Questions to ask when you’re about to grow crops
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-08-31 In Blog @gsafarmerdev tweets on training by Johan Kriel from Grain SA. Workshops revolve around asking and answering some questions. The questions are practical and very worthy, and we reproduce them here: What? What is the crop you want to plant? Can it be grown successfully in your district? Do farmers still […]
“I’ve learned to be more assertive and that I really need to stick to my goals.”
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-07-26 In Blog The story of Renshia Manuel , owner of Growbox Nursery, in her own words. I grew up in Eerste River and, after high school, I studied motor mechanics for two years. (My mom was a single working parent and her car wasn’t very reliable so I thought this would a great […]
Paying attention to agro-processing
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-07-11 In Blog For those who might have missed it, the Department of Trade and Industry’s 2018/19-2020/21 Industrial Action Policy Programme (IPAP) were announced at the end of last month. Some of the IPAP interventions have been met with remarkable success. In the leather and footwear sub-sector, for example, exports of leather and footwear […]
Livestock: how to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-07-06 In Blog Allan Savory, thinking out-of-the-box, promotes livestock as the answer to desertification and climate change. “There is only one option left to climatologists and scientists, and that is to do the unthinkable: to use livestock, bunched and moving, as a proxy for former herds and predators, and to mimic nature”. It […]
Co-operatives help people to help themselves
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-06-28 In Blog There is little appreciation for the importance, significance and potential of the co-operatives model in South Africa, Dr Rob Davies told an audience in Durban over the weekend. Addressing the International Cooperatives Day event, the Minister of Trade & Industry spoke again of additional measures in the pipeline to […]
Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 2)
Some farmers might seem to make it all look so easy! Perhaps they do, but it wouldn’t do them justice to leave it there. The ease with which everything comes together speaks of much that went before – but we’ll get to that shortly
Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 3)
Upon arrival at Treetops Farm, we had refreshments and the first of the presentations.
Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 1)
I was part of a press contingent ushered to various projects in KwaZulu-Natal last week – 12th and 13th November. Our hosts were a combined team from Nedbank and World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF SA)
June 5: a new marker
June 5 2016 is the first International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU).
Strong growth trajectory for robust macadamia industry
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2018-05-25 In Blog Valley Macadamia Chairman, Alan Sutton, attended the macadamia round table session at the World Nut and Dried Fruit Conference in Spain. Sutton gave feedback on the INC’s annual report and discussed a number of pertinent facts and figures, as well as new marketing and advertising campaigns proposed for […]