The origins of the Office of the Valuer-General (OVG) lie in the 2011 draft Green Paper on Land Reform. The OVG was supposed to provide fair and consistent land values for rating and taxing purposes, .....
Read MoreWhat we witnessed in KwaZulu-Natal over the past couple of days is heartbreaking – the loss of lives and the destruction of communities and businesses are unbearable. As President Cyril Ramaphosa po.....
Read MoreSouth Africa had a fairly good production season in 2021/22 with wheat at 2,3 million tonnes, which is the largest harvest in 20 years and record yield in some crops such as canola and oats. The large.....
Read MoreThe Expropriation Bill is currently before the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure. The portfolio committee started discussing the Bill clause by clause on 10 March. What was surpri.....
Read MoreThe current version of the Expropriation Bill (B23/2020) was tabled in Parliament on 15 October 2020. That follows unsuccessful attempts to come up with a new expropriation act in 2008 and 2013. The f.....
Read MoreThe debate regarding compensation for land taken for land reform purposes has been raging ever since the CODESA negotiations and the initial formulation of section 25 of the Constitution. Over the .....
Read MoreThe weather has been topical across the Southern Hemisphere because of the La Niña event. We have generally battled with excessive moisture within the Southern Africa region, while South America ha.....
Read MoreThe United States think tank Fund for Peace annually compiles a fragile states index consisting of states whose governments are so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of.....
Read MoreSouth Africa's summer crop growing regions have received excessive rains since the start of the season in October 2021, except for a few regions of one province, the Eastern Cape. This province's sout.....
Read MoreThe Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) published a beneficiary selection and land allocation policy in 2020. The policy aims to ensure household food security and fo.....
Read MoreAt a recent media conference, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola indicated that a Land Redistribution Bill was on the cards for South Africa. The High-Level Panel on the As.....
Read MoreLast week, the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) released its sixth production forecast for 2021/22 winter crops. There were notable changes from the previous update of the end of December 2021, with .....
Read MoreAside from the locusts spreading in parts of the Northern and Eastern Cape and threatening the grazing veld, the major concern for much of South Africa has been the excessive rains. At the start.....
Read MoreUnlike in the Southern Africa region, where a La Niña event typically leads to wet weather, the South America region experiences dryness. The drier weather has been the main feature of South America's.....
Read MoreSouth Africa's summer crop planting season is underway in the eastern and central regions. The rainfall and soil moisture will be crucial from now until February 2022, when the crop pollinates. A rece.....
Read MoreWater scarcity, greater demand for water, and changes in water supply due to climate change are severely affecting large parts of Southern Africa, including South Africa, posing a significant risk t.....
Read MoreSouth Africa's Crop Estimates Committee mildly lifted its forecast for 2020/21 summer grain and oilseeds production from last month by 1% to 18,7 million tonnes (this compared with 17,6 million tonnes.....
Read MoreSimilarly to 2020, in this year's State of the Nation Address (SONA) President Ramaphosa reaffirmed the government's commitment to ensuring that agriculture continues to be amongst the key sectors t.....
Read MoreSouth Africa is having a great start of the 2020/21 agricultural season. Most regions of the country have been receiving higher rainfall since October, which is a period when summer grain plantings .....
Read MoreThis is a quick commentary on South Africa’s agricultural economy performance in the third quarter of the year following the official release of GDP data. I won't endeavour to provide detailed anal.....
Read MoreThe combination of a large harvest, joint efforts between the government and the private sector to keep agriculture operational since the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, and long-ter.....
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