The Global Water Report: 2013 and South Africa

This year's Global Water Report suggests that, in South Africa, water demand will outstrip supply by as much as 17% by 2030. The report is run from London; its local anchor is the National Business Initiative [refer to www.nbi.org.za]. 

Life is all about our decisions and our deciding who we are. The same applies on a collective level. What can we do about this water scenario? Does this country's temperament have the capacity to change, collaborate, engage when it comes to use of our water resources?

In the Agri Handbook for South Africa 2013/14, there are several chapters dealing with water: Irrigation, Rainwater harvesting, Water storage, Wetlands, Boreholes & windmills -- and, under the National Issues section, a general chapter on water. Water is a national issue because:

• The necessity for water makes it a human security issue. Water is a key to stability in the lives of communities and to the growth of nations.
• Because South Africa is a water-scarce country, the water we have should be used wisely.
• Water-use behaviours can have a detrimental effect on the quality of our water. Industrial, mining and agricultural pollutants, as well as poor maintenance of waste water treatment works degrade our water and aquatic life.
• The costs to the economy of making increasingly toxic water fit for human consumption is an unnecessary, avoidable expense.
• The trading status of South African agricultural products, both for export and local, is threatened by the quality of water in some areas. The shadow goes further than the safety of the food to the very profitability of various businesses (read “jobs”). 

Find the general water chapter here.

South Africa - importer of agricultural products?

In April 2012, the Agricultural Business Chamber newsletter looked at the country's top imports and exports, for both primary and secondary agriculture. South Africa's trade balance had remained positive (we export more than we import). This report is looked at in the second chapter of the Agri Handbook for South Africa which can be found here.

South Africa had never been a net importer of primary agricultural products, even if we import more secondary (or processed) products than we export. Can't we produce the commodities that we are having to import? For this reason, secondary agriculture or agri-processing is identified in government's Industrial Policy Action Plans (IPAPs) as an area where jobs can be created.

It is with concern that we take note of the article "SA nou netto invoerder van landbouprodukte" [SA now a net importer of agricultural products] in the 12 April 2013 edition of Landbouweekblad, an article by Prof Johan Willemse.

In our earlier blog, "The case for unity in agriculture", we quoted the inspirational speaker Osho as saying that nothing significant happens without unity, and related this to South Africa's agricultural environment.We repeat this point, relevant as ever, today.

Livestock: how to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change

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 goes counter to traditional thinking, of course, but hear his talk and see what you think.

The Expropriation Bill, 2013

The Expropriation Bill, 2013, has been gazetted for public comment. Find it on the www.polity.org.za website or click here. It is one of the means, in the year of the centenary of the 1913 Natives Land Act, to rectify South Africa's past.

Several chapters in The Agri Handbook deal with this topic, including Legislation & legal aid, Developing farmer support and Land reform.

Boost for the aquaculture sector in South Africa

Ever thought of diversifying into fish farming?

Government launched the Agriculture Development and Enhancement Programme (Adep), an R800 million aquaculture programme, towards the end of March to encourage greater interest in the aquaculture sector.

The aquaculture chapter of the Agri Handbook (click here) includes a business plan, an orientation of the sector, contact details of role players and sources of information should you wish to know more.