Episode description

Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.

He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.

Sihlobo is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.

Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.

He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).

Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.

His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.

In this episode, you'll discover:

-Wandile's entrepreneurial journey...01:20

-Why it's so difficult to get into agriculture as an African...02:30

-What is stopping Africa from achieving its potential economically?...06:20

-How to go about feeding the world...09:55

-The future of tech in Africa is dependent on the regulators...14:05

-Value chain and agro-processing, and what is its potential...18:30

-The impact of the ASFTA in regards to agriculture...21:30

-And much more...