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In the news section of Farmer’s Weekly this week, the Orange River flood protection wall project is taken under the loop. Ryan says this project was recently the beneficiary of R350 million from the comprehensive agricultural support programme to finally finish the project.

Ryan says that an amount of R1,3 billion was allocated to repair the Orange River dam wall in 2012, to repair flood damage caused the year before and to also upgrade the system to prevent future damage. However, only R950 million of this amount was accounted for and the project came to a standstill in 2018.

Another story in the news section takes a look at the tomato leaf miner and how this pest is threatening tomato crops in South Africa. Ryan adds that the pest is showing increasing resistance to crop protection chemicals which resulted in widespread crop losses, with small scale producers hard hit.

The high reproduction of the tomato leaf miner and its relatively short lifecycle has contributed to its increased resistance. Dr. Gerhard Verdoorn of CropLife South Africa says farmers need to implement highly specific spraying programmes in order to effectively control the pest.

Lastly, light is also shone on the current shortage of animal vaccines in South Africa. Ryan says that the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, along with various other livestock industry role-players, recently had a meeting to discuss this shortage. She says that it was decided that one of the short-term solutions that should be implemented is the emergency registration of animal vaccines, as well as Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) sharing intellectual property with private enterprises in a bid to increase the development of necessary vaccines.

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