Following on from our recent focus on the role of the new Department of Trade, Industry and Competition minister, Tim Cohen of Daily Maverick pens a piece in which he largely agrees with us regarding localisation and bureaucratisation. It makes for an interesting read. The scope of the article is much larger than just poultry, but it does point to a wider responsibility within the department to free the department up from the bureaucratic creep of the last minister.
Industry News
The major news of this cycle is the court ruling about farmer compensation for compulsive culling of AI infected birds.
The expectation was that the government would, as a result of this ruling, be inundated with claims for compensation and that this would be a first really sticky task for new Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen.
However, celebrations would be premature. Even if there is no blanket ban on compensation, there is a lengthy process to undertake to find out which department would be liable to pay compensation, and even – are funds available for that compensation?
Does the funding come from the Agriculture Department, Disaster Relief, or Treasury? As Pres Ramaphosa has made clear here, there are many disasters facing the country that all need funding… so which category would farmer compensation fall under? Even now, with floods and wildfires that have hit the agricultural sector, the farmer relief is not forthcoming from government, so it would be naive to think that funds are available on tap.
Agricultural News
In some good news, farmers are cautiously optimistic about more than 100 days without loadshedding. However, according to Bloomberg, agribusiness confidence is at its lowest ebb in 15 years. And the lack of a robust vaccination programme could spell disaster for the poultry industry in future.
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The World Poultry Foundation is offering free training modules for chicken housing, as part of their global programme of empowerment and education.
Last week’s Poultry Analysis
A Closer Look – July
