According to Farmer's Weekly, Willie Jacobs, CEO of Potatoes South Africa, says grain prices in the summer rainfall region could result in farmers downscaling production in favour of maize and soya bean, amongst other crops. In addition, rising production costs could result in marginal lands being taken out of production across the country, especially if prices fell below R80 per 10kg bag of potatoes. However, the wetter outlook for the summer rainfall region could result in farmers planting more potatoes in dryland areas, making up for downscaled production in other regions.

It is unacceptable that Eskom’s losses caused by corruption are recovered from paying customers. This is according to Francois Wilken, President of Free State Agriculture, in a statement. The organization’s response follows Eskom’s request to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to increase electricity costs by 20.5% from 1 April next year. Wilken referred to the losses of, among others, the Medupi and Kusile power stations, coal contracts, as well as the R37 billion that municipalities owe. Wilken says Eskom is pushing to ensure that electricity prices can be implemented by 1 April 2022. He adds that the power utility, therefore, want to submit NERSA's approved tariff to Parliament before 15 March 2022. Wilken believes that agriculture will not survive the Eskom increases, if approved, along with all the other rising input costs.  The organisation says it will make a written submission to NERSA by the deadline of 14 January.

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South Africans in large parts of the country can prepare for stormy weather that could be accompanied by thunderstorms, damaging winds and even hail. Maroela Media reported that the South African Weather Service issued an orange level 6 warning today for thunderstorms and heavy rain for Gauteng, the western parts of Mpumalanga's Highveld, the south-western parts of Limpopo and the central and eastern parts of the North West and the Free State. A yellow level 2 warning for thunderstorms has also been issued for the southern and western parts of Limpopo, the eastern and central parts of Mpumalanga, the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, and the Central and Klein-Karoo.

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