South Africa is a diverse agricultural economy made up of 40,000 commercial farms according to the recently published Census of Commercial Agriculture (CoCA) of 2017 Report.
An agricultural powerhouse that feeds Africa, its economic health affects many other countries that rely on its agricultural produce from grains to meats.
The major types of farming activities in South Africa are Growing of cereals and other crops, Horticulture, Farming of animals, Mixed farming (growing of crops combined with farming of animals), and Agricultural services and fertiliser production. The CoCA 2017 revealed that Mixed Farming (growing of crops combined with farming of animals) is the most trending in South Africa. In 2007, there were 9 104 mixed farming operations, and in 2017, there they grew to 12 458.
Farm land ownership in Africa is a controversial matter that has sparked conversation in several countries’ parliaments, yet can be reduced to the willingness of those intending to own a farm having to just start from somewhere, scaling up production from communal to commercial. In South Africa, there is a silent revolution of black owned farming enterprises in the provinces, and many turning their homesteads into farms, producing crops and vegetables for the nearby towns and cities. There is progress, and that progress is creating an agriconomy of South Africa, to feed Africa.
In 2018, Agricultural exports reached a record level of $10.6-billion. South Africa has a market-oriented agricultural sector that is vastly diversified and includes the production of all the major grains with the exception of rice. South Africa’s grain industry, comprising barley, maize, oats, sorghum and wheat, is one of the largest agricultural industries in the country, contributing more than 30% to the total gross value of agricultural production (Export Gov, 2017).
South Africa is the 34th largest export economy in the world and the 47th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI); the most diversified Agriconomy in Africa.
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