Archive for May 2022
SA Cheese Festival Attendees’ Buying Power Impresses
This year’s South African Cheese Festival from 30 April to 2 May 2022 at Sandringham outside Stellenbosch was a huge success measured by the purchasing power of festivalgoers and by satisfied exhibitors. All the tickets sold out for the festival, which was presented for the first time since 2019 due to Covid. This year’s festival…
Read MoreGMOs versus genome editing
What is the difference? Terminology such as genetic modification, transgenesis, genome editing and so forth can all be very confusing. Is there really a difference? Isn’t GMOs the same as genome editing? The explanations below may help to eliminate some of the confusion around the different types of plant breeding tools that coexist today and…
Read MoreThe Potential of Seaweed Culture in South Africa
“Seaweed” is the common name for countless species of marine plants and algae that grow in the ocean as well as in rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. Seaweeds, also referred as macroalgae is in fact macroscopic multicellular marine photosynthetic organisms usually classified into three groups: Rhodophyta (red algae), Phaeophyta (brown algae) and Chlorophyta (green…
Read MoreRehabilitating bare areas with ponding
I am frequently told that the reason very few landowners do soil erosion control or try to rehabilitate bare, degraded areas is because of the costs involved. Soil erosion control can certainly be costly but there are some methods that can be implemented at incredibly low cost and that are effective. Ponding, or hollows, are…
Read MoreControlling soil erosion
with brush packing, mulching, and creating a micro-climate One of the best ways in which to rehabilitate bare, soil eroded areas is to apply brush-packing, or mulching. Brush-packing is done by covering the exposed soil surface with organic plant material such as branches, plant cuttings, leafy material, crop residues, straw, and reeds. This treatment on…
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