by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 10, 2019 | Africa Focus
Although the past few months have been a struggle to secure grain supplies for Southern and East Africa, other parts of the world are in better shape and could help offset the shortfall. No indicator spells this out as clearly as the Food and Agricultural Organization...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 7, 2019 | Agricultural Labour Market
It has become fashionable in conferences to say “let’s make agriculture sexy in order to attract the youth”. I get where the sentiment comes from, after all, Africa’s farmers are ageing with an average age of 60. Here in South Africa, that number is estimated at 62....
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 7, 2019 | Agricultural Production
We continue to observe developments in the winter crop growing areas of the Western Cape. There hasn’t been any notable rainfall thus far to improve crop growing conditions. The current weather forecasts show that the next two weeks could present more of the same –...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 5, 2019 | Agricultural Production
It has been 25 years since the dawn of democracy and the general mood in the country is pessimistic owing to poor economic fortunes and elevated joblessness, among other long-standing challenges. As an agricultural economist, it is not unusual to hear statements that...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 3, 2019 | Africa Focus
Government interventions in agricultural markets seldom lead to the desired outcome. I expressed this view when the Zimbabwean government banned sales of maize by farmers to anyone other than the government’s Grain Marketing Board at a prescribed price in June 2019....
