by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 24, 2019 | Food Security
Animal health is increasingly becoming a key issue in South Africa. This year we’ve had cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the beef industry, and African swine fever in the pork industry. But the degree of impact to each industry has differed. In the case of beef, the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 17, 2019 | Food Security
South Africa’s food price inflation numbers continue to surprise us. The figures recently released by Statistics South Africa show that food price inflation remained unchanged in March 2019 at 2.3% for the third consecutive month. But the products price inflation...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 10, 2019 | Food Security
The South African government has detected an outbreak of African swine fever on a farm in North West. The African swine fever is a fatal animal disease affecting pigs and wild boars with up to 100% mortality, but it is harmless to humans. Now, the reports suggest that...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Apr 9, 2019 | Food Security
While it remains a challenge to get a clear picture of the scale of damage to maize fields in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe after Cyclone Idai, my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest these countries will collectively have to import more than 1-million tonnes...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Mar 30, 2019 | Africa Focus, Agricultural Environment and Natural Resource, Agricultural Labour Market, Agricultural Production, Agricultural Trade, Food Security, General Comments, Land Reform
It is hard to get a clear picture of crop conditions in Zimbabwe after Cyclone Idai. But reports from a number of media outlets who have people on the ground paint a concerning picture. This afternoon, Al Jazeera came out with a headline — Cyclone Idai destroys...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Mar 24, 2019 | Food Security
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...
