Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber, presidential envoy on agriculture and land, and a columnist for The Common Sense, tells Gabriel Makin about his trip to the Eastern Cape with President Cyril Ramaphosa. The state has begun releasing about 2.5 million hectares of land that it bought from 2006 onwards, this time with title deeds rather than leases. Wandile explains why this matters for farmers, who cannot borrow against land they only lease. He estimates, along with Johann Kirsten of Stellenbosch University, that the land is worth about R12.8 billion. Gabriel and Wandile go on to discuss what the release means for property rights and the Expropriation Act, the three parts of land reform, and the Land Bank’s decision to pause new applications for blended finance, which Wandile expects to be replenished. Wandile describes how beneficiaries will be chosen and how agriculture could add between 300 000 and 500 000 jobs. He ends with the season ahead, in which farmers expect to plant about 4.5 million hectares of summer crops despite high diesel and fertiliser costs and the risk of an El Niño drought.