Bumper harvest predicted this year
SOUTH Africa’s overall crop harvest is expected to rise by 72 percent this year following good rains that have come to major parts of the country in the past few months.
The Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz), which monitors maize estimates in the country, yesterday said that predictions by the national crop estimates committee yesterday showed that the year would yield a 16.21-million-ton crop – the largest harvest of maize since the 2013/14 production season.
Agbiz economist Wandile Sihlobo said the production would lessen the country’s dependence on imports.
Sihlobo said estimates were that white maize production would increase 114 percent to 8.31 million tons, while yellow maize would go up to reach 5.61 million tons.
Higher yields
“The uptick in yellow maize is largely driven by expected higher yields,” Sihlobo said.
“Overall, South Africa’s total maize production is estimated at 13.92 million tons, which is a 78 percent annual increase.”
A year ago, AgriSA, a lobby group that represents major crop farmers, warned that the country’s key production provinces of the North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal could be ruined as prospects for output dwindled amid the devastating drought in the key productive provinces.
The organisation said production could drop nearly 40 percent, resulting in the country being forced to import crop from overseas.
Yesterday, Sihlobo said soy bean production was also projected to be 44 percent higher at 1 070 495 tons, while sunflower seed was forecast at 928 620 tons, which would be 23 percent higher than the previous year.
“Following a historic decline in the previous season, groundnut production is set to increase threefold from last season’s crop to 88 175 tons,” said Sihlobo.
He said wheat production was revised up by 1 percent from the previous estimate to 1.90 million tons for the season.
Sihlobo said these estimates were not final.