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The vision by the Free State provincial leadership to reclaim the bread-basket of the nation name tag is fast becoming a reality as the agricultural sector of the province has proven to be the second largest in South Africa after the Western Cape.
Stats SA in its Agricultural Industry 2023 report recently released showed that the agricultural sector is performing well. The sector has been the pillar of the country’s economy; even in the Free State, the industry has kept the provincial economy floating.
According to the findings of the report, total income for the agricultural industry in 2023 was R491,7 billion. The total income represents an increase of 6,8% per annum compared with the income reported in the 2017 Census of Commercial Agriculture (CoCA) which was R332,0 billion.
Stats SA says in 2023, the main contributor to total income was farming of animals (R186,1 billion or 37,8%), followed by mixed farming (R115,9 billion or 23,6%) and horticulture (R103,5 billion or 21,0%).
The report further shows that the province contributing the most to total income in 2023 was Western Cape (R100,9 billion of the national total), followed by Free State (R80,2 billion), Gauteng (R55,5 billion), Mpumalanga (R52,2 billion) and North West (R52,2 billion).
The Free State agricultural sector currently led by MEC Elzabe Rockman is showing a strong return despite many challenges it is facing including that of veld fires and the recent foot and mouth disease outbreak in Kroonstad. The industry is growing with a number of small scale farmers across the province and commercial farmers also doing well.
Though the Free State province has a serious unemployment challenge, the agricultural sector managed to create 5 700 jobs between 2018 and 2023, the third largest in the country following Western Cape at 8 988 jobs and Limpopo at 5 984 jobs.
The Free State province was leading in the number of animal sales in 2023, according to the report, the leading provinces in cattle sales in 2023 were Free State (accounting for 22,9% of the national total), Gauteng (20,0%) and Mpumalanga (13,4%).
