Côte d'Ivoire had the largest share of agricultural land area in Africa in 2022. That year, the agricultural land area corresponded to around 84 percent of the country's area. Burundi, Rwanda, Lesotho, and South Africa followed, with agricultural activities accounting for roughly 82.8, 81.3, 80.1, and 79.4 percent of the total area, respectively. In contrast, the lowest percentages were registered in Seychelles (3.4 percent), Equatorial Guinea (3.7 percent), and Egypt (4.1 percent).

South Africa Agriculture Market is Segmented by Commodity Type (Cereals and Grains, Pulses and Oilseeds, and More). The Report Includes Production Analysis (Volume), Consumption Analysis (Value and Volume), Import Analysis (Value and Volume), Export Analysis (Value and Volume), and Price Trend Analysis. The Market Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD) and Volume (Metric Tons).

This edition of the Abstract of Agricultural Statistics contains South African agricultural statistics of major importance that were available up to December 2017. The "Abstract" contains meaningful information on, inter alia, field crops, horticulture, livestock, important indicators and the contribution of agriculture.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, approximately 243,000 South Africans residing in the Western Cape were working in the agriculture industry, marking a year-on-year change increase of 11,000 people being employed. The KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces revealed high numbers of people being employed within the industry as well, at 153,000 and 129,000, respectively.

South Africa ZA: Cereal Yield: per Hectare data was reported at 3,809.500 kg/ha in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 3,536.700 kg/ha for 2015. South Africa ZA: Cereal Yield: per Hectare data is updated yearly, averaging 1,876.750 kg/ha from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2016, with 56 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,894.000 kg/ha in 2014 and a record low of 911.400 kg/ha in 1965. South Africa ZA: Cereal Yield: per Hectare data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank.WDI: Agricultural Production and Consumption. Cereal yield, measured as kilograms per hectare of harvested land, includes wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, and mixed grains. Production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed, or silage and those used for grazing are excluded. The FAO allocates production data to the calendar year in which the bulk of the harvest took place. Most of a crop harvested near the end of a year will be used in the following year.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Weighted average;

GDP from Agriculture in South Africa increased to 140024.26 ZAR Million in the third quarter of 2025 from 138524.26 ZAR Million in the second quarter of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - South Africa Gdp From Agriculture - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Actual value and historical data chart for South Africa Agricultural Land Percent Of Land Area

As of 2023, Niger registered the agricultural sector's highest contribution to the GDP in Africa, at over ** percent. Comoros and Ethiopia followed, with agriculture, forestry, and fishing accounting for approximately ** percent and ** percent of the GDP, respectively. On the other hand, Botswana, Djibouti, Libya, Zambia, and South Africa were the African countries with the lowest percentage of the GDP generated by the agricultural sector. Agriculture remains a pillar of Africa’s economy Despite the significant variations across countries, agriculture is a key sector in Africa. In 2022, it represented around ** percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, growing by over *** percentage points compared to 2011. The agricultural industry also strongly contributes to the continent’s job market. The number of people employed in the primary sector in Africa grew from around *** million in 2011 to *** million in 2021. In proportion, agriculture employed approximately ** percent of Africa’s working population in 2021. Agricultural activities attracted a large share of the labor force in Central, East, and West Africa, which registered percentages over the regional average. On the other hand, North Africa recorded the lowest share of employment in agriculture, as the regional economy relies significantly on the industrial and service sectors. Cereals are among the most produced crops Sudan and South Africa are the African countries with the largest agricultural areas. Respectively, they devote around *** million and **** million hectares of land to growing crops. Agricultural production varies significantly across African countries in terms of products and volume. Cereals such as rice, corn, and wheat are among the main crops on the continent, also representing a staple in most countries. The leading cereal producers are Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. Together, they recorded a cereal output of almost *** million metric tons in 2021. Additionally, rice production was concentrated in Nigeria, Egypt, Madagascar, and Tanzania.

Actual value and historical data chart for South Africa Agriculture Value Added Annual Percent Growth

As of 2023, maize had the largest harvested crop area in South Africa, covering approximately 2.6 million hectares. Soya beans ranked second, with around 1.1 million hectares harvested. In the 2022/2023 season, South Africa exported maize and related products of more than three million metric tons.

The South Africa Agricultural Machinery Market is Segmented by Type (Tractors, Plowing and Cultivating Machinery, Planting Machinery, Harvesting Machinery, Haying and Forage Machinery, and Irrigation Machinery). The Market Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD).

South Africa: Agriculture value added, billion USD: The latest value from 2024 is 11.69 billion U.S. dollars, an increase from 9.96 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In comparison, the world average is 27.33 billion U.S. dollars, based on data from 150 countries. Historically, the average for South Africa from 1960 to 2024 is 4.92 billion U.S. dollars. The minimum value, 0.79 billion U.S. dollars, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 11.69 billion U.S. dollars was recorded in 2024.

South Africa agriculture market is valued at USD 17.3 billion, driven by food demand, tech advancements, and exports of USD 13.7 billion, with growth in crop and livestock segments.

Actual value and historical data chart for South Africa Agriculture Value Added Us Dollar

This dataset was produced as part of the Radiant Earth Spot the Crop Challenge. The objective of the competition was to create a machine learning model to classify fields by crop type from images collected during the growing season by the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellites.

Graph and download economic data for Infra-Annual Labor Statistics: Employment: Economic Activity: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing: Total for South Africa (LFEAAGTTZAA647N) from 2000 to 2024 about South Africa, agriculture, and employment.

Actual value and historical data chart for South Africa Percentage Of Graduates From Tertiary Education Graduating From Agriculture Programmes Both Sexes Percent

Context

Abstract: Surveys for more than 9,500 households were conducted in the growing seasons 2002/2003 or 2003/2004 in eleven African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Niger and Senegal in western Africa; Egypt in northern Africa; Ethiopia and Kenya in eastern Africa; South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe in southern Africa. Households were chosen randomly in districts that are representative for key agro-climatic zones and farming systems. The data set specifies farming systems characteristics that can help inform about the importance of each system for a country’s agricultural production and its ability to cope with short- and long-term climate changes or extreme weather events. Further it informs about the location of smallholders and vulnerable systems and permits benchmarking agricultural systems characteristics.

Content

The data file contains survey data collected from different families and has 9597 rows that represent the households and 1753 columns with details about the households. The questionnaire was organized into seven sections and respondents were asked to relate the information provided to the previous 12 months’ farming season. There are too many columns to describe here, however they are described in detail in this paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201620?WT.ec_id=SDATA-201605

• Questionnaire.pdf: This file contains the questionnaire used, a description for each variable name and the question ID.

• SurveyManual.pdf: This file gives further information on the household questionnaire, the research design and surveying. It was produced for the team leaders and interviewers in the World Bank/GEF project.

• AdaptationCoding.pdf: This file describes codes for variables ‘ad711’ to ‘ad7625’ from section VII of the questionnaire on adaptation options.

There is also some description in how the data was collected in Survey.pdf.

Acknowledgements

Waha, Katharina; Zipf, Birgit; Kurukulasuriya, Pradeep; Hassan, Rashid (2016): An agricultural survey for more than 9,500 African households. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.1574094

https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201620?WT.ec_id=SDATA-201605

The original DTA file was converted to CSV

Inspiration

This dataset contains a huge amount of information related to farming households in Africa. Data like these are important for studying the impact of global warming on African agriculture and farming families.

In 2023, the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry in South Africa contributed an added value of nearly ***** billion South African Rand (roughly **** billion U.S. dollars) to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This presents an decrease from the previous year, when it reached approximately ***** billion Rand (around **** billion U.S. dollars).

The data set were generated through on-farm field trials that were established in Maluti-a-Phofung municipality, situated in the eastern Free State province of South Africa as part of a project entitled" Innovations in Technology, Institutional and Extension Approaches towards Sustainable Agriculture and enhanced Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (Acronym-InnovAfrica)". This project was implemented by a consortium of 16 institutions from Africa and Europe continents across six African countries (viz. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania) from June 2017 to November 2021. Farmer-led trials were established for three planting seasons (2017/2018 to 2019/2020) to demonstrate, test and upscale the best-bet sustainable agricultural intensification practices for improved food and nutrition security in smallholder settings.