Kulani Siweya, an agricultural economist at Agri SA, says the organisation is also eagerly awaiting to hear what the minister will say about investing in critical infrastructures, such as roads, amongst other pressing issues, in his speech. Siweya adds that the organisation is of the opinion that government needs to prioritise projects this year that will put South Africa on a sound fiscal footing in a trajectory for the future. Furthermore, in terms of what he foresees would happen with prices for fuel and fertilisers in 2022, Siweya stated that even though it is difficult to predict this, the organisation does hope that prices will come down.

The expected increase in the fuel price for March will be especially devastating for winter grain producers, who are currently gearing up to start planting. Farmer's Weekly reports this was according to Dr Ferdi Meyer, director of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy), responding to the Automobile Association’s (AA) forecast of significant increases of R1,25 per litre for 95 octane petrol, R1,24 per litre for 93 octane petrol, R1,29 per litre for diesel, and R1,22 per litre for illuminating paraffin. He added that many summer grain producers, on the other hand, were able to circumvent rapidly rising input costs, because they had already ordered agrochemicals such as fertiliser before prices increased steeply.

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The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, launched the much-awaited Farmer Register this week. The department says in a statement that it decided to undertake this important task, to understand its client base both in terms of size and scale of operation. The department worked with Stats SA and the Provincial Departments of Agriculture on the development of the model, because this is where, on a daily basis, farmers receive their services.





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