Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 3)

Upon arrival at Treetops Farm, we had refreshments and the first of the presentations.

Some of the labour practices on the farm are commendably pragmatic. For example, when a very hot day is forecaste, work begins earlier than normal, and once the assigned tasks are completed the staff go home (this in the late morning!) to avoid the heat.

 A waste management/recycling programme is run with spinoffs for the labour force (a funeral had been paid for from these funds a few days earlier). 

When used, agrochemicals are applied manually for targeted and effective application. Spraying from the air (by airplane or helicopter) can have unintended consequences on beneficial insects like bees and spiders. In addition to sugarcane, Treetops runs a beekeeping operation.

 We heard about various other aspects of operations at the farm, and files showing the paperwork behind the operation were made available to us – training, fertilizer, diesel and so on.

Jessica Cockburn (left) and extension officer Paul Botha introduced SUSFARMS, the Sustainable Sugarcane Farm Management System designed by the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) and funded by the WWF. This simple but thorough user guide takes the farmer through a check list of better management practices (BMPs). A farmer using SUSFARMS will find he has complied with legislation whilst maintaining high social, economic and environmental standards.

We set off in convoy to witness some of the features of this farm operation that had won it the Nedbank Sustainable Farm Award in 2014. 

Roy McGladdery (left) demonstrated how vegetated waterways look after the soil. Trees are also being planted in the waterways to provide shelter from the sun and to encourage birdlife.

The 12 checks for waterways in SUSFARMS include: they are not used as roads or paths; they allow the free flow of surface water; they are sited at the lowest point of selected natural depressions, and; they have been planted with a creeping grass suitable to the area.

After one or two more stops on the farm, I looked around and noticed that the magic and inspiration of it all had cast a glow over everyone. One of the Nedbank staff, doing studies in ethics, spoke jubilantly about how she had found a subject for a thesis - to do with labour relations on this farm. McGladdery doesn't look the type who smiles gratuitously but by this time he was all smiles, basking in the joy of sharing with us a farming operation which simply makes such common sense!

There was no immediate rush when all was over, even though there were flights to be caught. People gathered in twos and threes, or in larger groups around McGladdery or the team leaders, content to wait for a while longer before the trips home to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria - wherever - began.

Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 2)

I began the last blog by saying “Some farmers make it all seem 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.

The second day of the excursion began with a hearty breakfast and a checking out of Rawdons. A fairly lengthy bus trip took us north, past Wartburg, to hear about work with the Swayamani Small Growers.

 The reader should understand that agriculture has a dual nature in this country. On the one hand, there are large commercial operations. As profit margins shrunk over the past two decades, the farming landscape changed. As is the case elsewhere in the world, fewer farmers are in business now but the size of their operations increased. This was a necessity to take advantage of economies of scale. Where does this leave the small scale farmer (or “small holder” or whatever name we choose for farmers who do not fit into that commercial farmer category)?

There is always a challenge when forming agricultural collectives. How best to pool resources and try get economies of scale happening? As we viewed the patchwork of teeming life below us we heard about the issues and progress in this area. The miller who receives cane from these small holders. What the influences on the small holders choice of land use are. Is it more economical to put a fence around the cattle or around the piece of land with sugarcane?

Industry associations do a lot of work to develop this sector of agriculture, and in the case of sugarcane it is no different. The Developing farmer support chapter of The Agri Handbook covers the topic.

We did not return the way we had come. Just outside of Pietermaritzburg we had passed burning tyres and stones in the road, the beginning of social unrest, and so choose  instead to continue down to Cato Ridge and come back up the N3 to Treetops Farm, near Eston, our final visit.

Farmers, bankers, conservationists (part 1)

When Roy McGladdery spoke of winning the Nedbank Sustainable Farm Award for best farming practice, how he'd insisted on the whole farm work force being in the photograph with the oldest worker holding the trophy, I felt tears well up in my eyes. Some farmers make it all seem so easy!

I was part of a press contingent ushered to various projects in KwaZulu-Natal last week – 12^th and 13^th November. Our hosts were a combined team from Nedbank and World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF SA).

We began the two days at Rawdons Lodge in the KZN Midlands (left). After brunch (below) there were three presentations.

Hold on. The WWF SA and agriculture? They're conservationists, aren’t they?

Sustainable Agriculture, championed by the WWF SA-Nedbank partnership, is similar to what others call Biological Farming or Natuurboerdery (Nature Farming). It is not as strict as organic farming (where the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and GMOs are prohibited) but it's halfway there from conventional farming. Nedbank, in its turn, is contributing over ZAR17-million (around USD 1.5-million) to programmes like this over three years.

Limited availability of water, land and energy has placed agriculture/food security at a crossroads. And the health of our natural systems is deeply linked to all of this, explains Inge Kotze (senior manager of the Programme). More information on Sustainable Agriculture will be published in the 2015/16 edition of The Agri Handbook.

A water overview was given by Christine Colvin (WWF Freshwater Senior Manager), and out at John Campbell’s farm, Helen Gordon spoke of the Water Balance Programme. The clearing of invasive alien species is one of the vital water supply  interventions identified in the 2004 National Water Resource Strategy and this was what we had come to see.

At Ivanhoe Farm we were moved out of buses to a convoy of bakkies (“light utility vans”, for our overseas readers). The farm lies at the beginnings of the Umgeni River Catchment area, which in its totality is responsible for a fifth of South Africa’s GDP. No wonder it is viewed as a catchment area of particular ecological and socio-economical importance!

We travelled on rough roads through beautifully green territory. Between the mist we saw wattle crane (an endangered species in this country) standing content on the far side of the some of the several hundred hectares of wetlands that exist on Ivanhoe. The major operations on the farm are potatoes and Brangus beef cattle, and there were perhaps sixty head of cattle where we disembarked. Some broke from the serious business of grazing to skip and fool around, perhaps because they saw the cameras. Just kidding. I don't think they even knew we were there, they were so content under the Midlands skies.

The weather changed. It became increasingly difficult to hear the presentation for the rain which pelted us in the ears and face. We retired to the farm sheds where we heard more and had opportunity to ask questions. 

“There are no rats here,” Campbell said proudly afterwards, and I looked up from the immaculate space around us to where he was motioning. Above us, owl boxes were interspersed at various points of the shed. 

We headed back to Rawdons in our vehicles for an hour or so's leisure time before assembling for dinner at 19h00. 

Find the chapters covering water, invasive alien species and birds (wattled crane and owls) in the 2013/14 edition of The Agri Handbook.