In this edition we welcome Muzi Hlongwane agricultural development lead at Kynoch. He works closely with new and commercial farmers in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga.  He talks more about the work they do with farmers day to day from the ground up.

Truffle farming is a fairly young but growing industry in South Africa. Discovering the ins and outs of this farming practice to produce what’s referred to as black gold was absolutely fascinating and I do hope you enjoy this week's edition as much as I did.

Over to you, Food For Mzansi commercial journalists, Octavia Spandiel and welcome to Farmer’s Inside Track Paul Miros from Woodford Truffles South Africa...

Lesley Mabasa from Mega Biotech Solutions joins us in this edition. He is currently coordinating an ongoing maize demo trail set up by CropLife to showcase the benefits of biotechnology. He highlights some of their findings, challenges and progress made working with smallholder farmers in Limpopo province.

In this edition we welcome back the Meadow Feeds team. Farmers turn them for more than just feed and this week's expert is Retha Gericke, technical advisor at Meadow Feeds in KwaZulu-Natal.

Our topic, tail biting in pigs. Pigs are naturally curious animals that tend to use their mouths to explore their environment and objects of interest and we’ll unpack tail biting triggers, prevention, and treatment…

Soil degradation, desertification and climate variability are some of the underlying problems that impact farming today and will heavily impact how we farm into the future.

Andrew Ardington, a founder of the Regenerative Agriculture Association of South Africa says, “unless we learn to farm with soil heath at the centre of our thinking, no amount of apps or variable planting rates will solve these problems”.

Food For Mzansi commercial journalists, Octavia Spandiel had a really insightful chat with him about how farming will change in the next 10 years.

In this edition we’re joined once again by Maluta Netshaulu, agricultural economist and banker at Nedbank. This time around we’re focusing on stepping into the headwinds impacting agriculture in Mzansi…

In this edition, Dr Sifiso Ntombela, the chief economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council and the deputy president of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa is here to share some of the progress made, as we draw close to a year since the agricultural agro-processing master plan was signed into policy in May 2022.

Operating a successful agribusiness in South Africa is hardly ever restricted to one person. The industry relies on a collective effort, especially on farm level. From agricultural worker to administers, irrigation specialist and soil scientist and this means setting up employment contracts.

Food For Mzansi commercial journalists, Octavia Spandiel chats to Katlego Ngwane an agricultural lawyer who gives us the 101 on how to set up an employment contract…

Livestock farmers have you ever considered artificial insemination? In this edition we’re joined by Dr Masindi Mphaphathi from the Agricultural Research Council, Ndumiso Gule, a consultant for Gule agricultural consulting and North West cattle farmer, Ipeleng Kwadi-Seboni. They share some insights about this practice and more on how new farmers and communal farmers can benefit and save costs…

Food For Mzansi has kicked off the fourth annual AgriCareers roadshow in Limpopo, introducing thousands of high school learners to a wide range of study and career opportunities in the agriculture sector.

In the village of Kgapane outside Tzaneen you could see the learners' eyes sparkling as a new world opened and they’re eager to leap at the possibilities to succeed in this sector. Here’s some learners sharing their experience…

Biologist and fly farmer Arné Verhoef’s fondest childhood memories were made visiting the local zoo where he grew up in Pretoria and behind books reading about insects. He teases to say he chose entomology because he likes to bug people. In this edition I get to chat to him about his work as the chief technology officer at Numbu, an insect protein company and more about his career in agriculture…

We celebrate this week’s #SoilSister, farmer, Zilungile Ndlovu. She talks more about her amazing journey in agriculture and more about life on the farm, highlighting some of her success stories…