5 December was declared World Soils Day by the International Union of Soil Sciences about five years ago. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness of land as the basis of life.

World Soil Day 2020 (#WorldSoilDay) and its campaign "Keep soil alive, Protect soil biodiversity" aims to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the growing challenges in soil management, fighting soil biodiversity loss, increasing soil awareness and encouraging governments, organizations, communities and individuals around the world to commit to proactively improving soil health.

The Soil Science Society of SA made a short video to commemorate the day.

SAGIS presented a short summary of the different structures in the Grain Industry and the two following videos highlight the various sources of information in the grain and oilseed markets, the relation - if any - between the structures and further provide a practical representation of the workings of SAGIS for your information.

The latest issues  of the 2020 December edition of Pula Imvula, Grain SA's magazine for emerging farmers, has just been loaded on the website. Be sure to read any of the editions for the latest news and articles. Simply click on one of the links below.

Pula Imvula English	Pula Imvula Sesotho	Pula Imvula Tswana	Pula Imvula Xhosa	Pula Imvula Zulu

CropLife today advised that all farmers need to be on high alert for the emergence of the brown locust (migratory locust) in the Northern Cape Karoo and Kalahari, the southern and western Free State, the Eastern Cape Karoo and savannah areas and the Kalahari areas of the Northwest Province. Small to medium flying swarms of brown locusts are aggregating in the central Karoo and have spilled over to the adjoining areas of the Free State.

Whilst the Department of Agriculture is expending all efforts to control the hopper bands, it is likely that the magnitude of the brown locust outbreak will increase, especially if it rains over the central and northern Karoo, Bushmanland, Namaqualand and the southern Kalahari.

Any person who sees hopper bands or flying locust swarms must report such observations immediately the Department of Agriculture’s locust office in De Aar on 053 631 3122 or 053 631 3261. Travellers often report seeing “red ants” crossing tar roads in the Karoo; those are locusts that have just hatched and are a dull reddish colour. The grow rapidly and by their fourth instar develop wings. In their fifth instar they fly and aggregate to form large swarms. The Department of Agriculture’s objective is to focus on hopper bands because only small amounts of pyrethroid insecticides are used to control them with very limited, if any, damage to the sensitive ecology where locusts normally breed.

Read the full release here