Blog Masonry

By offering data-driven insights, digital records help farmers anticipate challenges like climate change and pest outbreaks, enabling them to take proactive measures to minimise risks and maintain farm resilience. Embracing digital solutions is essential for farmers aiming to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving agricultural landscape.

Farming with nature, rather than against it, helps maintain soil fertility, conserve water, and reduce the need for chemical inputs, which can harm both the environment and human health. Sustainable practices, such as crop rotation, organic farming, and using natural predators for pest control, foster biodiversity and resilience in the face of climate change.

In a collaborative effort initiated in 2017, the SIZA Social and WIETA standards, recognising their shared objectives, have synergised their approaches to offer South African producers a streamlined and efficient means to fulfil market demands necessitating certification against both standards.

This collaboration between the two platforms allows members to capture their monthly inputs and outputs using the SIZA Digital Recordkeeping Programme, and for the annualised data to be sent to Confronting Climate Change’s platform in order for a Carbon Footprint calculation to be conducted.

Welcome to Henrico Harris and Michaela Schirnig, SIZA’s two newest staff members!

Let’s look at how SIZA can help ensure that everyone in the supply chain, including producers, workers, auditors, buyers, civil society, labour providers, and others, has a voice which is in line with Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence requirements.

South Africa’s agricultural sector increasingly feels the pressure of rising electricity costs and the recurring threat of load shedding. These challenges increase operational expenses and disrupt vital farming activities such as irrigation, cold storage, and processing. To navigate these issues effectively, agricultural producers must adopt strategies that emphasize efficient energy use and align with environmental compliance, ensuring the sustainability and resilience of their operations.

As we approach the upcoming summer season in South Africa, focusing on fire prevention and safety within our farming communities is crucial. Fire safety should be integral to your business’s health and safety management system. Implementing efficient and robust measures for all types of fires that could occur in a business is not just about protection; it’s a form of insurance that ensures business resilience and sustainability.

Over the last year, parts of South Africa experienced persistent heat, and some areas had more lengthy periods of warmer temperatures. Climate change is making more extreme heatwaves more frequent and severe, resulting in the impact of El Niño being more intense.