Agriprobe - Volume 12, Issue 3, October 2015

We dedicate this issue of Agriprobe to the youth of South Africa, since they are our future. The Western Cape Provincial Strategic Goal 1 'Create opportunities for growth and jobs', and the Provincial Strategic Goal 2 'Improve education outcomes and opportunities for youth development', focus on the development and job creation for our youth. The department is therefore passionate about youth development and committed to transform and increase our agricultural professionals through our youth development opportunities.

A R1 billion Halaal agriprocessing food park is proposed for the Western Cape, as part of the province's Project Khulisa growth strategy.

As the coordinators of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) in the Western Cape, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, through the Programme: Rural Development, works closely with the Council of Stakeholders (CoS) in Swellendam to ensure that community development in Ward 3 takes place through an integrated and coordinated approach.

Sylvester, the lion that escaped from the Karoo National Park in June this year, kept one of the state veterinarians from the Beaufort West State Veterinary office very busy.

Annelie Kruger and Lizette du Toit, both research technicians at the Directorate Animal Sciences, recently visited research farms and facilities of the Western Australian Department of Food and Agriculture (WADFA) to broaden their knowledge on the management of sheep, sheephandling facilities, ways of recording and collecting data and how subjective and objective characteristics can be assessed and recorded in different sheep flocks.

Girls who were under the impression that agriculture is only for older men who spend their days out in the field, were proven wrong when they visited Elsenburg in June this year.

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture's 6th annual Extension and Advisory Services Symposium was held at Spier outside Stellenbosch this July. The symposium stretched over three days and the emphasis was on agri-processing.

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture's research farms hosted an exciting upcycling scarecrow competition in the first quarter of the year. The purpose of the competition was to help enforce the values of the current waste management system on the research farms, encourage the women and children living on the farms to get involved in upcycling, and to provide the Research and Technology Development Services programme with much needed scarecrows for their small grain research trials.

Dr Jaco Pienaar, state veterinarian in Beaufort West, attended the AGM of the Western Cape Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) in Laingsburg in June this year, where he also delivered a presentation.

Jerome Thomas is November 2014 tydens 'n spoggeleentheid by die Woodmill Sentrum op Stellenbosch as die Wes-Kaapse Plaaswerker van die Jaar aangewys. Hierdie kompetisie word jaarliks deur die Wes-Kaapse Departement van Landbou (WKDL) in samewerking met Shoprite aangebied om erkenning te gee aan plaaswerkers vir die belangrike en waardevolle rol wat hulle in die landbousektor speel.

The Grassland Society of Southern Africa (GSSA) celebrated their 50th annual congress by going back to their roots - The Royal Agricultural Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.

Wolkwekersvereniging van Suid-Afrika se Silwerram-toekenning as simbool van verdienstelikheid, is onlangs aan dr. Buks Olivier, Wetenskaplike Bestuurder: Direktoraat Veekundige Wetenskappe en wolkundige van die departement, tydens die vereniging se nasionale jaarvergadering in Port Elizabeth, toegeken.

The Agricultural Professional Fellows programme is an initiative coordinated by Market Matters Incorporated in partnership with the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA) KwaZulu-Natal and the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA).

Around 600 high school learners from across the province attended the department's Youth Month career exhibition in June. The expo showcased the agricultural sector's various career options and was hosted in partnership with the Boschendal Wine Estate.

Lien Visage, the winner of the Witzenberg regional 2015 Farmworker Competition of the Year, an initiative celebrating excellence in the Western Cape's agricultural sector, is a woman on a mission.

The Western Cape government's economic cluster is investing over R100 million into skills development initiatives for young people.

The Western Cape's top female entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector were crowned when the winners of the Western Cape leg of the Female Entrepreneur Awards were announced in August.

A new sector report shows it is necessary to focus on growing the production of agri-processed goods if we want to decrease South Africa's R21 billion trade deficit in this area.

Over the past six months the term "agriparks" has become a popular topic for discussion in government circles.

Conservation agriculture (CA) is a very important farm management strategy in the traditional grain producing areas of the Western Cape. The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) regards tillage as one of three key principles of CA. In practice this means soil disturbance must be reduced to the absolute minimum needed to ensure efficient seed-soil contact after seeding, maintain minerals in the soil, reducing erosion and prevention of excessive water loss through evaporation.