The agricultural sector added 6 825 job quarter on quarter and 20 624 year on year in the second quarter of 2023, according to Statistics SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
In the second quarter of this year, about 894 000 people were employed in primary agriculture, up 1% quarter-on-quarter and 2% year-on-year, the highest level since 2016.
The agricultural sector added 6 825 job quarter on quarter and 20 624 year on year in the second quarter of 2023, according to Statistics SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said yesterday the data painted an encouraging picture of agricultural employment.
“This is the highest farm employment level since the last quarter of 2016 and is well above the long-term agricultural employment of 780 000. From a regional perspective, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal were the significant drivers of this employment,” Sihlobo said.
Agbiz said the robust production conditions of various field crops, forestry and aquaculture were behind the improvement in agricultural jobs in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the livestock industry saw modest improvement, which was unsurprising as the industry still dealt with the tail-end effects of the rough period of foot-and-mouth disease and higher feed costs among the industry’s pressures. There was a notable decline also in the game industry and production of organic fertiliser facilities, it said.
Overall, this notable improvement in employment in the second quarter was unsurprising as South Africa had a robust field crop and horticulture harvest following favourable rainfall, Agbiz said.
“At the start of the season, production was threatened by persistent load shedding. Still, the various interventions to ease the load shedding burden on farmers, such as load curtailment, expansion of the diesel rebate to the food value chain, and most private sector investment in alternative energy sources, all supported the production conditions.”
It added that hence, the 2022/23 maize harvest was estimated at 16.4 million tons, 6% higher than the 2021/22 season’s harvest and the second-largest harvest on record. Soybeans harvest could reach a record 2.8 million tons.
South Africa’s sugar cane crop would likely increase by 3% to 18.5 million tons in 2023/24. Other field crops and fruits also showed prospects for decent harvest this season, which underpinned favourable jobs data.
“In the coming weeks, the focus will also be on the effectiveness of the recently announced Agro-Energy Fund and the application details,” Sihlobo said.
According to the International Trade Administration overview published in May this year, the agricultural sector contributed around 10% to South Africa’s total export earnings in financial year 2021 at a value of $12 billion (R230bn).
BUSINESS REPORT