"Agbiz welcomes the greater realism articulated in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Cyril Ramaphosa today, and especially welcomes the emphasis on inclusive economic growth to address key challenges facing South Africa. Considerable reference was made to developing social compacts between government, business, labour and communities to answer these numerous challenges, including especially the high unemployment rate. Agbiz is involved in a number of these initiatives, including various master plans for the broader sector that are currently being drafted, and supports this approach by the government," Dr John Purchase, CEO of Agbiz, indicated in an Agbiz media statement. Please click here for the full address by President Ramaphosa.

The Institute of Risk Management South Africa recently released the  IRMSA South Africa 2020 Risk Report. It includes a robust "look-back" analysis of the risks included in previous editions (2015 to 2019). In addition, the report evaluates key current developments and forward-looking views and consider the scenarios. From this, the report defines the 12 top risks South Africa will face in 2020. The specific aim is to increase the report's value for the real management of risk in organisations' day-to-day activities. The authors specifically linked the risk management effort to future scenarios that inform our strategies and included more information and sources to guide organisations to make better risk-informed decisions. Please click here to read the ebook.

The NAMC has released a notice that will be published in the Government Gazette of Friday, 14 February 2020  regarding an application to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development by the South African Cultivar and Technology Agency (SACTA) for the continuation of the cultivar and technology levies on winter cereals for a three-year period. The levy for wheat, barley and oats will be R30 for the next two seasons from 1/10/2020 to 30/9/2022 and R32 for the third season ending 30/9/2023.  The providers of seed for winter cereal production in South Africa, the producers of winter cereals and the off-takers of such crops in the industry value chain are the major beneficiaries of the new genetics and technology which this levy supports.   As directly affected groups in the winter cereal industry, all these role players are kindly requested to submit comments  regarding the proposed levy  to the NAMC before 28 February 2020. To ensure clarity regarding the differences between die SACTA levy and the WCT levy, kindly see the linked table.

The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Discussion Forums are platforms that provide constructive interaction and discussion with government and stakeholders on priority areas of concern to the SET and innovation community.The NSTF is planning a discussion forum on plant health (aligned with IYPH) on 6 and 7 May 2020 in Pretoria. More information will be available in future issues of the NSTF eNewsletter. To subscribe to the eNewsletter, visit the NSTF website.

Innovation and disruption are buzz words across every industry sector and it is no different for agriculture. Africa Agri Tech, to be hosted at Times Square, Menlyn Maine from 18 to 20 February 2020, will explore how these innovations may be harnessed to the benefit of all players. This event sets the stage for farmers, growers, producers, processors, suppliers, associations and all industry stakeholders to come together and discuss conceptual developments for the benefits of this industry sector and food production. Please click here for more information and the programme of events.