The increasing changes in the World's economics and agriculture sector is reducing South African (SA) production agriculture's economic importance and raising questions about its life cycle. Questions have been asked about the potential of the agriculture sector to encourage broad-based economic and concerns surfaced on the declining of the importance of agriculture to economic growth. The objective of the study was to provide a complete understanding of the changing pace and nature of production and growth in SA production agriculture using a Life Cycle model and determined the current Life Cycle stage. A modified analytical framework, which evaluates economic performance over a period was utilized Findings show that SA's production agriculture appears to be in the Early Maturity Stage. The industry’s economic output is stagnant but faces an increasingly challenging future and the continued decline in Agriculture in relation to other sectors is a natural consequence of economic development. The results have implications for agriculture policy and development in SA, which include the increasing importance of off-income, government role in the agricultural sector development and the need for a managerial revolution