Unlike several other countries in the African continent, South Africa has not faced a food shortage in the recent past.

Logistics has always been the backbone of South Africa's export-oriented agricultural sector, although it does not always get as much attention as it has more recently due to various disruptions.

When we could travel without worrying about Covid-19, the transition of September into October each year was a fascinating time to fly over SA.

South Africa has not had three consecutive favourable agricultural seasons in a long time. The typical cycles are two seasons of large agricultural output followed by a notable decline on the back of dryness.

After falling to the lowest levels since 2014 in the first quarter of this year, South Africa's agricultural employment rebounded in the second quarter to 862 000 (up 8% year on year).

The effectiveness of government policy and programmes depends on the credibility that various role players place on such programmes and the government’s ability to implement them