Agbiz has noted with concern a series of pictures circulating on social media that appear to show agricultural workers being transported in conditions that do not meet the requisite hygiene and sanitation levels required by law at this time of COVID-19 containment.

It’s a hot topic everywhere, and the 2020 Global Farmer Network Roundtable class has been discussing the impacts local to them – with each other – on social media. Stories vary around the world.

In a letter to farmers entitled, Covid-19 Farmers Communication 30 March 2020, farmers were informed that the price paid to them by Lancewood would be reduced by 45 cents per litre with effect from 1 April 2020 in the form of a levy deduction. They were also informed that in addition to imposing the above levy, Lancewood might need to adjust payment terms temporarily.

The Australian state of Victoria will help farmers establish network connectivity on their farms. The first step is a trial that will allow thousands of sensors to be connected to the internet. Farmers will get access to real-time data to improve their productivity, efficiency and sustainability.

The South African agriculture sector forms the backbone of South Africa’s economy, but this fact has been largely ignored by government.

Joint media statement Agri SA and TLU SA

Since 2016, prices have dropped 30% below the average for the past decade, according to the International Coffee Organization, a body representing 49 member countries which export and import coffee.

This past week Saai, an organisation that represents the interests of family farmers, has been inundated with phone calls from frustrated family farmers who were prevented from travelling through roadblocks because they did not have Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) certificates that identify them as essential service providers.

A farmer works so the world can eat. His hard work serves food on our plates.

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, announced on 29 April 2020 the regulations applicable to Level 4 restrictions that took effect on 1 May 2020 to help combat COVID-19.

Maize theft in the Free State has increased tremendously in the last few weeks, despite the lockdown, and estimated losses amount to millions.

If agriculture is to continue to feed the world, it needs to become more like manufacturing, says Geoffrey Carr. Fortunately, that is already beginning to happen.

7 Things You Should Know about Farming and Agriculture,

South African farmers are increasingly turning to commercial lenders to top up their working capital as the Land and Agricultural Development Bank battles a liquidity crisis.

SA Canegrowers welcomes Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel’s gazetting of a summary of the Sugar Industry Masterplan.

For obvious reasons, the most physically demanding jobs — roofers, pile drivers, fishermen, lumberjacks, take your pick of many others — are primarily filled by people no older than 40. But farming, a mixture of hard work and long hours, even as technology automates some tasks, is a dramatic outlier.

●     Millions of Africa’s coffee farmers have slipped into abject poverty caused by poor prices which are currently barely enough to cover production costs while the rest of the coffee supply chain players enjoy rising profits.

When this crisis is over, we will have a chance to reshape national production through the development of rural agriculture and agro-processing.

JUST AN HOUR from Madison, Wisconsin’s capital city, cows roam sloping hillsides and cornstalks line serpentine backroads. Loganville, a town of just 300 people, is farm country.

Enter Kiss the Ground. A film claiming that we can reverse climate change, fix our health, ease global tensions, and save farmers’ livelihoods by managing dirt — aka regenerative agriculture.