Three years after its publication, Wandile Sihlobo’s “A Country of Two Agricultures” continues to shape how policymakers, economists and agricultural stakeholders debate the structural inequalities embedded in South Africa’s farming sector. The book’s sustained relevance was on display on August 28, 2026, when Dr Konstantin Makrelov, Chief Economist of the South African Reserve Bank, invited Sihlobo to the SARB’s Library Book Club to discuss the work. The publisher has reported steady sales and ongoing engagement across policy circles.
At the heart of Sihlobo’s analysis is a governance failure that three decades of democracy have not resolved. Black farmers produce between 5% and 10% of total agricultural output, a figure that reflects both the persistence of historical inequalities and the inability of successive policy interventions to meaningfully shift commercial farming demographics.
The Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, introduced in 2006, illustrates how policy design itself can constrain the very advancement it is meant to enable. Under this government scheme, the state acquires farms from private owners and grants non-tradable short-term leases ranging from five to 30 years, with ownership remaining with government. The arrangement creates a damaging timeline: a farmer receiving a lease at age 30 faces the prospect of purchasing the land only at age 60, a window rendered precarious by World Bank data showing South African life expectancy at 64 in 2019. Farmers operating under such terms cannot build equity or use land as collateral, leaving them chronically undercapitalized and exposed to failure.
Sihlobo identifies four primary reasons for slow progress among black commercial farmers. National and provincial governments have failed to provide clear direction, rapid decision-making, or well-designed support programmes. New entrant farmers have struggled to adopt the latest agricultural technology, a capability that enabled established commercial operators to more than double output in real terms since 1994 while simultaneously accessing expanding export markets. Collaboration between government and the private sector remains inadequate, frustrating commodity organisations, agribusinesses and commercial farmer associations seeking to implement farmer development plans. Finally, many provincial departments of agriculture operate inefficiently, delivering poor results in critical support programmes, particularly in the former homeland regions of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo.
The accountability gap is not abstract. On April 5, 2021, Sihlobo visited Gift Mafuleka’s farm in Bronkhorstspruit, a town of approximately 3,720 people located 50 kilometres east of Pretoria in Gauteng. Mafuleka, a young black commercial farmer from the Esikhawini region of Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, had progressed to crop manager at McCain Foods South Africa before establishing his own enterprise on a leased government farm. The Cable News Network was filming a segment that day for its programme “Connecting Africa,” with journalist Eleni Giokos, showcasing success stories of African farmers. Mafuleka was harvesting cabbage on his roughly 350-hectare farm, one of several vegetables he produces. He asked Sihlobo directly about policy pathways forward for black farmer participation in commercial agriculture, a question that captures the practical urgency underlying the book’s broader argument.
Meanwhile, the incomplete picture of black farmer participation obscures some genuine progress. In wool, tomato and cattle production, black farmers contribute more than 9% of output. Commercial beef shows substantially higher inclusion, with black farmers responsible for approximately 34% of output. These gains reflect deliberate joint efforts by both the private sector and government to support black farmers in specific commodities. Official statistics, however, undercount actual participation. The 2017 agricultural census, which included only Value-Added Tax registered farmers, excluded approximately 214,800 farming households that practised commercial farming as either a primary or secondary source of income. Most operated as micro-enterprises with gross farm incomes below R500,000 annually, yet remained commercial enterprises because they sold produce. The regulatory definition, in other words, shaped what the state could see and what it chose to count.
Sihlobo’s book examines these disparities against major shifts in the agricultural landscape driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, technological innovation and changing external market conditions. The work focuses on present circumstances and future pathways rather than historical narrative, addressing often-overlooked topics including agricultural finance, the importance of trade and the intersection of agriculture and technology. Published by Tracey McDonald Publishers, it is available in major South African bookstores at a recommended retail price of R280, with a Kindle version also available.
Whether the policy frameworks governing land access and farmer support will be reformed to match the ambitions the book outlines remains the question that Mafuleka’s direct challenge to Sihlobo that April morning in Bronkhorstspruit has yet to see answered.