by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 26, 2020 | Agricultural Production
South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee releases its first estimate of the country’s 2019/20 summer crop harvest today. Market expectations are largely positive because of two factors. First, the area planted for major summer crops such as maize, soybeans and...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 25, 2020 | Agricultural Production
The authorities in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda are struggling to control the spreading desert locust infestation. Recent reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) suggest that the situation there remains “extremely...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 24, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Written for and first published on Business Day on 18 February 2020 CAPE TOWN – My agricultural take on President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) can be segmented into three areas. Firstly, the President reaffirmed the government’s commitment to...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 22, 2020 | Agricultural Production
One of the research papers I read this weekend was by agriculture economists, Marnus Gouse, Debdatta Sengupta, Patricia Zambrano, and José Falck Zepeda published in World Development, a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal, in July 2016. It assesses whether men and...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 21, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Society still argues about the use of genetically modified (GM) crops. But two lessons are beyond the debate. Firstly, the GM crops have contributed to an increase in yields in countries that have adopted the seeds, notably the United States, Brazil and Argentina,...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 19, 2020 | Agricultural Production
In his 2020 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that “this year we will open up and regulate the commercial use of hemp products, providing opportunities for small-scale farmers; and formulate policy on the use of cannabis products for...
