THE AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL OF SADC

Various institutions wanting to invest in agricultural production or the agribusiness sector in the SADC region need information on the quality and location of agricultural resources. Generating agricultural resource information on a regional level provides the challenge of integrating vast amounts of information from the various countries, implying storing, retrieving and manipulating it to determine areas best suited to grow a particular crop; or various crops that can be grown in a particular area. A Geographical Information System (GIS) has been developed as part of a broader project to assess the agricultural potential of SADC countries from a physical-biological-climatological point of view. Crop suitability maps obtained from the GIS containing information on resource quality, combined with transport modelling to add information on transport cost, can be used by private sector institutions for location decisions and the public sector for planning the provision of physical and social infrastructure. Incorporating resource data of the whole region implies that the available data on the climate, topography and soils of most of the SADC countries is coarse which only allows analyses on a national and regional level.International Development,

Determination of priorities of buyers regarding value contributing characteristics of farm land in the Stellenbosch District, South Africa

The use of the comparable sales method to value farm properties requires that professional valuers must think like a typical buyer of farm properties in a particular area. The Stellenbosch district, located on the periphery of the Cape Metropole, is a famous wine-producing area. The typical buyer is sophisticated and wealthy: someone for whom lifestyle could probably be just as important as the income generating capacity of the wine estate. A variety of site and situational factors have to be considered by the valuer: some of which are easily identifiable and quantifiable, where others are more elusive. This study aimed to identify and order the more important motivations as perceived by typical buyers in order to provide guidelines to valuers. An empirical study was done to determine buyers' and property characteristics, and buyers' ratings of possible motivations for buying land in Stellenbosch. Factor analysis provided a hierarchy of motivations. Terroir is the dominant site factor and the most important motivation, followed by location relative to Cape Town, the aesthetic beauty of the property, accessibility of the property, potential for new/more vineyards, meso-climate and the status of the “address”.Land Economics/Use,

Farm Modelling for Interactive Multidisciplinary Planning of Small Grain Production Systems in the Western Cape, South Africa

Subject matter research has made many contributions to small grain production in the Western Cape province of South Africa, but much of this focuses on single commodities and is undertaken within conventional disciplinary boundaries (e.g. soil science, genetics, economics). The result is that the solutions offered often have knock-on effects that are not properly accounted for by researchers. Expert group discussions, as a research method, are suitable, firstly, for gathering information in a meaningful manner and, secondly, to stimulate individual creativity by presenting alternative perspectives provided by various participating experts. In support of expert group discussions, multi-period wholefarm simulation models were developed. This type of modelling supports the accurate financial simulation of farms, while the user-friendliness and adaptability thereof can accurately accommodate typical farm interrelationships, and quickly measure the financial impact of suggested changes to parameters. Suggestions made by experts during the group discussions can thus be quickly introduced into the model. The financial implications are instantly available to prevent further exploration of nonviable plans and to fine-tune the viable plans. In this study, for each relatively homogeneous production area of the Western Cape, a typical farm budget model was developed, which served as the basis for the group discussions. The budget models measure profitability in terms of IRR (internal rate of return on capital investment) and affordability in terms of expected cash flow. The homogeneous areas identified were Koeberg/Wellington, the Middle Swartland and the Rooi Karoo, the Goue Rûens, Middle Rûens and Heidelberg Vlakte. For each area, the expected impact of climate change, fluctuating product and input prices, and the possible impact of partial conversion to bio-fuel production were evaluated in terms of expected impact on profitability. Various area-specific strategies were identified that could enhance the profitability of grain production: most of the strategies focused on optimising machinery usage and expanding or intensifying the livestock enterprise.whole-farm modelling, expert group discussions, Farm Management,

The use of colour as a tool for propaganda

Published ArticleThe main objective of this paper is to point out the crucial role that colour plays in human perception of stimuli, and how we may use this information to promote and enhance our communicational objectives. If we can educate consumers to use colour codes at the point of purchase, we will assist them to make the best purchasing decision and in the end save the consumer money

Apartheid’s black soldiers: Un-national wars and militaries in Southern Africa

No abstract

FYNBOS EXPORTS FROM THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE: A PROBLEM OF LOGISTICS

During 1997 research was conducted on trends in factors that affect the supply and demand for airfreight space for fynbos exports from South Africa. The aim was to sensitise decision-makers to probable trends in those factors that will shape cargo space availability. The main finding was that the supply of airfreight to South African producers is aggravated by the unbalanced availability of cargo space on southbound and northbound trips originating from Cape Town. If the price and quantity of cargo space were determined by supply and demand, an imbalance couldn’t arise in a perfect market, as prices would balance cargo space supplied and demanded. However, airfreight tariffs are rigid per weight level. The result is that items with a higher mass per volume unit represent a higher income per palette, and are therefore preferred by export agents. This finding has implications for future growth in the industry.International Relations/Trade,

Automatic Pigment Classification in Painted Works of Art from Diffuse Reflectance Image Data

Information about artists\u27 materials used in paintings, obtained from the analysis of limited micro-samples, has assisted conservators to better define treatment plans, and provided scholars with basic information about the working methods of the artists. Recently, macro-scale imaging systems such as visible-to-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance hyperspectral imaging (HSI) are being used to provide conservators and art historians with a more comprehensive understanding of a given work of art. However, the HSI analysis process has not been streamlined and currently requires significant manual input by experts. Additionally, HSI systems are often too expensive for small to mid-level museums. This research focused on three main objectives: 1) adapt existing algorithms developed for remote sensing applications to automatically create classification and abundance maps to significantly reduce the time to analyze a given artwork, 2) create an end-to-end pigment identification convolutional neural network to produce pigment maps that may be used directly by conservation scientists without further analysis, and 3) propose and model the expected performance of a low-cost fiber optic single point multispectral system that may be added to the scanning tables already part of many museum conservation laboratories. Algorithms developed for both classification and pigment maps were tested on HSI data collected from various illuminated manuscripts. Results demonstrate the potential of both developed processes. Band selection studies indicates that pigment identification from a small number of bands produces similar results to that of the HSI data sets on a selected number of test artifacts. A system level analysis of the proposed system was conducted with a detailed radiometric model. The system trade study confirmed the viability of using either individual spectral filters or a linear variable filter set-up to collect multispectral data for pigment identification of works of art

Editorial

No abstract

Book Review: Omega, oor en uit: die storie van ’n opstandige troep

Book Title: Omega, oor en uit: die storie van ’n opstandige troepBook Author: François VersterCape Town: Tafelberg. 2016, 252 pages ISBN 978-0-62407-261-

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Africa

No abstrac