South Africa’s already strained trade relationship with the United States has suffered another setback after the Trump administration announced that the country will lose its preferential access to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from 1 January 2027. Rwanda has also been excluded from the programme.
South Africa’s communal farmers collectively own 47 percent of the country’s livestock but supply just eight percent of the formal red meat market.
South Africa’s rural development debate often starts with a familiar idea: if rural households have more land, they can produce more food, earn more money and become “emerging farmers” who eventually develop into commercial farmers.
It’s not often the subject of press headlines or television news broadcasts; fiscal deficits, sovereign debt levels, and sluggish economic growth are the usual attention grabbers.
South African farmers know that weather is one of the biggest factors determining the success of a farming season.
