I spent my day in Free State where I participated in the South African Stud Book and Animal Improvement Association AGM.

The Bridge Building Land Summit held last week was a platform for farmers, agricultural students, legal experts and representatives from various organisations to discuss important questions on land reform.

Agriculture is an important driver of climate change: it currently generates around a quarter of global greenhouse-gas emissions.

The third quarter 2019 GDP data released by Statistics South Africa this week illuminated what many in South Africa’s farming towns and villages have been experiencing throughout the year, which is that the farming economy is in recession.

Conventional, or chemically-led, farming has been developed over the past

We live in extremely challenging times.

The drought monitor remains essentially unchanged.

Bees – including honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees – are very important because they pollinate food crops.

It’s often seen as the silver lining set against the dark clouds of climate change: As precipitation patterns change and cold parts of the planet warm up, the quantity of potential farmland could grow immensely.

After reaching a record level of $10.6-billion in 2018, South Africa’s agricultural exports fell by 8% year-on-year (y/y) in 2019 to $9.8-billion.

Africa’s agricultural productivity ­— a key metric of its development plan — increased a dismal 2 per cent in 2019, according to the progress report of ‘Agenda 2063’, a blueprint on how the continent should develop in half a century.

The government has emphasised the need to support the agricultural sector as part of efforts to promote faster and sustained inclusive economic growth.

 South Africa’s farming economy was not in good shape in 2019.

South Africa’s agricultural sector could take a R39 billion export hit as a result of the coronavirus dampening demand from Asian countries, the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) has warned.

Between now and 2040, almost every second person born worldwide will be African, and the continent will account for more than 60% of growth in the world’s working-age population. Africa has boundless potential. And yet the income gap between Africa and the rest of the world has been growing since the 1960s.

The statistics are unsettling, one-third of the earth’s area is degraded and already not fit to grow crops.

On the hills of central Kenya, almost lime-green with the shimmer of tea bushes in the sunlight, farmers know all about climate change.

In "Africa’s Path to Growth: Sector by Sector", published in 2010, global consultancy McKinsey argues for a sectoral approach to development in Africa.

Most European and North American countries are generally regarded as food secure and hold a prominent place in the Global Food Security Index.

After suffering severe labor shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems unlikely that advanced-economy farmers will return to business as usual. Instead, many will probably attempt to mitigate the risks stemming from dependence on foreign seasonal workers by automating more of their operations.