”No farmers, no future.” So says the bumper sticker on farmer Bully Botma’s white bakkie, parked in Bothaville, South Africa’s mealie capital.
South Africa is on the right track in its efforts to set up a profitable biofuels industry, said Ernst Janosky, head of agriculture at First National Bank, on Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the 41st annual Nampo harvest week, Janosky said that for a biofuels industry to be profitable, local fuel prices need to be above R10 a litre.
A South African company on Tuesday unveiled plans for the continent’s first billion-dollar factory to make bio-ethanol from maize, as Africa races to find alternative energy sources in the face of soaring oil prices. The Ethanol Africa plant, located in the Free State province, is expected to be in full production next year, making up to half-a-million litres of bio-ethanol a day.
Crawford von Abo, the Free State farmer who was arrested in Zimbabwe recently for being on his farm there, is determined to return to that country next month to face criminal charges.
Temperatures ranging from as little 2C to as high as 38,5C within only three weeks had damaged one of the most promising South African wheat crops in years.