The outbreak started in Chinsali, and has since spread to four other districts, namely Chama, Isoka, Shiwang’andu and Mpika.

The Minister of Livestock and Fisheries in the country, Michael Katambo, said in a news report that the Zambian government had thus far spent over two million kwachas (roughly R2,5 million) in an attempt to maintain the disease, and that strict quarantine measures had been implemented, as well as a ban on pork trade.

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He said the disease was a devastating blow to the agriculture industry and food security in the country, and that government loans would be made available to help affected farmers resume production as soon as possible after the eradication of the disease.

Dr Dorothea Mostert, a veterinarian at CS Vet, a veterinary consultancy, said it was particularly difficult to prevent and manage African swine fever in Zambia, as the virus was endemic to the country, which resulted in sporadic outbreaks.

The large population of free-range pigs and informal trade also increased the risks of an outbreak, and made it difficult to control the virus once an outbreak occurred.

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Almost all the affected villages in Zambia farmed pigs using traditional free-range management systems, with animals of all ages showing clinical signs.

According to a report issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health, the current outbreak was a result of the illegal movement of pigs and pork products.

There was currently no vaccine or cure for the virus, which usually resulted in the death of all infected animals.

The standard operating procedure during an outbreak was therefore to cull infected animals, as well as implementing quarantine to prevent the disease spreading.

“Strict biosecurity is needed to prevent the virus from spreading to commercial piggeries, which would include the use of strong enclosures that would be able to keep affected animals, as well as warthogs and soft ticks, which are natural reservoirs of the virus, out. [Furthermore], strict access, a very high standard of hygiene and not feeding pigs swill or any feed that might contain the virus [may also contain the disease],” Mostert said.

The recently released 2017/2018 PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) Africa Agribusiness Insights survey found that CEOs and owners of such agribusinesses reported “inefficient and bureaucratic governments, as well as corruption, crime and theft” as the most significant deterrents to expanding their operations on the continent.

“Inadequate infrastructure and political instability are further concerns. Africa possesses unrivalled [agribusiness] opportunities if policymakers can remove some of these challenges,” said a PwC statement on the results of the survey.

Representatives of the Southern African integrated poultry production company, Astral Foods (Astral), expressed similar sentiments.

“When we are looking at investment opportunities in other African countries, we first look at what risk there is, such as political risk and macroeconomic factors. A poultry business like ours had added risk because it needs access to raw materials, and it needs to make sizeable investments in infrastructure,” explained Gary Arnold, managing director of Astral’s agriculture division.

“Risk versus reward is a constant consideration for us,” he added.

Daan Ferreira, Astral’s CFO, said that the company also looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the currencies of African countries that held potential for investment because these also had an impact on the company’s profitability.

PwC’s survey said that, based on interviews with heads of agribusinesses across Africa, the top five countries currently favoured for potential investment were Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Namibia.

The survey also found that despite the concerns highlighted by African agribusinesses, the sector was confident for its growth prospects in the short to medium terms.

“Most [African agribusiness] CEOs expect revenue growth in the next 12 months to be between 6% and 10%, with a significant number of CEOs expecting an optimistic 20%+ growth rate in the short to medium terms. This response is more bullish from the one received a year ago, but [is] certainly underpinned by the necessary level of caution,” PwC’s statement said.

Frans Weilbach, leader of PwC Africa Agribusiness Industry, said that the main reasons for this expected growth was “better penetration of existing markets on the African continent”.

“[African agribusiness] CEOs are looking for diversification within their current commodity value chain before moving into new commodities,” he said.

The project is aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity, thereby reducing imports of cereal crops, as well as facilitating job creation, and enhancing household incomes of especially rural people.

Namibia’s ministry of agriculture, water and forestry will implement the project over a five-year period. It is estimated that about 294 500 crop farmers, 10 000 livestock farmers and 111 smallholder farmer cooperatives, as well as 800 000 people indirectly involved in these value chains, will benefit from the project.

The cost of the project is expected to be R1,42 billion, of which the ADBG will finance 70,5%, while the government and beneficiaries will contribute the remaining 25,5% and 4%, respectively.

“Many other African countries are standing in line for this type of funding as it translates into soft loans [with] significantly lower [interest rates] than what is available in the open market. It would even be a great boost for the South African farming industry,”

Theo de Jager, chairperson of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACUA) said.

One of the main reasons why many countries struggled to attract this type of funding was the uncertainty about land ownership and property rights.

“A country such as Zimbabwe would really benefit from such a loan to help it get back on its feet, but it is unlikely to happen in the absence of significant change in its land ownership policies. Namibia on the other hand is a leading example of transformation that does not threaten property ownership,” he said.

This emerged during panel discussions at the EU-Africa Business Forum 2017, recently held in Côte d’Ivoire. The theme of the forum was “Creating jobs for Africa’s youth.”

Speaking during a panel discussion, Ishmael Sunga, CEO of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), said ICTs could increase productivity and could make agriculture more effective and attractive to a new generation of farmers.

In an earlier post on the SACAU website, Sunga said agriculture was becoming more complex and dynamic, and required new skills and a new approach to farming: “It is no longer merely about growing a crop, but is more about focussing on strategic thinking and planning, to ensure the crop hits the market at the right time, and ensuring [that production is undertaken as] efficiently as possible”.

Various ways in which ICTs can help young farmers were highlighted. Ugandan entrepreneur, Gerald Otim, discussed a digital accounting service he developed that allows farmers to access information via their mobile phones.

The importance of real-time market and production information was also highlighted as means of placing producers in a better position to negotiate prices and plan production.

Panel members explained how the use of technology could enable farmers to improve production efficiency and reduce costs.

Examples cited included the Hello Tractor project that allows farmers to share tractors, as well as gathering production information with the help of aerial technology, such as that provided by Airinov.

Both LaVandez Jones, co-founder of Hello Tractor and Hamza Rkha Chaham, head of international strategy at Airinov, said they partnered with local entrepreneurs to tap into local networks and grow sales.

This was according to Asaah Ndambi, senior international animal production specialist at the Wageningen University and Research Centre (Wageningen) in the Netherlands. Ndambi was speaking at the 13th Africa Dairy Conference and Exhibition recently held in Johannesburg.

Ndambi explained that improving farm productivity was the best way to mitigate dairy sector GHG emissions.

In 2015 and 2017, Theun Vellinga, senior reseacher at Wageningen’s Livestock Research Institute, conducted a study to assess cost-effective interventions that could increase production, while decreasing GHGs in Ethiopia.

It was found that most GHG emissions were caused by feed production and enteric fermentation. The study then calculated the effect of multiple cost-efficient interventions.

“Emissions vary along the chain depending on production intensity; about 60% of on-farm emissions are from enteric fermentation. Feed production [also] contributes greatly to dairy emissions, [with] manure also an important contributor,” Ndambi said.

Climate-smart dairy production was crucial in the effort to reduce GHG emissions.

“[Climate-smart dairy production involves] reducing the number of animals and remaining productive by managing herds properly by replacing oxen and unproductive female animals, increasing crossbreeding through improved artificial insemination and reducing milk losses in post farm-gate stages,” Ndambi explained.

Moreover, improving manure management by promoting animal manure as fertiliser, as well as promoting the sale of manure as a fertiliser for use on urban and peri-urban farms, prevented the accumulation of manure, and also assisted in limiting GHG emissions.

Farmers could also adapt their operations by increasing system resilience through enhancing production systems; for example, implementing effective water capturing methods, irrigation, herd management, sequential cropping, genetic improvement, and manure management.

“Expanding the activities on the farm, such as mixed farming and cropping, and exploring other possibilities outside the farm, such as ecotourism, feed production, and biogas production, [can help in reducing GHG emissions]” Ndambi said.

The current military siege of power in Zimbabwe could be the beginning of the transformation the country’s agriculture sector needs.

According to Tinashe Kapuya, an agribusiness trade specialist with the USAID Southern African Trade and Investment Hub, the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe never recovered from the land reform policy initiated in 2000, and has remained subdued over the past 15 years.

For this reason, Kapuya said that the military capture of the state was unlikely to have an immediate effect on the sector.

However, he added that new leadership could result in a new vision for the sector, and could be the start of a new dispensation that redefined agriculture in Zimbabwe.

Kapuya also said that to revive the sector, Zimbabwe needed to first strengthen property rights in the country, and allow for the private ownership of land.

“This would not only promote investment, but also improve land management as well,” said Kapuya.

Current reports suggested that Zimbabwe’s former vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, would lead the transitional government.

However, Kapuya said that Mnangagwa’s policies have thus far been defined by contradiction.

“On the one hand, he has reportedly shown [an] openness to markets, and was seen to be someone who would advance a more liberal integration of Zimbabwe’s economy into the global market.

[On the other hand], reports have [also presented] him as a figure that has advanced a command agriculture [socialist] policy narrative. While both are diametrically opposite, the latter could be interpreted as a positional play that was deeply etched in factional politics,” said Kapuya.

Kapuya also said that white farmers had an important role to play in the revival of commercial agriculture in the country, and that several politicians in ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling political party, believed this.

“I think Mnangagwa will embrace white commercial farmers, but that will obviously need a new narrative that departs from Mugabe’s bigotry and racist politics,” Kapuya said.

Danie van Vuuren, principal officer of the Agricultural Employers’ Association in Namibia, told Farmers’ Weekly that the 25% increase would have a limited impact on farm income and employment levels on commercial farms, as average salaries on commercial farms in 2016 were 41% higher than the new minimum wage.

“The purpose of the agricultural minimum wage is to set an entry-level wage for young farmworkers with no experience,” he said.

The minimum wage for South African farmworkers is due to increase from R16/hour to R18/hour in May next year.

According to Minimum-wage.org, South Africa’s minimum wages rank 68th worldwide, and Namibia’s 122nd out of 197 countries.

To put this in context, European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands ranked amongst the countries with the highest minimum wages, with incomes in rand value varying between R258/hour and R323/hour respectively.

The US was ranked 7th, with a minimum wage of US$7,25 (R100) per hour.

Zambia was ranked 103rd, with income being determined by category of employment and ranging from 522 400 Zambian kwacha (R760) per month for domestic workers to between 1 132 400 (R1 640) and 2 101 039 (R3 050) Zambian kwacha for general workers.

These wages includes transportation, lunch and housing allowances, and were last increased in July 2012, according to Minimum-wage.org.

Kenya took 106th place, with the minimum wage being determined by location, age and skill level. The lowest wage for unskilled agricultural workers was 2 536 Kenyan shillings (R350) per month, and it was last increased in May 2015.

Rwanda took 113th place with a minimum wage in the agricultural industry ranging between 500 and 1 000 Rwandan francs (R8 to R17) per day. The wage was last increased in January 2013.

Minimum-wage.org does not provide income figures for Zimbabwe. However, news reports confirm that the minimum wage for farmworkers was increased by 4,2% in June, resulting in the lowest-paid workers earning US$75 (R1 100) per month and the highest-paid workers earning US$150 (R2 150) per month.

The country is ranked 122th out of 197, at the same level as Angola, which has a minimum wage of 15 003 kwanzas (R1 300) per month.