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In the news section of the October 16 issue the magazine focuses on the upcoming medium-term budget policies statement. Although the final date during which the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, will deliver this to Parliament, has still not been announced, it is expected to take place during the last week of this month.  In the run-up to the medium-term budget, Farmer's Weekly is publishing a series of articles in the news section in which agricultural economists, commentators, and organisations address the zero budget approach as it was mentioned by  Mboweni when he delivered the supplementary budget earlier this year. In the first week of the series of articles, the magazine's focus will be, should the national treasury follow this approach and how can it basically be implemented for the agricultural department.

In the feature section of the magazine, there are two encouraging stories. In the first article, a couple, who lost their farm in the Karoo a few years ago due to the drought, shares their story. They had to start from scratch after the farmer and his son went to the United States of America (USA) to do farm work and earn some money. They had to rent the house on the farm they lost in South Africa and through that they started buying fruit from other farmers and started canning and preserving this fruit. It was then sold to supermarkets in the area and the business over the last couple of years grew into a 40 ton per year unit. 

Another Karoo farmer shares his experience during the drought and what he has learned from this situation. Erasmus says it is an interesting concept that includes the farmer growing seed onions for a seed company in South Africa. His veld was, however, in a poor condition because of the drought and that is why he resorted to his sheep grazing on the onion plants. He had great results from this in terms of the condition of his sheep.

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AND...In our Friday insert, only on OFM News' Agri Hour, Christal-Lize Muller speaks to the editor of Farmer’s Weekly, Denene Erasmus, about the latest news in the agricultural industry covered in the magazine and on its website...

(FOR THE WEB: In the news section of the October 16 issue the magazine focuses on the upcoming medium term budget policies statement. Although the final date during which the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, will deliver this to Parlement, has still not been announced, it is expected to take place during the last week of this month.  In the run up to the medium term budget Farmer's Weekly is publishing a series of articles in the news section in which agricultural economists, commentators and organisations  address the zero budget approach as it was mentioned by  Mboweni when he delivered the supplementary budget earlier this year. In the first week of the series of articles the magazine's focus will be on should the national treasury follow this approach and how can it basically be implemented for the agricultural department.

In the feature section of the magazine there is two encouraging stories about. In the first article a couple, who a few years ago lost their farm in the Karoo due to the drought, shares their story.  They had to start from scratch after the farmer and his son went to United States of America (USA) to do farm work and earn some money. They had to rent the house on the farm they lost in South Africa and through that they started buying fruit from others farmers and started canning and preserving this fruit. It was then sold to supermarkets in the area and the business over the last couple of years grew into a 40 ton per year unit. 

Another Karoo farmer shares his experience during the drought and what he learned from this situation. Erasmus says it is an interesting concept that includes the farmer growing seed onions for a seed company in South Africa. His veld was however in a poor condition, because of the drought and that is why he resorted in his sheep grazing on the onion plants. He had great results from this in terms of the condition of his sheep.