Thoughts on global grains market developments, and implications for South Africa
March 2019 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided further evidence that the world will have fairly large maize, soybean, and rice supplies in the 2018/19 season. Meanwhile, wheat production...
Identifying potential market opportunities for South Africa’s potatoes industry in the African continent
Today I participated at the Potato Industry Forum organised by Potatoes South Africa. I was asked to make a few remarks about South Africa’s agricultural policy, with a particular focus on land reform. After my speech, Dr André Jooste, CEO of Potato South Africa...
Brief reflections on South Africa’s summer crop production estimates
With everything going on the agricultural and land policy front, I really don’t want to spend much time on grains and oilseeds production data updates. But I am a bit concerned that the picture painted by the figures released by South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee...
Food insecurity could increase in Mozambique this year
The situation in Mozambique is devastating. Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit the coastline of Mozambique on March 14th has caused a heavy loss of lives and affected more than 600 000 people, according to some estimates – the number will most likely rise after...
Recalibrating South African agricultural growth
In the recent issue of Agrekon, which is an agricultural economics academic journal, some of the most renowned agricultural economics professors, namely Johann Kirsten, Philip Pardey, and Colin Thirtle wrote a moving memorial tribute of the late Dr Frikkie Liebenberg,...
For successful land reform to take place in South Africa, there must be innovative support for new farmers
There is broad consensus that part of the reason why SA’s land reform programme has fallen short of expectation has been due, to some extent, to a lack of well-timed, co-ordinated and effective measures to support new farmers. Access to tailored seasonal finance, fair...
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture.”
Sihlobo is Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.
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.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 after serving on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture between 2018 and 2019.
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 and Farmers Weekly magazine.