South Africa is a country of many challenges and is also a gateway for investors in Africa and offers enough opportunities in agriculture for investment, cooperation, expansion and trade.
New foreign agricultural investments in South Africa are to the advantage of South African farmers and assist in job-creation.
This was the central theme of a speech which Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dr. Pieter Mulder, delivered Monday morning at an international agricultural conference in Pilanesberg.
The conference was attended by the largest and most successful farmers from, amongst others, America, Russia and Portugal.
Dr. Mulder says that South Africa is still the economic giant of Africa and if the current trend continues, Africa will play an increasingly important role in the world economy.
"By the year 2040, one in every five of the planet’s young people will be living in Africa and its working population will be larger than that of China. What is of great importance for farmers is that Africa has approximately 60% of the world’s uncultivated agricultural land and a large portion of its natural resources. Yet it only delivers 10% of the world’s food, while its consumers are increasing at three times the rate of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and food production will have to increase accordingly."
According to Mulder, the biggest reason for Africa’s low food production is a shortage of large commercial farms. In Africa 85% of all farms are smaller than 2 hectares. READ MORE
Source: www.sabc.co.za #IFAMAFRICA
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