farming

About 6 000 workers in the poultry industry are at risk of losing their jobs as cheap chicken imports from the European Union, Brazil and the US continue flooding the South African markets.

On Tuesday, workers affiliated to the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) took to the streets in Pietermaritzburg and marched to the provincial legislature.

Already Rainbow Chicken, the second biggest poultry farms in South Africa, is to retrench 1 250 workers.
 

Residents in the city of Bulawayo returned to the fields on Monday after some little showers pounded the country’s second largest city on Sunday, hoping to take advantage of the rain season to produce food which has turned inaccessible to many.
 
Inadequate wages and massive company closures in the City of Kings - once the country’s industrial hub - have forced residents to resort to urban farming to supplement their food stocks.
 

Multi-million rand funding for emerging black farmers has been approved by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Thirty-one projects valued at R146 million have been earmarked for farm recapitalisation.

According to the department, land has been acquired across all nine provinces under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) and “This development was expected to benefit 5 108 applicants.”

The African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) says the proposal by Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, to limit land ownership by large scale farmers has caught them by surprise.

In a press statement, AFASA points out that, “The African Farmers Association of South Africa was caught by surprise as anyone else by the sudden and unexpected announcement of new land ceilings proposed by government.”

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) says that conditions at the North West farm belonging to National Council of Provinces chairperson, Thandi Modise, have improved.

In a press statement, NSPCA spokesperson, Grace de Lange, says that, “Cattle on the farm have been supplied with sufficient food and appear to be in an acceptable condition.”

The African Farmers' Association of SA (AFASA) says that government must ensure land is allocated to individuals who have the capacity to use it.
 
AFASA president, Mzamo Mlengana, points out that, "We are saying to the minister (of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti), we need to have criteria for the farmers' selection."
 

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has refuted some reports which claim that farm attacks are racially motivated.
 
The ISS study has found that most attacks are motivated by greed and not by racial intolerance.
 
ISS senior researcher, Johan Burger, states that the report could not find any evidence showing that violent crimes committed on farms and small holdings were motivated by race or class.
 

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) says it has obtained a court order permitting them to keep animals belonging to National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson, Thandi Modise.

The move follows a report that Modise plans to approach the courts to compel the SPCA to return livestock impounded at her Potchefstroom farm last month.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) says it has contacted National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson, Thandi Modise, after having to put down more than 100 livestock that were starving on a farm she allegedly owns near Potchefstroom in North West.

The SPCA’s Andries Venter, says he spoke to Modise who maintained she was not been aware of what was going on because she is currently based in Cape Town.