico in the province. Shoes were handed out at the Manana, Calisonia and Platvlei primary schools on 25 July. NWK concluded its School Shoe Project for 2019 on 26 July by handing out shoes at the Hakboslaagte and Tlhalefant primary schools. This amounts to about 4 000 pupils who have benefitted from the project since its inception in 2012/2013. Many of these pupils have to walk several kilometres to school daily,…

One of the cornerstones of a democracy is a free media, and lately the EFF has been taking the media to task. Advocate Daniel Berger SC, representing the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and a group of journalists (Barry Bateman of Eyewitness News, Pauli van Wyk of the Daily Maverick, Adriaan Basson of News24, and veteran journalist Max du Preez, as well as Ranjeni Munusamy of the Sunday Times), have brought a court application to protect themselves and their colleagues from the attacks and abuse they are enduring. THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL EDITORS’ FORUM HAS TAKEN THE EFF ON IN COURT Berger said the EFF had created an environment that had become particularly “toxic and hostile” for journalists. In her supporting affidavit, Munusamy said that as a result of…

The star of this year’s annual Novare SA Terroir Wine Awards was Bon Courage Estate near Robertson, with three national winners: Colombard, Méthode Cap Classique sparkling wine (MCC), and Rosé. The results were announced during a recent awards ceremony at Anura Vineyards near Klapmuts in the Western Cape. Bon Courage Estate’s winners were: Bon Courage André’s Fame Colombard 2019; Bon Courage Jacques Bruére Blanc de Blanc Cap Classique 2011; and Bon Courage Lady of the House Pinotage Rosé 2019. Several other wines from Bon Courage, located in the Goedemoed ward near Robertson, also scored top marks, resulting in this estate being awarded both the Novare trophies for top wine estate and top terroir producer. The Nuy Mastery Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 was named the overall top wine among all entries, an…

Many of South Africa’s approximately 19 000 small-scale and emerging sugar cane growers stand to benefit from initiatives aimed at helping them reduce their two key production costs: fertiliser and zone-to-mill cane haulage. The initiatives were the brainchild of the South African Farmers’ Development Association (SAFDA), and have been established with R28 million in interest-free loans from Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa’s (CCBSA) Mintirho Foundation. According to SAFDA spokesperson Ronda Naidu, R14 million was used to purchase a fertiliser manufacturing facility, together with raw materials, at Durban’s Maydon Wharf. The remaining R14 million was used to buy a trial fleet of five sugar cane haulage trucks and trailers. Naidu said that SAFDA approached CCBSA and the Mintirho Foundation on behalf of the association’s predominantly small-scale and land reform sugar cane-growing members,…

The Moscow Times has reported that mass bee deaths were sighted in 24 of Russia’s 85 regions this summer, raising the threat of severe economic losses to Russian agriculture. “If we lose the bees, everything will be affected,” Arnold Butov, the head of Russia’s beekeepers’ union, told the publication. Authorities said that an estimated 300 000 bee colonies had died off during June and July, peak months for honey harvesting. The losses could mean that Russia, which produces about 100 000t of honey annually, may produce up to 20% less than usual this year. Butov also warned that bees pollinate a wide variety of crops in Russia, including key staples such as buckwheat. Russian officials and bee experts were quick to blame the losses on pesticide misuse, but officials said…

The multi-million-rand Black Producers Commercialisation Programme’s (BPCP) blended finance facility was halted temporarily earlier this year to allow for a clean-out of non-target individuals who were aiming to abuse the programme for personal benefit. This was according to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s (agriculture department) director general, Mike Mlengana, who was also behind the establishment of the BPCP. Mlengana told Farmer’s Weekly that he had originally told his senior officials to ensure that only genuine, independent, small-scale black farmers be identified and encouraged to apply for BPCP grants and loans for the purpose of helping them on the road to becoming larger-scale commercial farmers. However, only months after the October 2018 applications commencement date, he learned that government and Land Bank officials, together with non-target private…

NCT Forestry Co-operative (NCT) recently named Mthandeni Ntanzi and Hendrik Klopper as the winners of its 2019 Tree Farmers of the Year awards in the small-scale and commercial grower categories respectively. Ntanzi, who owns 5ha of commercial wattle plantations in KwaZulu-Natal’s Matimatolo Traditional Authority area, impressed the competition judges with the exemplary management of his forestry operation. A statement from NCT said noteworthy aspects of Ntanzi’s management included using fencing and other non-destructive methods to prevent wild rabbits from damaging his young wattle trees, hoeing clean firebreaks around his farm’s perimeter, and using goats to feed on weeds growing beneath the older trees. Klopper, who owns 675ha of wattle and eucalyptus plantations in Mpumalanga’s Moolman area, was praised by the judges for the “very high standard” of his silviculture operations.…

With South Africa’s economy under severe pressure, many businesses, including farming operations, have embraced the idea of offshore diversification. This presents a stumbling block, however: tax must be paid in the jurisdiction where the trading takes place, yet the South African Revenue Service wants to tax the same income. One way around the problem is to operate through a properly established offshore company and earn dividends in South Africa. Under a strict set of circumstances, these are free of South African tax – for now anyway. To pay tax in two jurisdictions is crippling. Yes, there are double-tax avoidance agreements and there are also rules under South Africa’s Income Tax Act where relief is given unilaterally, but money is tight, and these rules are applied strictly. EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION Some…

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO? I married a farmer from the Lichtenburg area. After I qualified as a CA (SA), we moved to the farm and I started working at an auditing firm in town. The agribusiness NWK was a client of the business. Through my dealings with NWK, I became increasingly interested in the inner workings of the agricultural industry. When an opportunity became available in the internal audit department of NWK, I applied for the position. In my experience, people working in agriculture really do care about farmers. They understand the demands, challenges and opportunities that the primary producers of food and fibre in South Africa face. Compared with the rest of the local corporate world, there is…

Elsenburg, in the Western Cape, is the tournament’s most successful team, winning 39 championships since the establishment of the tournament, with only one of these championships being held with another team (Saasveld). Other winners over the years include Potchefstroom (three wins); Grootfontein (three wins); Glen (one win); Kovsies Landbou (one win); and Saasveld (two wins, one shared with Elsenburg). The SAAC committee tournament uses the results of the first day of play to split the teams into the Cup Division and the Plate Division for the tournament. The order of the matches is determined by a draw, but the host is always entitled to play in the main game. The losers of the Cup Division the previous year play the winners of the Plate Division to determine where each team…

The octane numbers of the most popular biofuels, such as methanol, ethanol, biogas and hydrogen, are higher than petroleum-derived petrol. This number is a measure of the way the fuel behaves during combustion. In a petrol engine, the combustion process is initiated by a spark whose heat starts a burning process in the fuel molecules in its immediate vicinity. This flame spreads outwards from the spark until it dies from a lack of fuel mixture, contact with the colder combustion chamber wall, or both. The process, which takes only a millisecond or two, is meant to play out in an orderly manner. Whether it does so or whether it ends violently (detonation or ‘knocking’) depends partly on the fuel’s octane number as well as the fuel mixture, spark timing and…

First some theory. A pie, regardless of content, is contained in pastry. You can drive yourself out of your mind if you so wish and make your own pastry. The quick and safe alternative, however, awaits you in your supermarket’s freezer. Now for the filling. Pie diners who respond badly to chillies can simply leave them out, as a couple of dashes of red Tabasco will provide that welcome flicker of spicy warmth. 1 Crush, peel and mince the garlic, peel and thinly slice the onion, and grate the ginger. Drain the chickpeas and white beans, and have them standing by in a bowl. 2 In a saucepan, bring the oil up to medium high on the hob and sweat the garlic and ginger for 60 seconds, then add the…

7 SEPTEMBER Waterblommetjie Festival FOUR LOCAL WINE PRODUCERS IN PAARL HAVE JOINED FORCES TO CELEBRATE THE 10TH ANNUAL WATERBLOMMETJIE FESTIVAL WITH A FUN-FILLED LINE-UP FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. TRADITIONAL WATERBLOMMETJIE BREDIE AND SOUPS WILL BE ON OFFER, AS WELL AS GIN COCKTAILS AND DECADENT WATERBLOMMETJIE ICE CREAM. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS & EXPOS 21 TO 22 AUGUST Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, CSIR Convention Centre, Pretoria. Visit fertasa.co.za/fertasa-events/ symposium. 26 TO 28 AUGUST Bio Africa Convention, ICC, Durban. Visit africabio.com/ conference. 29 TO 30 AUGUST Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium, Pretoria. Visit abbcsymposium.org. 3 TO 5 SEPTEMBER No-Till Conference, Bergville. Email Sandra Findlay at ntcsandra@gmail.com. 1 TO 3 OCTOBER Africa Fertilizer Agribusiness Conference, Cape Town International Convention Centre.Visit events.crugroup.com/ astafrica/home. COURSES & TRAINING 24 TO 25 AUGUST The Building Blocks to Beekeeping,…

The level of dams in the Western Cape has risen to an average of 61,2% due to significant rainfall accompanied by snow in the catchments of the province at the end of July and the first week of August. “Western Cape dam levels hit a four-year high, while some major dams are already 100%,” said Anton Bredell, the Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. According to Sputnik Ratau, spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation, good rainfall across some parts of the province had left much of the ground soaked, which had assisted the run-off from rainfall catchment areas to flow speedily into dams. “This run-off will hopefully penetrate other water systems, including groundwater,” he said. Despite good rainfall over large parts of the…

UNITED STATES A number of millennial farmers in the US say they are making more money talking about farming on their YouTube channels than from farming itself. Farmer Zach Johnson, owner of the YouTube channel MN Millennial Farmer, told Bloomberg that he had made five times more on YouTube in 2018 than from his family farm. According to the University of Illinois’s Farmdoc project, an initiative that provides farmers with marketing and management know-how, more and more farmers were reshaping themselves as content creators. LAOS The Lao government has announced plans to transform the farming system in Laos from subsistence to commercial crop production to meet growing demand and help Lao farmers cope with changes in regional agricultural and food markets. The government, especially the department of agriculture, was set…

A new project being introduced by Agri Eastern Cape could revolutionise development in the former homeland areas of the province. Speaking at the organisation’s recent annual congress, the president of Agri Eastern Cape, Doug Stern, said it was hoped that the project would get off the ground within 90 days, in time for the 2019/2020 maize planting season. Close to 400 000ha, where food had been produced many years ago, currently lay unused and undeveloped, Stern said. He added that Agri Eastern Cape had done much research into the potential of areas in the former Transkei and Ciskei regions. Land there was considered to have high potential, with the region also receiving good rainfall. “We’ve visited the various traditional leaders in that area and [established] relationships based on trust.” The…

The portion of South Africa’s human population who live within 50km of the coastline generate at least 630 000t of mismanaged plastic waste every year. With this in mind, the Japanese government recently pledged US$1,8 million (about R26 million) in grant funding to assist South Africa to transition from conventional plastics to more environmentally sustainable alternatives. A ceremony to formalise this initiative was held recently in Pretoria, with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) tasked to work with South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to use Japan’s research funding over the next three years. A joint UNIDO/CSIR statement said the research would focus on developing an action plan to strengthen South Africa’s plastic recycling capacity, and build local capacity to manufacture alternative materials to conventional oil-based…

Cultivated pastures and feed crops can be a major asset to a livestock farmer in two ways. They reduce reliance on grazing lands, and they lessen the need to buy in feed, thus dramatically decreasing input costs. In a recent study I undertook, I established that lucerne can be produced at about R1,50/kg while purchased lucerne can cost as much as R3,50/kg. Many of the communal farming districts in which I’ve worked have a ready supply of water that can be used for crop irrigation. To set up a system, however, will require co-operation and careful planning by communities, and irrigation experts and funders will have to be brought in. Growing dryland feed crops is also possible in many areas, of course. Whether a cropland is irrigated or dryland, it…

My diary reminds me that the Institute of Market Agents of South Africa (IMASA) will be holding its annual Open Day Conference (ODC) on 5 September in uMhlanga. It will be followed by the AGM the next day. Having been the main organiser of the event for more than 10 years, I have always believed that the ODC has two main purposes. The first is to listen to and learn from knowledgeable speakers drawn from different disciplines; the second is to expose market agents to the wider world. Networking and interacting with colleagues from around the country is also a benefit. TUNNEL VISION I’ve worked with market agents for more than 40 years and know how easily many of them succumb to tunnel vision. In a way, this is understandable,…

MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU by Anthea Gardner (Jonathan Ball, R230) A regular media financial commentator, Gardner is the founder of an asset management business. Her focus in this book isn’t the ebb and flow of markets so much as personal investors, who need to “think big, start small”, as she puts it in her subtitle. Gardner is determined to convert the many people who find that their eyes glaze over with incomprehension or fear when faced with their personal finances. Her solution is to blend common sense with plain English and some catchy manoeuvres such as the ‘4% rule’ and the ‘rule of 72.’ She recognises that money is something we love having, but, given the mystique that has been created around it, it is something most of…

Whether you call it a winter pie or an upward twist on the classic Durban bunny chow, this dish is filling and delicious. Its warming, earthy spices lift the beans and chickpeas, which add a soft and almost creamy texture that buffers some of the bite, resulting in a medium-flavour intensity. The pairing here depends on the thermonuclear part of the recipe. The more of the big red chillies that are added, the more sweetness you will need in the glass. The wine I had in my glass was a very fruity white with a mere suggestion of sweetness through the ripe tropical and cling-fruit flavours; it beautifully balanced what was on the fork. Thelema’s Sutherland Viognier and Roussanne blend was fermented and matured for 10 months in older barrels,…

Eating the right food, combined with medication and healthy habits, can help you manage symptoms of Parkinson’s disease such as rigidity, tremors, postural instability or dystonia. It’s important to vary your food to deal with this neurodegenerative disorder and improve your quality of life. Eating different types of food will ensure you get the vitamins and minerals you need to manage the disease. Increase your fibre intake too. Consuming high-fibre vegetables and some fresh fruit aids digestion, eases constipation and helps you feel full for longer. Eat more wholegrain foods such as brown rice, pasta, wholewheat bread, oatmeal or crackers in small meals during the day. Avoid sugary foods and drinks that can weaken your immune system; rather eat naturally sweetened food to manage Parkinson’s symptoms. Reduce your protein intake,…