Agricultural irrigation scheduling solutions

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has set aside R100m for a Covid-19 grant scheme, which has been made available through Land Bank to smallholder farmers who have loans to pay, and experience financial distress resulting from the impact of Covid-19 and related interventions, such as the effects of the protracted Lockdown regulations, on their businesses.

With a looming water crisis and an expanding macadamia industry, the obvious question arises: where will the water for the new orchards come from? A recent groundbreaking study shows that farmers have been grossly over-irrigating and that dryland macadamias in high-rainfall areas actually provide better yields. Lindi Botha spoke to Theunis and Armand Smit, specialists in irrigation and optimal water usage.

COVID-19’s arrival in Africa has exacerbated pre-existing major challenges to the continent’s food production and nutrition security. These include droughts, floods, extreme temperatures, outbreaks of crop and livestock pests and diseases, and generally low economic growth. This was according to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, during her presentation to…

Full bench rules that the sale or trading of water rights discriminates against those who can’t afford it