AGRICULTURAL NEWS - In 2016, MSc ecology student at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, James Hagan, and his supervisor, Dr Michael Cramer, arrived at the Grootfontein Agricultural Institute in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, to conduct research on the spatial patterns of mound-building termites.
Here they soon learnt that several local farmers had expressed concern about the surge in termite populations, and that the insects were competing with their livestock
for grazing and forage.
Moreover, the farmers also noticed that the increase in termite activity could be associated with livestock grazing activity.
