The organisation says the excessive rains, high input costs, and persistent load shedding presented various risks to farmers. File photo
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey results demonstrated yet again the outsized contribution of the agricultural sector to the country’s economy and underscored the urgent need to protect the sector from the job-killing impact of load shedding, says Agri SA.
Christo van der Rheede, the CEO at Agri SA, said on Thursday that the agricultural sector continued to punch above its weight in terms of job creation.
“While employment decreased by 0.2% nationally, employment in the sector increased by 3.2%. And though the sector represents 1.5 % of nominal GDP, it makes up 5.4% of the jobs in the country,” Van der Rheede said.
He said these figures highlighted the centrality of the agricultural sector to the South African economy and underscored the need to provide targeted relief to the sector from the scourge of load shedding that threatens both jobs and food security in the country.
Agri SA said since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sector had endured substantial increases in the cost of agricultural inputs.
The agricultural organisation said this inflationary pressure alone threatened the financial viability of farming operations across the country.
What had compounded this hardship had been the escalation of load shedding, which had added an extraordinary increase to the cost of energy for irrigation, cold storage and other agricultural and agro-processing systems.
Van der Rheede said as the country continued to battle a protracted crisis of unemployment, it must recognise and support the labour-intensive sectors that underpinned job creation in South Africa.
“Agri SA will, therefore, continue to work to ensure that the agricultural sector receives the relief it needs to maintain vital livelihoods and protect the country’s food security.”|
On Tuesday in reaction to the release of this year’s first quarter QLFS data, by Statistics SA (Stats SA), the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) said it painted an encouraging picture of agricultural employment.
Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist at Agbiz, said in the first quarter of this year, about 888 000 people were employed in primary agriculture, up 3% quarter-on-quarter and 5% year-on-year. This was well above the long-term agricultural employment of 780 000.
“From a regional perspective, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng were the significant drivers of this employment. At the same time, other provinces showed a slight decline compared to levels seen in the first quarter of 2022.
“The robust production conditions of various field crops, fruits, forestry and aquaculture were behind the improvement in agricultural jobs in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the livestock industry saw a decline in employment, which is unsurprising given the pressures presented by the higher feed costs at the start of the year and animal diseases for much of 2022 and into 2023,” Sihlobo said.
Agbiz said admittedly, while the agricultural season, mainly field crops and fruits, was promising, the start of the year was rough.
Excessive rains, high input costs, and persistent load shedding presented various risks to farmers.
As a result, crop planting in different regions of the country was delayed by roughly a month, threatening yield prospects.
“But the warm weather at the end of January and much of February helped improve conditions on the farms,” Agbiz said.
Moreover, various interventions to ease the load-shedding burden on farmers, such as load curtailment, expansion of the diesel rebate to the food value chain and, most recently, the launch of the Agro-Energy Fund, all supported the production conditions.
“Hence, the 2022/23 maize harvest is estimated at 15.9 million tons, 3% higher than the 2021/22 season’s harvest and the third-largest harvest on record. In addition, the soybeans harvest is estimated at a record 2.8 million tons. South Africa’s sugar cane crop will likely increase by 3% to 18.5 million tons in 2023/24. Other field crops and fruits also show prospects for decent harvests this season, which supports better employment prospects in the sector.”
Sihlobo said from now on, the rising geopolitical tensions, deteriorating infrastructure, crime and the general impact of these factors on trade were key issues they would monitor as these would influence farm profitability and job prospects.
“An export-oriented agricultural sector like South Africa requires a favourable global environment, increasing investment, and efficient logistics to thrive.”
Willouw Goosen, key account manager at Bridgestone Southern Africa, said agriculture played a significant economic role in South Africa. The company said besides producing much of the food people ate, the sector was responsible for exporting products worth $9.5 billion (R184bn) annually.
“In a country starved for jobs, it is a massive employer – around 868 000 people work in agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing. All in all, according to Statista, the sector adds R129bn to the country’s gross domestic product,” Goosen said.
What was less well known, perhaps, was that around 80% of South Africa’s agricultural output was produced by between 5 000 and 7 000 farmers.
Goosen said these high-performance farmers were highly reliant on technology, and were renowned as early adopters of new technologies, from automated irrigation through to the use of data to derive insights into weather patterns, animal and plant foods, and even market movements.
He said the increased use of technology played a big part in reducing agriculture’s impact on the environment while continuing to increase yields.
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