On February 6, Business Day published a piece by Wandile Sihlobo in which he detailed the growing trend in the communal areas of the Eastern Cape where agricultural land is increasingly being used for settlement purposes.  This article struck a chord as it could easily have been written about any province in South Africa, such is the magnitude of the trend. South Africa may be a rather large country but only 13% of our land surface is suitable for crop production, with only 2% to 3% truly being regarded as high potential. Agbiz head of Legal Intelligence Theo Boshoff provides more insight on how the draft Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Bill seeks to address just that in the linked article written for and first published in Business Day.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands conducted a study on the current state of  fruit and vegetable agro-processing in South Africa. The study has now been concluded and published. It describes the current challenges and identifies the extent to which the agro-processing industry can add value, with the aim of limiting imports. The study provides recommendations and identifies Dutch technologies and solutions which are applicable to the South African context. A  summary of its findings were presented at the Southern African Business Dialogue in The Netherlands, organised by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) in collaboration with some Dutch Embassies in Southern Africa on 11 January 2019. Please click here to peruse.

"A wave of bankruptcies is sweeping the US Farm Belt as trade disputes add pain to the low commodity prices that have been grinding down American farmers for years. Throughout much of the Midwest, US farmers are filing for chapter 12 bankruptcy protection at levels not seen for at least a decade. Bankruptcies in three regions covering major farm states last year rose to the highest level in at least 10 years. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, had double the bankruptcies in 2018 compared with 2008. In the Eighth Circuit, which includes states from North Dakota to Arkansas, bankruptcies swelled 96%. The 10th Circuit, which covers Kansas and other states, last year had 59% more bankruptcies than a decade earlier." Please click here to read the full article published in Wall Street Journal.

The revised Expropriation Bill was recently published, and the public was requested to submit comments before 21 February. In an interview on KykNET's programme Grootplaas, Agbiz head of Legal Intelligence Theo Boshoff elaborated on the current state of affairs regarding  the revised Expropriation Bill. Please click here to watch the interview.

South Africa's primary agricultural employment improved marginally to  849 000  jobs in the last quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter. Although this data is encouraging in a climate where South Africa is exploring strategies that could unlock job creation in the agricultural sector, the country is still far behind its target of creating a million agricultural jobs by 2030 as envisaged in the National Development Plan. What's more, if the underutilised land in the former homelands and other parts of the country are not brought into full production with a key focus on labour-intensive subsectors, notable job creation in South Africa's agriculture will not materialise. Fortunately, the President in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) signalled a positive message on this.  Agbiz head of Agribusiness Research Wandile Sihlobo provides more insight in the  linked article .