Agriculture sector boosts economy

ACCORDING to the gross domestic product (GDP) figures released by the Statistician General last week, agriculture created an additional 39 000 jobs.- a 3.1% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Agriculture remains critical for employment and food security.

It also delivers more jobs per Rand invested than any other sector.

The industry’s growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 was mainly the result of higher production of animal products.

This is despite challenges with animal and pest disease outbreaks and the persisting drought.

The size of the commercial maize crop is reported at 16 820 million tons, 76 000 tons higher than the previous forecast of 16 744 million tons.

For white maize, the recalculated crop size is 9 916 million tons (0.24% higher than the previous forecast), while yellow maize is reported at 6 904 million tons (up by 0.77%).

Total beef slaughtering declined by 4.1% in the fourth quarter of 2017, and it is expected that slaughtering will continue to decline in 2018 as herd rebuilding continues after the recovery of good rains and improved grazing conditions.

In his State of the Nation address, President Ramaphosa spoke about the importance of this sector and the 14% budget increase will see the sector increasing its contribution to the economy.

The department will reprioritise R581.7-million for the black producer commercialisation programme.

This will see increased production across all commodities and transform the sector, contributing significantly to poverty alleviation and development of rural economies and the sustainability of food supply.

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