South Africa - Country Office

1. Overview
2. Country Strategy
3. Priorities
4. Key Program Managers
5. Current Projects
6. Concluded Projects
7. Achievements
8. Relevant Publications
9. Country News and Stories
10. Benefits of Past Projects
11. Country Portfolio
12. AusAid and Other Briefs
13. Fellowship Statistics

Country Office

Key indicators and performance for 2006-07

Indicator: Development of an initiative that aims to provide farmers using traditional cattle breeds with a sound market for their beef

Performance: Prices received for cattle owned by the emerging farming communities involved in the project have steadily improved as a consequence of their improved knowledge of marketing their stock and the feedlot buyers being aware of their meat quality. A new project will explore opportunity for partnerships with the retail sector.

Indicator: Potential lablab and cowpea varieties identified to augment the dryland cropping systems in Limpopo Province

Performance: On-farm field trials have been established in four districts in Limpopo and North West provinces.

Indicator: Commercial fertiliser input sector providing appropriate services to emerging farmer markets

Performance: SASOL has registered small packs and is retailing fertiliser. In the first year, over 1000 farmers acquired fertiliser in small packs, resulting in significant yield increases and estimated returns of $400 per farmer.

Indicator: Methods optimised for the detection of polyploid acacias for plantation forestry

Performance: Less time-consuming identification tools developed.  Analysis of stomatal measurements used to distinguish diploid, mixaploid and tetraploid plants. Near Infra Red Analysis also successfully separated diploids from polyploids in preliminary studies

Indicator: Forty per cent of new projects designed to have significant farmer or policy-maker impacts within five years of completion

Performance: Only one new project has been developed in Southern Africa during the period and it is “Category 1”.

Achievements from the 2006-07 Annual Report

Projects in RSA are largely grouped under the following thematic priorities:

• Increasing the profitability and sustainability of crop-livestock farming systems
• Efficient use of water and nutrients in cropping systems

Australian acacias are amenable to genetic improvement and have shown large productivity increases through selection and breeding. However in certain regions they can be serious weeds. Triploids (plants with three sets of chromosomes instead of two) in agricultural and forestry crops are usually sterile and this can have the advantages of increased productivity, absence of seed to cause weed problems, and suitability for genetic modification without risk of genetic pollution through uncontrolled outcrossing to non-crop plants. A project to develop triploid clones of four Australian acacia species and their hybrids for use in plantations in South Africa, Vietnam and Australia has made significant progress. Due to the complex nature of the expression of ploidy after induction it has been necessary to devise a suite of protocols to efficiently and correctly identify the ploidy of an induced plant. Near Infra Red Spectrometry (NIR) has been successfully employed and ploidy identification is now cheaper and quicker, enabling the project team to scale up induction experiments in 2007–08.

The project to develop profitable beef enterprises for previously disadvantaged farmers finished, and has left a legacy of a large and growing number of motivated and trained farmers (and their partners) able to improve beef businesses and take control of negotiations to market their cattle. There is a learning and training strategy in place to help them continue to develop their farming skills and effectiveness. The project also completed a thorough research activity comparing traits for production and meat quality in indigenous South African cattle (Sanga breeds) with those of conventional commercial breeds (i.e. a mix of selected local, exotic and crossbred breeds). It showed at a number of levels that, contrary to widely held beliefs, indigenous cattle produce meat that is the equal of that of most conventional breeds and is significantly tenderer and commercially acceptable than that of Brahman cattle. This information gives farmers growing these breeds a critical bargaining point in the marketing of their animals, and another advantage along with their other attributes of hardiness and tick resistance.

An emerging group of farmers in Limpopo Province in South Africa’s north need to address problems of unsustainable farming practices and land degradation. A project aims to develop forage and management strategies to assist such farmers. Project work planned on veld-based livestock production systems and cropping-based systems was modified after initial site inspections made it apparent that insufficient property size and forage limitations due to veld degradation (in particular bush thickening and loss of perennial grasses) were the most critical management problems facing the emerging farmer groups. With no viable pasture base, any objectives to promote advanced animal nutrition and marketing of better classes of stock are of doubtful viability. Therefore the development of legume fodder banks, which had been intended as the key project activity, was held back and the main focus of field and communication activities switched to veld monitoring, testing the feasibility of spelling animals, shrub control and other reclamation strategies to reclaim lost productivity of the pasture resources.

A project begun during 2006 has a focus on increasing the incomes of smallholder wool producers in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. National and provincial efforts have attempted to improve wool and sheep management and wool classing, but the main constraint to continued growth is pasture quantity and quality. Pastures are generally small and do not support animal production as well as in similar conditions elsewhere. The project is introducing legumes adapted to such conditions, evaluating both native and non-native varieties.