Budding blueberry sector offers fruitful job prospects for South Africa
In her budget vote speech last week, Ms Thoko Didiza, the new minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development, noted that, among other things, she intends to expand SA’s agricultural footprint in export markets. This is a fitting message as the growth of...
Blueberries and Jobs in South Africa
I’ve previously presented the case for agriculture as one of the sectors that could boost rural economic growth and employment in South Africa. The sub-sector that has attracted attention in the recent past is horticulture because it is labour intensive. Within the...
SA horticulture is blooming, but there’s still room for growth
The expansion in most agricultural subsectors in South Africa has been export-driven, particularly in the horticultural sector. This sector is labour-intensive, and the expansion also brought jobs. This somewhat compensated for the dwindling labour participation trend...
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having saved on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.