Farmers may harvest at an estimated 14.32-million tonnes of maize in 2017, which represents the third-biggest maize crop on record. Favourable weather conditions have enabled producers to increase the area planted to summer crops, with maize output now expected to be 84% higher in 2017 than in 2016. In its second estimate for the year on Tuesday, the Crop Estimates Committee said it had revised up the maize output estimate 2.91% from the first estimate. The three main maize producing areas, namely the Free State, Mpumalanga and the North West were expected to produce 82% of the 2017 maize crop. However, the production forecast for sunflower seed was expected to drop 3.51% to 896,060 tonnes, while that of soybean would increase 8.59% to 1.070-million tonnes.
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