A round of applause for SA grain farmers

South African grain producers should give themselves a pat on the back after the excellent harvest of the 2021/22 season.

This was according to Dr Pieter Taljaard, CEO of Grain SA, who added that the country’s maize producers delivered 15,3 million tons of grain during the season, the third-largest harvest ever produced in South Africa.

Speaking at the recent 2023 Grain SA Congress, Taljaard said that the past year was characterised by the effects of the ongoing RussiaUkraine war and its negative impact on grain producers worldwide.

Despite this and the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, he said that South African grain producers had shown true grit and achieved outstanding harvests.

“Sunflower producers delivered 845 550t, the biggest harvest since the 2017/18 season. We also realised a record soya bean harvest of 2,2 million tons.

“It was indeed a blessed year for South African grain and oil seed producers,” Taljaard said.

As far as Grain SA’s plans for the year to come were concerned, Taljaard said the organisation wanted to increase its engagement with other role players along the grain value chain to promote interaction and consensus in the industry.

He added that this included greater co-operation between agricultural structures to address joint issues and challenges.

“If the commercial agriculture sector doesn’t present a united front, it won’t be able to play an optimal role in addressing the challenges facing the industry going forward,” he said.

Taljaard added that technological matters such as the grain grading system also needed to be addressed.

This system had been in use since the deregulation of the grain industry following the advent of democracy South Africa in 1994. As a result, it had, over the years, presented a number of challenges, including the visual grading of grain.

According to him, this process needed to be replaced by a technologydriven method in order to ensure consistent grading systems.

The implementation of technology would also make genetic determination possible in grains such as barley and soya beans.

Taljaard also expressed concern about the slow registration process for grain-production inputs such as new cultivars and crop-protection products.