Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan has said that the
fiscus can't sustain the uncertainties around e-tolls. Well, a great many motorists and companies are also uncertain of what impact e-tolling is going to have on their monthly costs. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the monthly bill was capped at R550 per month for light vehicles, but in this report, Gordhan is reported as saying "statistics derived from the gantries on the highway showed that people would not be paying more‚ on average‚ than R150 or R100 a month. He said inflated numbers were being put out to the public." Clear as mud?
These tolls are going to impact on every one of us, everywhere in the country, because every company based in Gauteng, having operations in or through Gauteng or dealing with any such company, will face increased costs. And guess who will have to pay...
On the mobile front, Lax Faure discusses
the technology tsunami... No other development in the history of the world has caused so much change, in such a short time period, he writes.
Food-crop improvement by conventional plant breeding, without resorting to GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) technology, is the goal of the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) and its work has borne fruit and
African farmers can now select seeds for their needs.
Thinking of travelling to the US? Think again...
Travel chaos is looming as the US cancels flights thanks to Cyclone Sandy. Air France, British Airways, Virgin and other European airlines cancelled all flights into New York, Baltimore, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia on Monday, while US airlines called off thousands of domestic flights and diverted planes away from Sandy's path. There is likely to be a knock-on effect, so check with your travel agent or airline if you're due to travel to the US.
Rod Baker, content director
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Food-crop improvement by conventional plant breeding, without resorting to GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) technology, is the goal of the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), a plant breeding initiative based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg, spear-headed by Professor Mark Laing. 
The country's major challenges in agriculture are a shrinking commercial farmer community‚ inadequate assistance to smallholder farmers and rising food prices compounded by climate change‚ says Agriculture‚ Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson. 
President Jacob Zuma has reiterated his support for the campaign that encourages South Africans to productively use the land to improve food security for millions of citizens. 
SA farmers are expected to plant more maize in the 2013 season compared with the current season‚ attracted by elevated spot prices on the SA Futures Exchange (Safex)‚ according to an I-Net Bridge survey of traders and analysts. 
Sewage sludge, wastewater and liquid manure are valuable sources of fertiliser for food production. Fraunhofer researchers have now developed a chemical-free, eco-friendly process that enables the recovered salts to be converted directly into organic food for crop plants. 
