The South African farmers union - Agri SA - has started conversations between industry groups, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, as well as stakeholders like agricultural businesses, banks and insurance companies to establish greater cooperation on development projects. Work sessions started last week with a report on Grain…
Forget about government and its promises – rather forge partnerships with commercial farmers. That’s the advice given to prospective black farmers from Sernick Agriculture Group’s Nick Serfontein. Serfontein was a panellist at the Nampo harvest day in South Africa’s North West Province where he discussed the Land Bank’s new financial…
The ability of African economies in sub-Saharan Africa to create enough jobs for a young and growing population rests on the urgent and successful implementation of structural reforms to increase productivity. That’s the key finding in the latest report on Africa’s competitiveness by the World Economic Forum (WEF). African economies…
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says Zambian smallholder farmers are enhancing their technological capabilities by increasingly using irrigation. According to FAO’s market brief on irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia has a comparative advantage for irrigation development because of the presence of large numbers of experienced equipment suppliers.…
The approval of a R1.3 billion (US$93million) loan from the World Bank to South Africa’s Land Bank, is a significant boost for the country’s emerging farming sector. The loan is noteworthy since it is a long-term loan spread over 25 years. It advances the country’s target to create 1 million…
