News

expo

Farm-Tech Expo Kenya kicks off in September

  20th June 2018

September will see key stakeholders, retailers, agents, service providers from across the agricultural value chain, and farmers, gather in Naivasha in Kenya for the inaugural Farm-Tech Expo. Farm-Tech Expo Kenya will take place on 12 and 13 September at host partner Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Organisation’s (KALRO) facilities in Naivasha…

farm

Farmer profile: Growing beyond land reform in South Africa

  12th June 2018

Aggrey Mahanjana’s farm, Carnarvon Estates, is a rancher’s dream north of Queenstown in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. Aggrey engages with the country’s Land Reform Programme by working towards commercial-scale production. Carnarvon Estates is set in a vast landscape of rolling grasslands and the high, rocky ridges of the Stormberg….

app

New app puts production guidelines in farmers’ hands

  28th May 2018

The aim of its new app is to put useful production information, solutions and guidelines on a variety of agricultural commodities at the fingertips of farmers, says South Africa’s (SA) Agricultural Research Council (ARC). The organisation launched its ARC Hub application at the recent Nampo Harvest Day near Bothaville in…

agriculture; agribusiness; agricultural; reform

Title deeds crucial for successful land reform

  18th May 2018

The longer the land reform process takes, the less successful it will be, says former Zimbabwean Minister of Finance Simba Makoni. He formed part of a discussion panel on policy matters and scenarios at this year’s Grain SA Nampo Harvest Day in Bothaville, South Africa. The discussion was led by…

creep; sheep; fever

Rift Valley fever confirmed in South Africa

  18th May 2018

Rift Valley fever (RVF) has been confirmed in South Africa’s (SA) Free State Province. SA’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has confirmed an outbreak of RVF in sheep near Jacobsdal in the Free State Province. To date, the disease has been detected on 1 farm, with further investigations…

conservation

SA farmer Cosmas Xaba investigates options in conservation a...

  26th April 2018

Cosmas Dumezweni Xaba (50) is a family man with a wife, 7 children and 1 grandchild. He retired from the mines in 2008 to come and farm, growing crops and rearing livestock. He strongly believes in doing things for the well-being of his family. He is a pastor at a…

anthrax; catarrhal; bovine; disease; rabies

Foot and mouth outbreak in Zambia’s Central Province

  23rd April 2018

Visitors to the Agritech Expo Zambia 2018 at Chisamba in Central Province entered a declared foot and mouth disease (FMD) zone en route to the expo recently. The affected areas of Chisama and Chibombo had 5 000 recorded cases of FMD by the 16 April, according to The Times of…

farmers

Agritech Expo Zambia 2018: Small-scale farmers and finding s...

  20th April 2018

Kingsley Kachenjela, founded the popular Facebook group Small Scale Farmers (Farming as business) (397 000 followers) to provide farmers with a platform to access and share relevant agricultural information. A man who believes that action must follow talk, Kingsley spoke about finding markets for farmer produce, at Zambia’s recent Agritech…