WANDILE SIHLOBO: Farmers’ planting efforts show no sign of flagging
Data on tractor sales and crop estimates debunk the idea that land reform is discouraging activity
Many people are worried about the uncertainty surrounding the discussion about land reform policy in SA. However, some allow the fear to get ahead of themselves. A quick search on Twitter using the words “farmers stopped planting” shows a couple of tweets that inaccurately suggest this has occurred in SA, possibly due to policy uncertainty. However, the data suggest this is hardly the case. Just this week the SA Agricultural Machinery Association indicated that tractor sales were up 11% year on year in September, with 612 units sold. In the first nine months of the year tractor sales amounted to 5,001 units, up 7% from the corresponding period in 2017. On October 25 the crop estimates committee will give us an indication of farmers’ intentions with regard to planting summer crops in the 2018-2019 production season. The optimal planting window for maize and soya bean opened earlier this month in the eastern and central parts of the country, and observers such as the International Gra...
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