Hannes Lombard, manager at the North-West University (NWU) farm in Mahikeng, says that the persistent heavy rains since November last year have posed major challenges for farmers, and in particular crop farmers.

There was a time when superpowers fought proxy wars and the world teetered on the brink of oblivion. There was a time when men rode behemoths called Redstone, Atlas, Titan and Saturn to the heavens underneath hundreds of thousands of pounds of thrust, and the names Sputnik, Laika, Gagarin, Shepard and Glenn reverberated around the eastern and western hemispheres of our world.

During a virtual ceremony on 25 November the North-West University (NWU) acknowledged staff for their exceptional contributions to teaching and learning, research and community engagement.

Universities across the country are producing ground-breaking research with great economic potential, but often the question is how this can be translated into commercial enterprises.

To address this issue, the North-West University (NWU) recently hosted a webinar titled “Mushrooming of ideas: Converting a postgraduate study into a commercial business”.

The main speaker at the event was Sydwell Sihlangu, an NWU alumnus and PhD candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

What does it take for emerging farmers to be successful? This is the question North-West University (NWU) academic Dr Faan Pelser and Prof Theuns Pelser from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Graduate School for Business and Leadership set out to answer in their recent research paper.

The paper is titled “The factors that contribute to the growth of emerging farmers in the agricultural sector, North West Province, South Africa”.

Space is not as silent as it may seem, and asteroseismologists know this. Asteroseismology is a booming field full of opportunity for students and young researchers and has an impact on many other fields of astronomical research.

But what is asteroseismology all about? Prof Don Kurtz, an A1-rated professor now based at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus, explains.

To promote mental health and wellbeing and prevent substance abuse among young people in Lokaleng village in Mahikeng, the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will be leading the agricultural intervention section of the multi-sectoral collaborative care community intervention project th

African indigenous astronomy (bolepa dinaledi in Setswana) is one discipline of competencies of the broader African indigenous knowledge systems negated by the modern education system, including modern astronomers, researchers and policy makers.

This is according to Dr Motheo Koitsiwe, indigenous astronomer researcher and director of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Centre.

He says historians of science agree that astronomy is the first science in the world.

Brown seaweed is known to be a rich source of minerals such as calcium, manganese, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, sulphur and iron. Add oyster mushrooms to the mix and the result could be a highly nutritious source of feed for indigenous chickens.

This is the thinking of Godfrey Mhlongo, North-West University (NWU) PhD student in animal health, whose PhD thesis is titled “Towards the optimisation of brown seaweed (Ecklonia maxima) for indigenous chickens using oyster mushrooms”.