Bamboo -- an agricultural crop?

Bamboo is amongst the fastest growing plants in the world. In Asian countries it is an incredible raw material with way over a thousand uses!

South Africa's Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) is backing the Eastern Cape province to be the leader of a bamboo industry in Southern Africa [find information about the ECDC at www.ecdc.co.za]. This past weekend brought news of yet another investment by the ECDC into a bamboo harvesting trial.

The bamboo value chain has the potential to create thousands of jobs. Agriculture is the nucleus for many related job prospects. Before the crop you have a multitude of "upstream industries". Once the crop is harvested, various manufacturing, distribution and retail subsectors kick into action.

We welcome any and every effort by a South African authority to support a potential winner like bamboo!

Bamboo is one of the 40-plus crop chapters in The Agri Handbook for South Africa. Find information and bamboo and contact details of role players here.

On saints and personas: Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday

When people turn another person into a saint they let themselves off the hook — and create a situation which psychically calls for redress and balance. You will find evidence of this in any country or community (especially religious) which holds up a mental idea of the ideal citizen or ideal believer.

This can happen by trying to be the perfect child. It certainly happens to some at high school level. The school prefect, living up to role and discharging duties, faces the reality of becoming separated from the truth of her own being, particularly when such a person begins questioning what it is that she is upholding.

The person being lifted up becomes trapped in a role, and can hardly be herself because of the narrative about that self prevalent in her circle. There are exceptions, and certainly some are able to pull off such a role unblemished for the duration of their term. It might seem like an eternity, but eventually university, the workplace, a new country or even death beckon, and such a person is happy for the release.

What goes with an alienation of self? There is more, but here are some indications:

• Depression, certainly. The life inside, the authentic self, goes missing somewhere in the building and we feel the sadness of the loss without knowing why. Not until we are ready to face the reason, anyway.
• Zeal is another symptom, and the greatest threat to our world is from people who know exactly what has to be done to usher in everlasting utopia! Their solution might be political or religious, but the social engineering involved always creates further problems. And the wise know that within us we have all carried the sword at one time or another.

The functioning of society relies to a great measure on having role players that people can admire, and happy the one whose shoulders are big enough to carry the role! A problem, of course, is that by the same token we confer on them a sense of being other-worldly, even impractical, thus comments attributed to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and an individual of South Africa's Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) recently on Nelson Mandela to the effect that he was too saintly.

People forget Mandela was an astute politician as well as being a far-seeing human being. What he represents gave us all another chance, and I for my part and in my small way will do my best in the hope that we never blow it.

Today, Mandela's 95th birthday, let us remember our saints, and the human beings behind the vaunted social persona we project onto them. Happy birthday, Mr Mandela.

Farm Africa: six phases in making money from aquaculture

Farm Africa is an NGO working with communities in Africa to "end hunger ... grow farming". Its July newsletter includes an 8-minute video on aquaculture, farming with fish. The video takes the viewer through 6 stages, from building the small dam to harvesting this vital source of protein. I enjoyed the accompanying music too: the cool guitar reminds me of South Africa's own Ray Phiri (overseas visitors may have heard him on Paul Simon's Graceland).

Aquaculture is included once again in South Africa's IPAPs as a sector singled out for financial support and emphasis (see previous blogs like "Farming in Cape Town" and "Interested in which South African agri sectors are set to receive energy and attention from government as per its strategy?").

Aquaculture is covered in The Agri Handbook. Find overviews, business plans, role players and further publications here.

More predictions for agriculture, 2013-14

Two important presentations have been given on agriculture in the past days:

• Marc Sadler, head of Agriculture Risk Management at the World Bank gave a presentation Investing in agriculture is not a lottery – understanding the risks and managing them “whatever the weather” at the Agriculture Investment Summit Europe 2013. Find it here.
• Ernst Janovsky, head of Absa Agribusiness, presented his Agri commodity and food price outlook which can be found on the website of South Africa's Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz), or click here.

Discussing the Janovsky presentation in their 11 July newsletter, Lindie Stroebel of Agbiz writes:

"The cost of production remains the most concerning issue ... cost of production increases faster than producer prices. The only solution to the problem is to become more productive and efficient. Technology is again the only option to increasing productivity. This includes storage, transport, information, biological and genetic technology, as well as economies of scale. Resource limitations reinforce the need for improved technology.

"Commodity prices are expected to remain flat and will not drive food prices higher. Farmers are, unfortunately, going to absorb the cost increases and will probably experience lower margins in the immediate future. Food prices will be driven by the exchange rate risk, energy prices and labour cost. In the longer run, the stronger demand will have a recovering effect on producer prices".

Stroebel summarises Agbiz' position in three points:

1. When related to the positive agribusiness confidence, the outlook highlights the underlying long term opportunities the industry holds, provided the right approach to address the challenges is adopted.

2. There are a number of exogenous factors impacting negatively on investment, such as significant political and policy uncertainty, the cost effect of the weak and volatile exchange rate, dependency on energy and labour demands:

• Investment will be slow and reluctant until after the elections in 2014.
• The uncertainties created by certain policy developments, such as the restitution of land rights amendment bill, the expropriation bill, the property valuation bill, carbon tax, etc., are causing reluctance to invest.
• The weak exchange rate benefits the export industry, but in the long run has a detrimental effect on investment and cost of production.
• SA is a huge importer of energy and as agriculture is a massive utiliser of energy, at all different levels of the value chain, alternative local sources and more energy efficient operations should be incorporated to minimise the cost effect on the economy as a whole.
• Outrageous labour demands are a serious cost driver and influencer on the investment climate. Solutions should be found and implemented to address the social needs in the country whilst nurturing the business prospects, especially in agribusiness, as it has food security at stake. 

3. The ultimate solution lies in increased efficiencies, through optimised utilisation of resources (both natural and human) and incorporation of technology. We depend on investments in and incorporation of relevant technologies to bring about the yields and productivity gains recorded in other parts of the world, and to decrease the cost of doing business.

We remind the visitor of the AMT Outlook Conference on the 30 September, which we covered in the blog "Event Notification: AMT South African Agricultural Outlook Conference - 30 September 2013'

Co-operatives help people to help themselves

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 boost this vehicle (co-operatives) as a way to empower people.

Co-operative support institutions being developed are:

• the Cooperatives Development Agency, to provide financial and non-financial support
• the Cooperatives Academy to provide education and training and 
• the Cooperatives Tribunal to help co-operatives to resolve internal conflicts.

Co-operatives made the world of difference to South African commercial agriculture in the previous century. Co-operatives help people to help themselves, and we should welcome every effort to strengthen this business model. 

Co-operatives is one of the nearly 180 chapters in The Agri Handbook.

Opportunities in Mozambique

Our previous post looked at where the agricultural focus was in South Africa. In this blog, we look to where the sun rises - Mozambique.

Specific agricultural investment opportunities here were identified by the Investment Promotion Centre in Mozambique. These include soybeans, bananas, cashew nuts, vegetables, maize, cassava, rice, sugar, cotton, aquaculture, poultry and forestry. Find the brochure on these opportunities here.

Contacts are provided in the brochure. Further useful organisations are CEPAGRI, the High Commission of the Republic of Mozambique and SAMOZACC.  Centro de Promoção da Agricultura (CEPAGRI) is a government body mandated by the state to attract investment to Mozambique’s agriculture sector. View the High Commission's website here. The SA-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce (SAMOZACC) was established to promote trade and offer business advice between the two countries.

Industry bodies like Agri SA and the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) in South Africa will also be able to assist.

Contact details for literally hundreds of agricultural role players are provided in The Agri Handbook for South Africa.

Interested in which South African agri sectors are set to receive energy and attention from government as per its strategy?

The Department of Trade & Industry identifies economic sectors and subsectors to which it should lend its weight. These sectors have potential to grow jobs and the economy, all the more so if government could lend a hand. These areas for government attention can be found in South Africa's Industrial Policy Action Plans (IPAPs).

We will look at which areas are of interest to agriculture in the IPAP for the years 2013/14 - 2015/16, and provide a link to where overviews of those sectors can be found in The Agri Handbook.

Key action programmes still include the following from the previous IPAP:

= development of a food processing strategy and action plan
= development of a soybean strategy action plan
= development of the organic food sector
= development of the small-scale milling industry
= enhancement of the competitiveness of the domestic fruit and vegetable canning industry

Although not specifically agriculture, we mention here the so-called Green industries (which include renewable energy).

Areas covered in the previous IPAP which have not been renewed are the implementation of the water efficiency programme for the sugar sector and the promotion of rooibos and honeybush exports.

Aquaculture is identified for increased intervention, as are biofuels and forestry.

A new programme in agro-processing is that of supporting the public-private partnership for food security, primarily through increasing the participation of smallholder farmers in the formal agro-processing sector. This is to happen through giving these farmers access to the retail sector, government procurement and small-scale processing opportunities.