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...
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 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....
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 26, 2019 | Africa Focus
On 25 August 2019, we learned that the Zambian government has placed a price cap of $199 per tonne on maize (approximately R3 023) and has justified its actions by noting its concerns over rising maize prices, which could disadvantage many poor Zambian households. The...
