Complaints include their poor response time, poor attendance at crime scenes, little to no feedback on cases, and the fact that that many criminals operate from Lesotho and are not arrested. FSA notes that commercial farmers share the same frustrations and unhappiness as subsistence farmers with regards to stock theft, which has only been escalating in the Free State. It further states that MEC for Police, Roads and Transport, William Bulwane, undertook to make 2 vehicles available for patrollers within a month's time, and to prioritise the installation of CCTV cameras at the border in order to address livestock theft. FSA and the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) hope that the undertaking of the MEC will not come down to empty promises, but will result in a tangible positive outcome for the agricultural sector in the area.

Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza, has reached the halfway point of her oversight visits to the North West province. According to departmental spokesperson, Reggie Ngcobo, the three day oversight visit started on Monday. The purpose is to engage with communal property associations, traditional leaders, and struggling agricultural projects. Ngcobo tells OFM News that Didiza has planned to tackle the oversight visit region by region, and that they will visit Mahikeng on Wednesday to address any concerns that land owners there might have.

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South Africa will be hit with rapid fuel price increases ,set to be implemented on Tuesday evening, March 1. In a statement the economist Dr Roelf Botha says everything in the value chain will become more costly in the upcoming few weeks. The reality is that farmers, families and consumers will struggle with less money in their budgets to spend, says Botha. He adds that the steep increase in fuel prices is the results of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week. Dr Ferdi Meyer, director of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), says that the rise in the price of diesel impacts every aspect of input costs to farmer - from the machinery used to plant, the price of fertilizer (which doubled over the past year), to transportation. According to Meyer more than a third of South African households spend between 40% and 50% of their monthly income on food. The price of wheat increased by 8.43% since the beginning of 2022. Russia and Ukraine account for 35% of the world’s wheat exports.

OFM News/Lee Simmons