South Africa may plant 3.3% less corn this season, survey shows
South Africa, the continent’s biggest corn producer, may plant 3.3 percent less of the grain in the 2014-15 season than a year earlier as prices drop, a survey showed
Agriculture
South Africa maize estimate seen little changed
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa will hardly change its 2014 maize output forecast, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday, as farmers hold onto crops in the face of prices that have fallen more than 40 percent from record peaks scaled in February. The government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) last month said maize output for 2014 … Read more
Minister says apartheid caused land degradation
The apartheid-era land use system caused degradation of land, Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana has said. “All these forms of degradation have compromised the capacity of black rural communities to derive economic growth from the agriculture sector,” Zokwana said at the sixth biennial landcare conference in Durban on Monday. The summit ends on Thursday. The apartheid … Read more
Pensions Preservation 2015 – More strikes, conflict, politicking – or rationality?
Allan Greenblo was my boss at Finance Week in the early 1980s and wrote extensively then about attempts to introduce compulsory preservation of pensions. Those were heady times. Labour was starting to flex new muscles legalised through the laws enacted following the Wiehahn Commission, and it was before the UDF’s internal activism hit top gear. … Read more
Looking to feed the world – Africa needs to make agriculture create wealth not just food
Africa has the acreage, but not the expertise. Not to harp too much on the destruction of ‘Africa’s Breadbasket’ across the Beit Bridge, there are countless willing and able small farmers throughout the continent that would be able to create wealth for themselves through agriculture. In comparison China produces about 143 million tons of rice against … Read more
Africa could be a global breadbasket, but only with the right investment and strategy
For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about the potential for Africa to become a major global food supplier. All the pieces of the puzzle are present – Africa has plenty of underdeveloped arable land, decent access to water (this varies geographically of course), and a lot of un or underemployed … Read more
Ageing farmers, low-yield crops hurt Cameroon’s ambitions
By Anne Mireille Nzouankeu and Bate Felix YAOUNDE/DAKAR (Reuters) – Cameroon’s ambition to triple cocoa production and become one of the world’s top three producers within a decade is being hampered by a failure to modernise ageing plantations and attract young farmers to the sector. Booming consumption, particularly in Asia, is expected to inflate demand … Read more
EU Seeks To Avoid South African Citrus Ban: Document
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has proposed dropping a ban on South African citrus imports but said it could be re-imposed if shipments contain a fungal disease, according to a document obtained by Reuters. The European Union, which buys 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of South African citrus exports every year, banned mainly oranges, … Read more
Kiwi GDP improves to 5.6% after dairy boost
New Zealand’s GDP grew at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the third quarter, up 3.5% year on year. The September quarter was the strongest in nearly four years, driven by a 17% increase in agricultural output as farmers recovered from drought. International dairy prices have also been robust. New Zealand’s economy relies on … Read more