by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 19, 2019 | Land Reform
When Emmerson Mnangagwa assumed office as president of Zimbabwe in late 2017, one of the immediate tasks he had was to rebuild an economy that had performed poorly for nearly two decades. At the heart of this process was a need for revitalisation of the agricultural...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 18, 2019 | Agricultural Trade
I am ending this week, not by highlighting an agricultural story that dominated the news headlines – as it is typically the case — but some encouraging developments for the South African beef industry. After 14-weeks since the first case of foot-and-mouth...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 17, 2019 | Food Security
South Africa’s food price inflation numbers continue to surprise us. The figures recently released by Statistics South Africa show that food price inflation remained unchanged in March 2019 at 2.3% for the third consecutive month. But the products price inflation...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 15, 2019 | General Comments
“When the facts change, I change my mind…” – Paul Samuelson or John Maynard Keynes…whatever the source, this is fitting for this post. As Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe continue to rebuild after devastating Cyclone Idai last month, I deemed it appropriate to revisit...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 15, 2019 | Africa Focus
As a buildup on the post, I published last week about Zimbabwe’s intention to compensate white farmers who lost land under former President Robert Mugabe’s land reform approach in the early 2000s, this morning’s Business Day published further details on this matter....
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 12, 2019 | General Comments
It is easy to overlook the importance of the South African agricultural sector if one only views it from its contribution as a share of the GDP, which has declined from 4.2% in the 1996 to 2.6% in 2017. What is often not captured in this narrative, is the fact that...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 10, 2019 | Food Security
The South African government has detected an outbreak of African swine fever on a farm in North West. The African swine fever is a fatal animal disease affecting pigs and wild boars with up to 100% mortality, but it is harmless to humans. Now, the reports suggest that...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 10, 2019 | Africa Focus, General Comments
I spent the better part of yesterday at the International Trade Commission of South Africa (ITAC) where I moonlight as a Commissioner focusing on trade matters. In the midst of all that, I missed some interesting news on Zimbabwe’s land reform story. Reuters, an...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 9, 2019 | Food Security
While it remains a challenge to get a clear picture of the scale of damage to maize fields in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe after Cyclone Idai, my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest these countries will collectively have to import more than 1-million tonnes...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 8, 2019 | Agricultural Trade
The growing emphasis that agriculture should be amongst the key sectors driving the South African economy and job creation has mainly leaned on potential expansion in hectares of labour-intensive, and globally sought-after horticulture products, as well as traditional...
