From the Editor
Editor’ s message
About SABI
Carol Posthumus
The Western Cape is battling through a terrible drought, and with water levels in dams at a critical level, our prayers for rain reverberate daily here in the beautiful Cape. A few months ago I noticed some people still watering – with sprinklers in the middle of the day – their grass on the pavements! Incredible: you wonder what planet they have been living on, appearing blissfully ignorant to the dire situation of water. Actually grassy
pavements in semi-arid South Africa are somewhat of a luxury.
However, as the situation has becomes critical, most people are rising to the occasion – and thankfully not liberally watering their pavements( and a bit of road on occasion). Hotels in Cape Town are showing off their creativity – for instance, informing the guests that they are not allowed to bath( and removing the bath taps) and instead can enjoy a wine tasting at Groot Constantia.
In this edition of SABI magazine, we explore irrigation in Africa, a topic that is sure to delight you. Our continent has so much rich promise especially in agriculture, and the account of Inyoni Africa’ s projects in Africa make for an interesting read indeed.
The moving system of centre pivots is also featured in this edition, pivots are popular in Africa and the pivot companies are implementing great technological advances and research into their impressive systems. Enjoy reading about pivots!
From saving water To high tech issues
At the USA’ s Super Bowl Lady’ s Gaga’ s performance featured drones flying over her head( pre-recorded visual by the way) to form the American flag. Drones are really all over the place now in all sorts of industries. Agriculture locally and abroad is seeing growth in the use of drones. Some pundits abroad describe agriculture“ like a technological wonderland”.
We weren’ t able to find any“ flying robots”( predicted as the future scouts on farms!) but we feature a story on an innovative, Award-winning Cape Town drone start-up in Woodstock, founded by twentysomething tech entrepreneurs.
We also bring you news of innovations in mobile applications geared to farming, a new column looking at the bests ways to save energy and an excellent How To from regular author Mike de Villiers on the servicing of disc filters.
We hope you find this edition inspiring and informative!
Cape Town-headquartered SABI( South African Irrigation Institute) aims to boost optimal irrigation methodologies, water conservation and sustainability. SABI promotes the sharing of irrigation knowledge via:
• SABI membership and branch activities
• SABI Congress, the bi-annual leading African irrigation event
• IrrigationWise Academy courses in agriculture and landscape, presented nationwide with courses from entry to an advanced technical level
• SABI magazine, the Institute’ s official technical journal and the only irrigation magazine in South Africa.
People from the irrigation, water, agricultural, landscape and related disciplines join SABI as they believe that responsible irrigation water use can result in water savings, increased socio-economic benefits, healthier communities, enhanced agricultural production, sustainable and attactive environments and further benefits such as energy saving.
To advertise in SABI magazine, do a course or find out more about SABI membership or activities: visit: www. sabi. co. za, contact SABI on + 27 021 850 8220 or email info @ sabi. co. za
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SABI | FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017