Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.
South Africa’s avocado supplies should recover soon
While I know some of you won’t be able to have your “smashed avocado on toast” breakfast for a week or so, there are a few reasons for this slight inconvenience, and it will ease soon.
South African farmers provide maize supplies to Zimbabwe in times of need
Whenever I see challenges within South Africa’s agriculture, Zimbabwe is the other country I think of as their challenges are often worse. Notably, South Africa typically has to shoulder Zimbabwe when there are challenges, specifically in staple grain production.
Five lessons the rest of Africa can learn from South Africa’s agriculture sector
African agricultural ministers gathered in Kampala, Uganda, from Thursday, 9 January to Saturday, 11 January for the “Extraordinary Summit on the Post Malabo Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)”.
Fresh produce markets are key for price discovery and food security
The Competition Commission’s Report on Fresh Produce Markets is a valuable resource about the industry’s structure and price developments and primarily provides sensible and correct findings. The Report reaffirmed the importance of fresh produce markets in price discovery and food security.
Bringing Black Farmers into commercial agriculture in South Africa
I am starting this year hopeful that South Africa can implement various plans and programmes we have designed over the past few years but never got to implement. In agriculture, nothing is more glaring than the slow release of government-owned land to deserving beneficiaries who can use it optimally.
Fertilizer prices remain higher than pre-covid levels
I am raising this issue because, in September 2024, as South African farmers were getting ready to start the planting season, I remarked that they were experiencing better input costs. For example, in rands terms, most fertilizer product prices were down by roughly 10% year-on-year compared with the previous year.
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.