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In the news section of Farmer’s Weekly this week, the recent decision of the Constitutional Court to grant the Department of Water and Sanitation leave to appeal against a decision made by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on the transferability and trade of water rights comes into the spotlight.

The SCA ruled previously that landowners were lawfully allowed to transfer their water use entitlement in accordance with the National Water Act. Ryan explains that this is particularly important for irrigation farmers and the banning of this act could lead to job losses on farms, amongst other issues, according to various roleplayers.

The case is expected to resume on 25 August this year.

Another story takes a look at the recent free trade deal between India and Australia and the impact that this might have on South African exporters. Ryan says that India imposes about 32% on all imported fresh produce and nuts. However, with the free trade agreement, these tariffs will no longer apply to Australia.

The agreement is due to be in effect for seven years, which means that Australian producers have access to an important market for commodities that are also produced by South African farmers. Some of these commodities include fresh produce such as citrus and macadamia. Moreover, the Russian market is currently closed and South African exporters desperately need as many alternative markets as possible to sell their produce.

The agreement between India and Australia is going to make it difficult for local producers to sell onto the Indian markets.

Furthermore, this edition also takes a look at the South African Special Risk Insurance Association (SASRIA) who decided to classify agricultural vehicles within their own category. This means that farmers will have to pay smaller premiums towards insuring their farm vehicles.

Ryan adds that previously, farmer equipment was classified under the N8 heavy commercial vehicles category, and under SASRIA’s current proposal for this category this would have meant that farmers would've paid almost 2000% more on SASRIA cover for their farm equipment.

With the reclassification of farm equipment, farmers are set to only pay around 0.006% of the insured value of their vehicles.

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