A spokesperson for the department of agriculture, Wandile Sihlobo, says while the recent rains and weather outlook for the coming months paint a favourable picture for wheat production in that province, overall wheat plantings for the country are set to fall by 8% year on year to 495 000 hectares, mainly in the Free State. This means that South Africa will continue to have a large dependence on imports, about 50% of annual consumption.

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The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is currently drafting the sector Master Plan, with input from private sector players. According to spokesperson of the department, Wandile Sihlobo, such a plan should prioritise high-value job-creating subsectors, and not only focus on areas where the agriculture sector is well established at the commercial level, but rather on new areas that still have untapped potential. Sihlobo says such areas involve the former homeland regions of South Africa, government land, and underperforming land reform farms. He further says the Master Plan should map these areas, along with potential agricultural activities which could be promoted. Another crucial step will be to understand why agricultural development has lagged over the past two decades in such regions, while in the commercial agriculture areas the output has more than doubled since 1994.

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