Weeklikse Afrikaanse Landbou Nuusoorsig - Die Afrikaanse Nuus is die afgelope paar dae op AGRI NEWS NET geplaas, saam met nog ander artikels. 

Despite the drop in South Africa’s diesel price in April, macadamia farmers say the cost of fuel to run generators during Eskom’s rolling blackouts is crippling operations. Against the backdrop of a bumper harvest, hundreds of farmers who expected to cash in on the growing popularity of macadamia nuts and had planted vast acreages of macadamia trees since 2018 – mainly in KwaZulu-Natal – are under the cosh. Industry body SAMAC has revised its 2023 crop estimations to 81 556 tons, which is 18.5% higher than the 2022 crop of 68 840 tons. And production has increased by 12 716 tons this year compared with the previous harvest. But these numbers come at a time when the world is over-supplied and nut prices are at rock-bottom.

Saudi Arabia is one of the countries set to join Brics in January 2024. This is a major development, and one that offers another avenue for diversifying the geographic destinations of South Africa’s agricultural exports. The original Brics countries are already an important agricultural market. According to data from Trade Map, they collectively imported about $320bn of agricultural products from the world market in 2022. About 74% of the bloc’s agricultural imports come from China, 12% from India, 8% from Russia, 4% from Brazil and 3% from South Africa. The original Brics countries are already an important agricultural market.

After a sharp contraction of -11,9% quarter-on-quarter  (seasonally adjusted) in the first quarter of 2023, South Africa’s agricultural gross value added grew by 4,2% in the second quarter. This improvement is based on the robust production conditions of various field crops and horticulture, which weren’t reflected in the first quarter data because of a delayed start to the 2022/23 production eason and the base effects.Tthe 2022/23 maize harvest is estimated at 16,4 million, 6% higher than the 2021/22 season’s harvest and the second-largest harvest on record. Soybean harvest could reach a record 2,8 million tonnes. South Africa’s sugar cane crop will likely increase by 3% to 18,5 million tonnes in 2023/24. Other field crops and fruits also show prospects for decent harvest this season.

Abrie Rautenbach, head of AgriBusiness at the Absa Group agreed the power crisis and its impact on farming was of concern. “This comes as large parts of the sector are already under pressure due to increasing input costs. Producers therefore have limited capacity to invest in alternative energy.” Nico Groenewald who is the head of AgriBusiness at Standard Bank agreed that banks could not apply a blanket approach to their clients. “The macadamia industry has been experiencing difficulties particularly around the commodity price and carryover stock levels. The impact thereof is finding its way in different layers of intensity into the industry depending on where in the value chain a client finds himself.  Agriculture information and marketing head at First National Bank Dawie Maree urged farmers who were in trouble to speak to their bankers sooner rather than later. He said the bank was more concerned about the sustainability of processors rather than that of macadamia farmers. “When processors need to run back-up generators at huge cost to process the macs, that is where there will be impact,” he said.

Hydropower provides clean electricity to millions in Africa. It’s the largest source of renewable energy on the continent and accounts for nearly one quarter of total electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa. Some countries, however, have a much heavier reliance on it than others. For instance, hydropower accounts for at least 80% of electricity generation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. READ MORE 

The progress with South Africa’s land reform programme has not been properly monitored. This has resulted in an incorrect understanding of the real progress made to correct the racial distribution of farm land ownership in South Africa. In 2012 the National Development Plan set a target to redistribute (or restore) 30% (or 23.7 million hectares) of all freehold agricultural land to black South Africans by 2030. READ MORE 

“In hot, humid conditions, the slick cows have an advantage,” López-López said on a scorching spring morning, walking among his herd in the shade of the milking barn. The genetic mutation that gives slick cows a shorter coat and more active sweat glands helps them maintain a healthy body temperature — an asset on our heating planet. Cows are most comfortable in temperatures between 41 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit; livestock around the world are struggling to cope with hotter and longer summers. Over the span of just two hot, humid days in June 2022, an estimated 10,000 cows died in Kansas. This year, during the hottest July on record, hundreds of cows across the U.S. died of heat stress. Experts say it will only get worse. READ MORE -

National Treasury is reportedly proposing a host of extreme measures to get national departments and other spheres of government to cut spending as the country’s coffers have run dry. Treasury data this week showed that the budget moved to a deficit of R143.8 billion for July, the largest since at least 2004 and wider than the R115.5 billion forecast by economists. READ MORE 

South Africa’s fruit and almond exports appear to be shifting from larger traditional markets like the EU -This is apparent when comparing the trade data for the first quarter of 2023 to the same period in the previous year.The EU market accounted for 63% of all SA's fruit and almond exports in the first quarter of 2022, but 61% of all exports during the same period in 2023. Asia, on the other hand, saw an increase over the same period, rising from 22% in the first quarter of 2022 to 25% in the first quarter of 2023. READ MORE 

CRA MEDIA is tans besig met die ontwikkeling van 3 nuwe insetels vir ons mediums.  Ons gaan binnekort ook toetree tot ander mediums wat Landbou op nog 'n beter vlak sal neem. Ons internasionale vennote wil baie graag betrokke raak by ons mediums.  Ons span is baie kreatief en is altyd besig met nuwe idees en programme-  Ons is tans besig met die beplanning van 'n baie eksklusiewe program een sy soort.  3 lede van os span is tans in die buiteland op uitnodiging vir 'n nuwe stelsel wat in die media gebuik word. 

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