The issue of land reform is one of the thorniest topics that South Africa faces, with serious social, economic and political implications. The apartheid regime left land concentrated in the hands of the white minority, a situation that has proved difficult to redress fairly and efficiently. Land reform is closely connected to the agricultural...
Articles & Analysis | Land reform seeks to address South Africa's historical imbalances from The Report: South Africa 2016
Chapter | Agriculture from The Report: South Africa 2016
Contributing more than $15bn per year to the national economy, South Africa’s agriculture sector has historically been one of the strongest on the continent. Diversified and increasingly export-oriented, it enjoyed a strong year in 2014, on the back of a healthy maize crop and demand from abroad. However, 2015 looks set to be a more difficult year for parts of the sector, particularly maize...
The second-largest economy in Africa after Nigeria, South Africa benefits from some of the most sophisticated financial markets in the world, paired with a robust regulatory system, and is also home to the headquarters of a number of major multinational players in the fields of industry, energy and financial services.
Articles & Analysis | Subsidies to promote fertiliser use in Ghana have been largely successful from The Report: Ghana 2016
In 2008 Ghana implemented the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP), aimed at using fertiliser to boost overall crop productivity. While it increased domestic consumption, it also entailed considerable financial outlay. From the GHS395.2m ($109.7m) allocated to the agriculture sector in the 2015 national budget, about GHS347.2m ($96.3m) – or 87.9...
Articles & Analysis | Ghana's government invites agricultural conglomerates to develop huge tracts of land from The Report: Ghana 2016
Land ownership and transactions are among the largest obstacles to the development of Ghana’s agricultural sector. Smallholder farms of less than 3 ha continue to account for around 90% of agricultural producers, with traditional land ownership structures acting as an impediment to attempts to consolidate arable land into larger tracts that...