by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 3, 2020 | Africa Focus
On the 14th of August 2019, Nigeria announced that there would be restrictions on food and agricultural imports in the country. President Buhari took to Twitter to explain his rationale behind this step (see here). In summary, President Buhari wants to improve...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 2, 2020 | Africa Focus
Zimbabwe has always maintained a vague policy view on genetically modified crops (GM). In seasons of abundance, the country would place a ban on importation of GM crops, which would mean that South Africa, the only GM crop producer in Africa where roughly 80% of the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 31, 2020 | Africa Focus
If there is one thing that stood out for me in the South African agricultural markets yesterday, it was the reports of maize exports to Zimbabwe. In the week of 24th of January 2020, South Africa exported 16 210 tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe. This may not seem like a...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 28, 2020 | Africa Focus
We rarely talk about Africa’s wheat production due to its size relative to other regions of the world. Africa produces only 3% of the world’s wheat, compared to the European Union region which produces 20% of the world’s wheat and Back Sea region which produces 17%....
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 27, 2020 | Africa Focus
If you read the international news on Africa this past weekend, you probably noticed that Time magazine (here), The Guardian (here), New York Post (here), The Japan Times (here), and the Financial Times (here) ran a similar story about the worst swarms of locusts...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 11, 2020 | Africa Focus
Note: I’ve recently opened a YouTube channel, which I hope to use frequently in 2020. Click here for a short clip summarizing the essay below. Last year I applauded the Zimbabwean government for having grasped the urgency of potential maize shortage in time and...
