Agricultural industry association AgriSA said on Tuesday that it welcomed the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) policy commitments regarding agrarian reform and agricultural property with respect to the ongoing debate on the expropriation of land without compensation.

Parliamentary discussions on land reform have prompted much breathless commentary. But, while the proposed changes remain unclear, a mushy compromise is more likely than a Zimbabwe-style land grab, says London-based economist John Ashbourne of Capital Economics.

Land will become one of the major political issues in 2018 and beyond, with "expropriation without compensation" being the preferred route of redistribution for the ANC and EFF, among others. In this article Neels Blom lays the table with a look at what two different studies have shown in terms of land distribution by race, gender and nationality. On the face of it, whites have a disproportionate amount of agricultural land, but this ignores land that has already been transferred to blacks in prior years.

Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa does not share his predecessor's hatred of white farmers, and as a farmer himself appears keen to use agriculture to revitalise the economy. This has given hope to several farmers who were evicted from their farms as part of the country's controversial land reform programme, according to AFP.

It's time to call out the loons who want to scare us all with their stories of man-made climate change being responsible for the current drought. As Andrew Kenny points out in this article, we should welcome increased CO2 levels as beneficial for plant life. 

The government plans to do to farming what it has done to mining. In terms of new legislation now before parliament, government would take custody of all farming land for the benefit of all South Africans. The SA Communist Party's fingerprints are all over this one.

Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti has published a plan for farmers to hand over half their farms to workers. The plan, which the minister says is an effort to "de-racialise" the land issue in SA, has been roundly slammed by agricultural groups.

The DA has called for Tina Joemat-Pettersson's head, and the public protector wants Jacob Zuma to act against the agriculture and fisheries minister for maladministration, improper conduct and wasteful expenditure, writes Chris Barron.