The National Council of SPCAs have shared its concerns for the animals that depend on electricity for survival during Eskom's scheduled load shedding...
19 Mar 2019
The agriculture sector survived a year of rising uncertainty in 2018, but with the national election and the threat of drought looming, 2019 will be every bit as challenging. According to leaders in the sector, farmers will have to be resilient and partner with the right role players to face the trials that await.
11 Jan 2019
Scientific and technological advances from crop breeding to fertilisers to a range of irrigation techniques have powered agricultural production in a bid to keep up with the food demands of a rising population, but for some years now, that growth has faced natural resource limits...
Anita Makri 20 Dec 2018
Most concede that there is an urgent need to radically transform our food systems. But the proposed innovations for more sustainable food systems are drastically different...
Michel Pimbert and Colin Anderson 22 Nov 2018
Large fields, predictable rainfall and favourable temperatures have meant that farmers in Arsi Negele, a town in southeastern Ethiopia, have benefited from good crop yields. Their production of wheat and maize, two of the main food staples in Ethiopia, have also increased over time. But there are worrying indicators...
Frédéric Baudron 9 Oct 2018
A range of fishery management tools already exist that can be used to respond to climate change, but many will need to be retooled to respond to specific needs in specific contexts...
11 Jul 2018
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation report attributes the demand slowdown to a deceleration of demand growth in major emerging economies...
4 Jul 2018
Hunger still stalks the continent, and climate change is a key culprit for low productivity. Africa's ability to feed itself hinges on investment in adapting to these conditions and minimsing agriculture's own contribution to climate change...
Caroline Mwongera 17 May 2018
Authorities must be alive to the fact that smaller-scale commercial farmers face different constraints and opportunities from those of large-scale, commercial farmers. It's critically important that planning and post-settlement support are appropriate to their needs and objectives...
Ben Cousins 18 Apr 2018
"We need to promote a transformative change in the way that we produce and consume food. We need to put forward sustainable food systems that offer healthy and nutritious food, and also preserve the environment. Agroecology can offer several contributions to this process."
4 Apr 2018
With the aim to revolutionise the farming industry as well as increase their market reach and revenue, organisations have been gearing up for new robotic technologies in recent years...
Piyush Mandhare 18 Jan 2018
Farmers need to avoid the consistent use of plant protection products (PPPs) that could hinder soils functions and ecosystems. Instead, farmers should adopt better alternative farming practices...
Sam Otieno 4 Jan 2018
The world has "barely started to fight this battle" to make agriculture greener - and the coming few years will be decisive...
Thin Lei Win 4 Jan 2018
Mechanisation of agriculture has become a priority across many African countries as the continent gears up to exploit its well-recognised potential to become the world's food basket...
Thomas Daum, Regina Birner 22 Nov 2017
Until recently, irrigation had never taken off in Africa for multiple reasons, from poor maintenance planning to lack of inputs and market access...
Jerome Bossuet 6 Sep 2017
Agricultural pests are one of the key factors affecting smallholder farmer production. In many parts of Africa, large population outbreaks of rodents occur often and can sometimes lead up to 100% crop loss...
Lourens Swanepoel 4 Aug 2017
By adopting agroforestry and improved agricultural practices, a community in western Kenya has increased their income and improved their living standards. They are now training other farmers to do the same...
Susan Onyango 11 Jul 2017
A year after the second decade of commercialisation of biotech/GM crops in 2016, 26 countries grew 185.1m hectares of biotech crops - an increase of 5.4m hectares or 3% from 179.7m hectares in 2015...
4 Jul 2017
While high-input and resource-intensive farming systems have substantially increased food production, this has come at a high cost to the environment...
30 May 2017
With FAO's new tool, the WaPOR open-access database going live, measuring how efficiently water is used in agriculture, particularly in water-scarce countries, is going high-tech...
24 Apr 2017
Intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and climate change has put mankind's ability to feed itself in jeopardy a new report by FAO warns...
22 Feb 2017
The general story is that farmers are adopting improved agricultural practices, that productivity is increasing and that rural economies are burgeoning...
Brendan Brown and Ian Nuberg 8 Feb 2017
It takes between one and three tonnes of water to grow one kilogramme of cereal, a kilogramme of beef takes up to 15 tonnes of water to produce, and it is estimated that...
3 Feb 2017
Rather than continuing to treat wastewater like garbage, it should be managed as a resource that can be used to grow crops and address water scarcity in agriculture, says the FAO...
20 Jan 2017
The consequences of climate change are already being felt all over the globe. But some regions are particularly affected...
Barbara Neumann and Sylvia Szabo 17 Nov 2016
The word organic has nothing to do with organic chemistry even though carbon-rich soil organic matter is important to organic farming. Organic derives instead from the word organism...
Raymond Auerbach 1 Nov 2016
The significant risk to human health posed by antimicrobial resistance and its connection to and impact on agriculture will be discussed at a high-level UN event...
15 Sep 2016
It's perplexing to see such a large segment of the African population depending on a very small number of food crops, like maize, rice, and wheat.
Maria Andrade 6 Sep 2016
A growing social crisis as farmers retrench their workforce and the new class of black commercial farmers has been rocked by the drought...
Desmond Latham 2 Aug 2016
On the current food production trajectory, we will lose the battle for a food-secure world. If declining production trends continue as a result of...
11 Jul 2016
Improved land management strategies and technologies being used across sub-Saharan Africa are helping protect the environment, boost agricultural productivity...
20 Jun 2016
In South Africa's Western Cape, agriculture plays an important role in the economy, job creation and socio-economic development...
Stephanie Midgley, University of Cape Town 29 Jan 2016
Climate change is a subject that no sector can afford to neglect. In less than six months, Paris promises to be a battlefield of agendas...
11 Jun 2015
Politicians should guard against undermining South Africa's long-term interests for the sake of short-term gains at the polls, to the detriment of the key contributions that agriculture must make to economic prosperity and social welfare. This is according to Johannes Möller, president of Agri SA.
7 Apr 2014
BAMAKO: Experts on livestock farming, trade and security on Monday, 7 March 2011 in Bamako, the Malian capital, began a three-day meeting to validate the draft strategic action plan for the development of livestock farming in ECOWAS member states.
8 Mar 2011
An international treaty designed to protect seeds from commercial exploitation is allegedly being violated by the US and Brazilian governments and a Texas university.
Michael Hamlyn 12 Jan 2010
UN-led efforts to address climate change, conserve biodiversity and fight poverty could cancel each other out unless the close links between these global challenges are given more attention, says a paper published today (18 February) by the International Institute for Environment and Development.
Carole Kimutai 18 Feb 2008