Send us your Stories
to Neale@thelabsa.com
microbiology report on aquaponics by stellenbosch university
Aquaponics Association Of Southern Africa AGM.
Dear Members,
The AGM of the Aquaponics Association will take place on the 16 November 2019 at 10hoo.
This year it is hosted by Ichthys Aquaponics at their farm in Midrand.
All members and interested parties are welcome to join us on this day.
Please indicate if you will be attending by Monday 11 November 19, send a mail to danier@hailodar.co.za or neale@thelabsa.com by this date.
For those who can-not attend physically we will have a SKYPE for your convenience.
Voting for the Exec will take place and please note that only paid up members may vote. You can pay your subs on the day or via EFT. If you did not receive an invoice please contact Danie at the above mail address or myself.
You can also send us your nominations by Friday 15 November 19 and proxy if needed.
One Additional matter of importance will be discussed. We are presently regulated by DEFF (old DAFF) and are in preliminary discussion to change this to The Department of Agriculture, land reform and rural development.
Should you wich to get more information concerning the reasoning behind this you can send me a mail.
Hope to see you there.
Neale
Aquaculture Academy and farm for sale
See brochure below and contact the owner.
Publication in the Life Healthcare Magazine.
Have a look at the article in the Life Healthcare Magazine.
https://issuu.com/johnbrownsa/docs/_life_spring_2019_issu_compressed?fr=sNzAzYzE3NDg4OQ
Good News item 2 promised over the last few weeks.
In an attempt to add value to our members as decided at our first meeting this year, we embarked on a journey that could add value for our Members.
As the Chair of the Association I also approached CANSA inquiring what it would take to get Aquaponics Produce approved, if at all. The discussions reached a stage where proof of what we were saying about this healthy produce was needed.
This took us months but finally after many tests Aquaponics (DWC and NFT) proved successful. It needs mentioning that the research that was done by CANSA found that in some cases (in the USA) traces were found in stone based systems and lesser amounts, in DWC and NFT , water based Aquaponics.
After all the tests and with the help of Dr Gillian Taylor THE AQUAPONICS ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA has been approved.
The story does not end here as we are now in process of setting up an improved Accreditation checklist taking into account the criteria set by CANSA. We hope to have this complete by the 20 August 19 after which it will be published.
CANSA has been in existence since 1931, which over time has built a credible reputation with all stakeholders. The National Department of Health has granted CANSA permission to act as the endorsing body for the CANSA Seal of Recognition program who in turn has now granted permission to the Aquaponics Association of South Africa to endorse member’s farms.
We are also looking at practical endorsement methods enabling more farms to be Approved faster, this could include certified farms endorsing other farms. This will be discussed at the the meeting on 15 August 19.
There are a few administrative functions that still have to be completed with CANSA which we hope to have done by the 15th.
Understandably here is also a cost attached to the use of the CANSA seal of approval which will entail the acquiring of the logo from the association bearing the farm name and a membership number. This is a control mechanism specified by CANSA ensuring that only certified farms use the seal of approval. A small % will be added to the sale of these logos which will be given to CANSA, a NPO to support their efforts.
Your comments are welcome, send them to neale@thelabsa.com.
More exciting news to come !!!!!!!!!
Watch this space.
Neale Strauch
First of two Good News items promised over the last few week.
In an attempt to add value to our members as decided at our first meeting this year, we embarked on a journey that could add value for our Members.
A few months ago I contacted the HSFSA (Heart and Stroke Foundation), (as the chairman of the Association) to inquire about what is needed to approve the use of the Heart Mark on Aquaponic products.
After lengthy discussions the foundation suggested that we use Urban Aquaponics as a test case as it would be difficult for the foundation to access each of the farms.
A long process followed and the Heart Mark Approval has been granted to Urban Aquaponics for use on their products and will hopefully become a standard for all Aquapoinc Growers.
Our journey of costly tests and assessment progressed slowly and eventually the approval was granted, mindful that it would be a possible game changer should Aquaponics be noticed as the healthy produce we all know it to be.
Following this we are now in discussions to determine a streamlined process where all Members could be approved.
Only individual avocado pear producers and now Aquaponics produce has achieved this in the fresh market category. We can now most certainly become a force to be reckoned with.
The final decision on what this streamlined process will be for our members, will be taken in the second week of July at the HSFSA board meeting. We will then publish their decision in the member’s area.
Watch this space.
Neale Strauch
Open the PDF file for information on the new online Aquaponics Course offered by Stellenbosch University.
For more information on the ThinkFest log in to the members area or contact Henk Stander : hbs@sun.ac.za
Please note that the campaign below by DAFF is published for your convenience and your response is totally up to your discression.
INFO ON THE PRODUCER/FARMER REGISTER CAMPAIGN
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) in partnership with Statistics SA is embarking on a producer/farmer register campaign. The campaign will see the collection of statistics on commercial and non-commercial farmers. The campaign was launched in 2018 and will run until 2021.
The actual collection of data is planned to start on 01 April 2019 through Extension Officers in all provinces. Statistics on commercial farmers will be collected through a Census of Commercial Agriculture (CoCA) and statistics on non-commercial farmers will be collected through the DAFF Producer/Farmer Register.
The Producer/Farmer Register was established to improve the inaccurate and/or misrepresented statistics of farmers in the non-commercial sector, i.e. smallholder farmers, across the country.
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What is the Producer/Farmer Register campaign (PFR)?
The PFR is the statistical data collection on smallholder farmers, in which information on the demography of farms and farmers, production activities, as well as infrastructure is gathered across South Africa.
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Who is included the PFR?
Smallholder farmers are included in this campaign. Most of these farmers are under-resourced and the majority are found in the rural areas. They produce mainly for household consumption and even though they sell to the local market, it is not on a sustainable basis.
There are different levels of capacity of these farmers, based on income and size of production. Some do very well and are near commercial in their business activities, while some are struggling and produce mainly for household food consumption. The PFR will also include smallholder producers in the forestry and fisheries sectors.
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Why must smallholder farmers take part in the PFR?
Government needs to plan based on evidence-based information, in order to provide service delivery to the relevant beneficiaries. Farmers will benefit from registering in the PFR because:
•They will be able to receive the necessary support and benefits will come to those who need them.
•They can be easily identified for different industry initiatives and benefits.
Gathering accurate and reliable information from farmers will do away with waste of resources and poor service delivery. If the farming environment cannot be measured, it cannot be managed. Therefore, farmers are requested to cooperate with extension officers the questions asked for government to be able to get accurate details of farms and farmers.
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How will the PFR unfold?
The Producer/Farmer Register data collection will be done by Extension Officers who will be provided with data collection devices to capture all data. The devices will be used to gather the information, which will be stored in the Producer/Farmer Register system. This information will be collected through face-to-face interviews with farmers, who will be identified through provincial and district offices.
The PFR will run from 2018 to 2021. Data collection will take place in 2019.
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Is the PFR linked to the current debate on the expropriation of land without compensation?
It should be noted that this project has no link whatsoever to the current debate on expropriation of land without compensation.
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What is the role of DAFF officials in this campaign?
To spread the message on the department’s producer/farmer register campaign in their communities and to encourage smallholder farmers to participate in the collection of data through the local Extension Officers.
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When will officials be updated on the progress of the campaign?
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will officially release the report ceremoniously to the public on a date to be announced.
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Who is the contact person for more information on this campaign?
Queries can be sent via email;or telephonically on
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Where can one access the data/report after it is released?
The report will be available at
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Follow us on Twitter
#FarmerRegister.
Key Focus areas to support our Members 2019.
1. After Care.
2. University discussions concerning Aquaponics Training and Interns. (Diploma level)
3. Consolidation of training ideas and inputs received after the Aquaponics training seminar.
4. Increasing membership BY:
a. Offering a rebate to companies who give training.
b. New Member welcome pack.
5. Web page to advertise events.
6. Shout outs from the web page to draw attention to events.
7. Welcome pack booklet includes company adverts.
8. Pooling resources.
9. Marketing via the in Store Aquaponics fridge racks.
10. Marketing via other media.
11. Barcodes.
Watch this Space and the Media. Read the in depth discussions held at the Exco Meeting in the members area.
A REMARKABLE STORY
Ester could have been just another widow struggling to survive
With INMED’s help, she’s running an award-winning
agribusiness
Ester is a widowed mother of three, who has struggled for nearly a decade to run the Pella Food Garden, an all-female farming cooperative in the drought-ravaged Northern Cape of South Africa.
The high salt content of the soil and extreme temperatures make it nearly impossible to eke a living out of the sun-baked terrain. The co-op members had to rely on government assistance to make ends meet. Ester knew that their survival would require a new way of farming.
Life in in Pella is both back-breaking and heart-breaking, with an unemployment rate hovering around 70% and a crime rate to match. But life in Pella is changing, especially for the Pella Food Garden cooperative. With INMED’s help and support from Old Mutual, the group implemented climate-smart agriculture techniques to produce lush crops as never before. INMED South Africa also built the co-op a commercial-scale aquaponics system, which allows the group to farm year-round at up to 10 times the crop yield of traditional farming, while consuming a tenth of the water.
Within one year of receiving assistance and training from INMED, the co-op increased its revenue 60-fold and received top prizes at the national and regional Department of Agriculture Female Entrepreneur Awards. With INMED’s help, the Pella Food Garden is improving food security and job opportunities in its impoverished community.
More than half of South Africa’s population lives in poverty. In some regions, more than a third of the children suffer from malnutrition. INMED’s Climate-Smart Agriculture program helps struggling farmers and emerging entrepreneurs launch aquaponics enterprises to feed their families, grow profitable businesses, bolster their local economies and adapt to climate change. By facilitating the value chain of access to financing, links to markets and ongoing technical support by INMED-trained agriculture extension agents, we’re seeing inspiring results in distressed regions around the world.
For more information on INMED South Africa, please visit https://inmed.org.za. To support INMED’s work on behalf of people like Ester, please visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/inmed.
For additional information about INMED Partnerships for Children, please contact Nancy Baker, Communications Director, at nbaker@inmed.org.
We are now Affiliated to the Aquaponics Association in the USA.
Dear Members,
We are now affiliated to the Aquaponics Association in the USA. Have a look at their site https://aquaponicsassociation.org.
Paid up members of the Aquaponics Association of Southern Africa can access the Aquaponics Association USA’s Members area by getting the User name and Password in Our members area.
Enjoy and hope it valuable to all.
Two of our members hit the spotlight
Kleinskuur is one of the finalists in Nisboere, lets route for them, prize giving is on the 21 November 2018.
Inmed gets help from Old Mutual.
Read the full story in the member’s area.
INMED Project in Pella Receives Additional Support from Old Mutual
Pella, Northern Cape, South Africa, 29 October 2018: INMED Partnerships for Children and INMED South Africa are pleased to announce Phase II of our Aquaponics and Adaptive Agriculture Project for the Pella Food Garden Cooperative, in partnership with Old Mutual.
Training Seminar and AGM 28 October 2018
Getting some of the best Aquaponic growers in one space was an exciting event. The day was a long one with two sessions running one after the other at two separate venues.
Firstly we convened at Urban Aquaponics for a session on Training, Trainers and the Endorsement thereof, thanks to everyone for their input, it was a very productive session but more than that the positive attitude made the session one to be remembered.
A work group that involves all of the entities that were present was setup, more about this over the next few weeks.
On to the next venue at La Pieus Aqua, for the AGM. The Minutes of the AGM will be published in a day or two but here are some of the items discussed.
Reaching the members via the automated website system is not always accurate, this it seems because e-mail addresses logged on the database have either changed or were incorrectly lodged. We appeal to all members to please ensure that their contact details are correct. In the short term existing members please send all your details to Danie Reinicke danier@hailodar.co.za.
As from immediate effect new members applying for membership will only be able to do so on the website under the Tab JOIN US. Your application will then be processed.
Updates on the site also utilises the database information which sends you a mail informing you of updates, information, meeting minutes and other relevant information, should your information not be captured accurately you will not receive these update mails.
Some other changes such as the Membership Categories were reworked by the Executive over the past year to bring it more in line with Aquaponic growers is now published.
Some changes in the Executive has taken place and we would like to thank Leslie for his leadership over the past two years, he has stepped down as the Chairman due to other commitments that will be taking him away for longer periods and we wish him all the best in his endeavors.
Henk Stander who has been the Secretary for the two years has also stepped down because of work commitments, we thank him for his time and especially for the networking that he facilitated during his term.
The website has been updated with the new Executive and wish them all of the best.
CARTE BLANCE.
Carte Blance has found our industry, Rikalize Reinecke one of our commerial members featured on Carte Blance on Sunday.
Just follow the link to her story https://carteblanche.dstv.com/the-youngest-aquaponics-farmer/
What is happening in our world.
11th Aquaponics Executive meeting held in March.
We had the 11 th Exec meeting, the first for the year on the 14 March 18. Minutes are published in the members area.
A Letter from WAS.
Dear WAS Member,
A significant benefit of membership in the World Aquaculture Society is free access to all papers published in JWAS, including all back issues. Members can access JWAS by first logging in to the WAS Member's only area of the web site at www.was.org and then selecting “View Articles” under the “Journal of WAS” heading on the Publications tab or you can scroll down and click on the photo of the JWAS in the right margin of the page.
The Journal of the World Aquaculture Society has recently migrated to a new online platform (Literatum, the market leader in scientific publishing, recently acquired by our publisher, John Wiley & Sons Limited). Thus, JWAS now has a new look online with improved navigation.
While there were technical difficulties this past week following the launch, I believe that these have now been resolved. Thank you for your patience during this period.
I encourage you to check out the new site and the new papers that continue to be published online in Early View.
Carole Engle, Executive Editor
Aquaculture Africa Magazine Requests you to submit your articles.
We would like to encourage you to submit letters, articles, news or comments to AAM. This can be done by sending an email to The Editor at: editor@aquaafricamag.com. If you or your company would like to advertise in the magazine, please send an email to sales@aquaafricamag.com For any other website matters, magazine queries, information or magazine distribution arrangements in your country, please feel free to contact us at info@aquaafricamag.com Happy Africa Aquaculture Reading
The Aquaculture Africa Magazine Team
FARM AND RURAL SECURITY CONFERENCE: 04 MAY 2018, EMPERORS PALACE CONVENTION CENTRE, JOHANNESBURG
Contact
+27 11 886 0433
The conference seeks to bring together opinion leaders and decision makers in agriculture and security; to brainstorm on ways in which we could make lives safer for farmers and rural citizens. As a respected expert in this regard, we believe your input will bring in fresh ideas to help in efforts to protect the lives and property of rural citizens.
FARM AND RURAL SECURITY CONFERENCE 04 May 2018, EMPERORS PALACE CONVENTION CENTRE
JOHANNESBURG
DRAFT PROGRAMME
Violent Crimes against persons on farms and rural areas
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Accessibility to security authorities
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Effectiveness of traditional social order maintenance structures
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Invited Speaker: Dr Lyle Pienaar: Senior Analyst: State Security Agency
Impact of crime on agricultural productivity
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Speaker: Bennie van Zyl: General Manager: Transvaal Agricultural Union
Review of the Rural Safety Strategy
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Implementation Challenges and Opportunities
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Speaker: Agri SA
The scourge of Stock theft in Farm and Rural areas
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Cross border crimes and bilateral/regional cooperation
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Invited Speaker: Willem Lombard: Lecturer: Agriculture Economics: University of Free State
Perspectives on new technologies for farm premise management and security
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Speaker: Neale Strauch: Founder: Techsec
Holistic approaches to rural security – advantages of public-private partnerships
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Speaker: Mark Wilson: Community Assets Tactical Security
Farm crime analysis and predictive policing
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Speaker: Ian Cameron: Head Community Safety: Afriforum
Eradicating rural crime and promoting development
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Justice deliverance – challenges and opportunities
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Preventive measures
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Invited Speaker: Petrus Ngomana: MEC Community Safety and Liaison: Mpumalanga
Panel Discussion – challenges in combating rural crime
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Panelists: Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Afriforum, SAPS
A new year and new things happening. Neale Strauch, PR Aquaponics SA.
New Members,
Mariana and Bohale. Constructing a system near Phalabora, welcome and good luck, we will be following their journey.
Building Your own system.
An article about building your own system is published in the members area.
Some Goodies For Sale,
Guy Miles is selling the following and can be contacted on 0828948946
35 fibre glass grow beds, 2.1 X 1.4 X 0.3m reasonable offers.
In addition 3x 3phase heaters
.
Aquaculture Africa Magazine
The much anticipated Aquaculture Africa Magazine is now available. Go to the online store www.aquaafricamag.com
My Aquaponic experiences during November 17. Neale Strauch, PR Aquaponics SA.
After being elected as the Public Relations officer for the Association I put some thought into what can be done to promote Aquaponics in South Africa. The first prise and a goal that I have set for myself for the next year is to get this great product of ours measurably known to the markets and most certainly to the end user.
My intense fondness of the science of Aquaponics drives me and hope that this drive will bring all the members together for the good of the Science and to promote this for the good of all.
The first month into this PR journey has taken me to a few farms where I felt most welcome, and I thank-you for that.
After meeting Colin and Annemarie at the AGM I decided to attend their introduction to Aquaponics Course that they were presenting on the 11 November 17.
“You’re Welcome” is most certainly the feeling that one gets when spending some time at Klein Skuur. I believe that the English language does not emphasize these words as well as they were during the one day course with Colin. His easy manner and exciting way of explaining the theory will make anyone want to start planting.
I was especially impressed by the booklet that Klein Skuur gave to their course attendees, it is very well put together.
Colin and Annemarie thank-you for your efforts to promote Aquaponics and the lasting feeling of “You’re Welcome”.
My second visit took me to the Randvaal Primamry School in Meyerton where INMED has setup a system. When visiting a farm the farmer usually comes out of the fields to greet you, in this case I was taken back to my school days, a hundred years ago. We followed the long corridor to the main building and into the reception where we were greeted by a friendly lady sitting behind a louver window. She indicated that we could go through to the “farmers” office, in this case he is the School Principal and secondly an Aquaponics Farmer. What a nice man, his face beamed when he spoke about “his” Aquaponic system.
Not knowing what to expect we went through to the back of the School where the system was installed. About half a tunnel in size it is clean and the plants and fish are happy.
You get a sense of pride and although not your work it just feels right.
INMED is most certainly doing what they set out to do but more than that Mr Pieter du Toit, Farmer and principal well done!!!
Aquaponics Direct
Next was a shopping expedition to the First (as far as I could determine) walk in Aquaponics Shop. So much to choose from, fresh produce still growing in the NFT system, fish, many types to choose from, plumbing goodies, an off the shelf Aquaponics system, nets, pots, test kits, pipes, Bio pest control products and so much more.
I tried the Catfish sausages, and, well I had to re look at the packaging, this was pork to me, so let’s promote the eating of our fish as well, I most certainly will. Hope many more of these will open up under this banner.
This First shop is situated in Zambizi Road, Pretoria. 25˚40’45.3”S 28˚19’06.0” E
Congratulations to you and hope this will be a huge success.
Successes and Other Stories.
Please send me your stories, it has to be in word then I can publish it, else it can only be read once opened if in PDF.
