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/ INDUSTRY

THE SOUTH AFRICAN

AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

IN RECOVERY PHASE

DESPITE ONGOING EXTERNAL

CHALLENGES

by Mario Botha, Cotton SA

THE YEAR 2019, ONE OF THE 2019 as one of the hardest in a long time,
TOUGHEST YEARS FOR THE and it was a challenging year for the broader
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR agriculture and agribusiness sectors as well.
It has been quite a while since the South African Despite these challenges, the broader
agricultural sector has faced such a variety of industry remains remarkably robust and resilient.
negative challenges on the production side However, all entities in agriculture need to put in
and down every aspect of the value chain. place a new set of building blocks in partnership
This includes the ongoing debate regarding with government and labour, to take forward not
land expropriation, drought, climate change, only the cotton industry but other industries and
the ongoing water crisis, pest and disease the country as well. This initiative was started
occurrences, and the continuing failures of state- through the Public–Private Growth Initiative
owned entities (SOEs). Farmers experienced (PPGI) and the Masterplan Initiative announced

Volume 22 No 1 February 2020 | 15