#grains and #cereals are #SouthAfrica's most important crops, occupying more than 60 percent of hectare under cultivation in the 1990s. Maize, the country's most important crop, is a dietary staple, a source of livestock feed, and an export crop. Government programs, including generous loans and extension services, have been crucial to the country's self-sufficiency in this enterprise. Maize is grown primarily in North-West, Mpumalanga, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. As of the mid-1990s, maize production generated at least 150,000 jobs in years with good rainfall and used almost one-half of the inputs of the

Based on prehistorical archaeological evidence of pastoralism and farming in Southern Africa, ancient settlements closest outside the present-day South African border region, related to Bantu language speaking peoples, so far was found in sites located in the southernmost region inside the borders of what is now Mozambique, and dated 354–68 BCE. Findings similarly based on pastoralism and farming within South Africa thus far – is from sites identified in what was the Transvaal (province), they were dated 249–370 CE.[17] The earliest written record of farming life in South Africa by Europeans starts slightly after 1500 CE.