The State of the Nation address delivered by President Ramaphosa set out five fundamental goals for South Africa. Three of these goals, namely eliminating hunger, growing the economy faster than the population growth rate and creating 2 million job opportunities, are partially premised on economic growth in the agricultural and agribusiness subsectors.
A programme supported by the Jobs Fund’s is benefitting black small-scale farmers in Sekororo, a rural community in Limpopo province that produces food that is sold all over South Africa.
One can understand the United States of America, straddling a continent from Pacific to Atlantic Ocean, being the world’s biggest agricultural exporter, but how does the Netherlands (also called Holland), a country 273 times smaller than the USA, come in at position 2?
We receive some ten emails a week from people looking for help on one agricultural issue or another. It was when we received two in succession about pigs that we decided to do an article.
The face of Thoko Didiza greeted anyone who opened the 2004/2005 National Agricultural Directory and its Afrikaans brother, the Nasionale Landbougids, our first agricultural publication. At that time Didiza was the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, a position she retained through two terms, from 1999 to 2006.
