Social rejuvenation on a Western Cape fruit farm

Pome fruit farmer Ian Cunningham, named Agri Western Cape Santam Agriculture Young Farmer of the Year for 2022, has improved much more than just the orchards on his apple farm near Villiersdorp. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the various initiatives and incentives aimed at bettering the lives of his farmworkers.

In a previous issue (FW, 29 January 2021), Farmer's Weekly spoke to pome fruit farmer Ian Cunningham about how he was rewriting the rules on apple rootstock longevity on his family farm Fine Fruit, near Elgin in the Western Cape. His methods included the use of the Geneva rootstock CG 778, as well as regenerative farming principles. In the article, Cunningham argued that, in combination with healthy soil, the rootstock's tolerance to replant disease could increase its longevity by at least 15 years. Thus, it promised to reduce production costs significantly by enabling farmers to graft new plant material onto the rootstocks, rather than planting grafted material from scratch, and shortening the time it took for the trees to reach commercial production by a year or two. Almost two years later, these practices,…

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Farmer's Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 21 October 2022

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