As we bid farewell to the summer rainfall and get ready to welcome autumn, farmers shared the results of the inconsistent amount of rainfall experienced in different parts of the country.
According to KwaZulu-Natal crop and maize farmer Zandile Cele, they experienced excessive summer rain which led to challenges for farmers.
Hoping for the best
The heavy rainfall, she said, resulted in crops like maize and potatoes being drenched in water, impacting their growth and leading to lower yield. Overall, Cele believes the harvest for these crops may not meet expectations due to the unfavourable weather conditions.
“The results of our summer season were mixed due to unpredictable weather patterns. While some regions experienced favourable conditions leading to a good harvest, others faced challenges such as excessive rain or drought.
“In some cases, farmers may have struggled due to factors beyond their control such as unfavourable weather conditions impacting crop growth and yield,” Cele said.
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She explained that during planting season, there were significant challenges primarily related to adverse weather conditions.
“The soil was excessively wet delaying the planting process as it was not conducive to proper seed placement and germination.”
Cele said farmers in her area had to wait until the planting season was nearly over to begin, which compressed the planting window and increased the risk of lower yields.
“Additionally, those who attempted to plant despite the unfavourable conditions faced issues with fast-growing weeds due to the moisture, further complicating the situation,” she said.
Challenges for grain industry
Meanwhile, Grain SA senior economist Corne Louw shared his projections for the year 2024 and said white maize was adjusted downwards compared to the previous season by 17.21% to 7,040,900 million tons. This was the fifth-lowest estimate in the last 10 years and second-lowest estimate in the last five years.
He explained that yellow maize was also adjusted downwards by 7.65% compared to the previous season to 7,318,400 million tons, which was the fourth-lowest estimate in the last 10 years and the third-lowest estimate in the last five years.
“The yellow maize had its lowest harvest was 2019 or 2020 with 5,730,000 in five years. Yellow average in five years has totaled to six tons a hectare,” he said.
“There are definitely challenges during this current season. Initially, the season looked very promising in the biggest part of the country. However, there has not been sufficient rain in western parts of the country as well as parts of Mpumalanga,” he said.
Urgent rain is needed for recovery
Louw said urgent rain is needed to still produce the estimates released by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC). There were also parts in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal that have had hail damage and storms.
“The rain was not what was expected in January and February of this year and urgent rain is needed, as it was not sufficient up to this point for a very big part of the cultivated area in SA,” he said.
Nkosana Mthimkulu, a maize farmer from North West, has not begun harvesting yet and is still waiting for March for consistent rainfall.
“It is too early to take harvest, I think. In the North West, the rains came late which made us plant late. We were fortunate to experience the rains of early and mid-January. The ‘mid-summer drought’ began at the end of January. It has been dry ever since but let us see what March has in store,” he said.
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