Editor Janine Ryan says while agriculture was the strongest-performing sector of South Africa’s economy in 2020 and 2021, growth slowed down in 2022 and is expected to remain constrained in 2023.

According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the country’s GDP dropped 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022, with only three out of ten sectors showing growth.

Agriculture contracted by 3.3% from the third to fourth quarters of 2022. This was the largest decline among the various sectors, but increased by more than 10% compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.

Ryan explains that for 2022, the sector grew by only 0.3%, which was substantially lower than the previous two years. The contraction can be attributed to global as well as domestic challenges, including load-shedding.

ALSO READ: Missed pothole targets ‘must be seen as work in progress’

In another story, the KwaZulu-Natal agriculture union recently called on its members, agri-businesses and the public to report potholes through SANRAL’s operation Valazonke, a pothole reporting app which was launched in October 2022.

CEO of the union Sandy La Marque said SANRAL had informed the organisation that all entries logged by the app would receive attention.

La Marque encourages those who use rural roads to log potholes and road issues on the app.

In the feature section this week, Farmer’s Weekly speaks to a farmer in Mpumalanga’s Bethel region about how he has diversified farming operations.

Jan Grey says that with so many variables in the farming landscape, diversification is a useful strategy to ensure a steady cash flow and spread risk. 

However, he says managing multiple divisions comes with its own challenges. In the article, he shares the management requirements of each division and how he decides what divisions to continue investing in.

OFM News