In the latest edition of Farmer’s Weekly, they have their first December double issue on the shelf which is the 10 and 17 December issue. She gives a rundown of the most recent news they have on their website.

“Probably the most important story for the farming sector this week has been the failure of the Constitutional Amendment Bill to be passed in Parliament and that was the amendment that sought to make expropriation of land explicit in section 25 of the Constitution,” says Erasmus.

She says the bill, to allow for land expropriation without compensation, did not get the required two-thirds majority vote in Parliament, hence it did not pass. She says just because this bill did not pass, it is not indicative of the end for expropriation, legislation and law in South Africa.

“There is still the Expropriation Bill that is currently before the Portfolio Committee for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. So that Bill will still make its way through parliament in the coming year,” Erasmus says.

She mentions their story on the website about the latest GDP figures that were released by Stats SA which focuses largely on agriculture’s achievement in the third quarter. “Agriculture saw a contraction of about 13% which has been quite a nasty surprise for the sector, however, analysts and economists reckon that this is really just a seasonal blip reflecting that the third quarter isn’t traditionally a very busy quarter for the farming sector,” mentions Erasmus.

Furthermore, they delve into the progress of plantings in the summer grain regions, which include all of the Free State as well as Mpumalanga, the North West and KZN, where farmers are in the process of planting their summer crops such as maize, soybeans and sunflowers. She says that the good spring rain have allowed for the plantings to go ahead three or four weeks ahead of schedule.

“So, all in all it was a good and early start for South Africa’s 2021/22 summer grain season,” concludes Erasmus.

OFM News/Lee Simmons