The Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) Agro-Climate Network, comprising over 500 automatic weather stations situated across the country, enables agrometeorology researchers to monitor and study the effects of weather events on South Africa’s agricultural activities.
From the Reconstruction and Development Programme of President Mandela to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of President Mbeki, the National Development Plan of President Zuma and recently the Reconstruction and Economic Recovery Plan of President Ramaphosa, agriculture has always been tipped as a key generator of jobs and economic activity in rural South Africa.
Following on the success of the first Grow for Gold National Yield Competition hosted by Grain SA last year, the organisation is excited to announce the launch of the 2021 competition.
From the reconstruction and development programme of president Nelson Mandela to the accelerated and shared growth initiative of president Thabo Mbeki, the national development plan of president Jacob Zuma and most recently the economic reconstruction and recovery plan of President Cyril Ramaphosa, agriculture has long been tipped as a key generator of jobs and economic activity in rural SA.
At the start of the year, we expressed an optimistic view that South Africa's maize prices (and to an extent soybean and sunflower seed) could begin to soften from around the end of February 2021.
The higher grain prices and a decline in cattle slaughtering activity over the past few months have started to transmit into the prices of products consumers pay when doing their groceries.
