WANDILE SIHLOBO: Comforting weather forecasts point to good rains for crops
The weather service expects a weak La Niña, which could bring moderate precipitation
We are about a month away from the start of the 2022/2023 summer crop season. Farmers in SA’s eastern regions, which includes the eastern Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, will start planting by mid-October. This will primarily be summer grains and oilseeds.
The northern hemisphere has experienced extreme heat and drought in the past few months, prompting me to wonder whether there will be similar extremes in the upcoming season in the southern hemisphere. We are in a La Niña cycle, which means the typical weather conditions would be higher rainfall for Southern Africa, and drought for East Africa and South America. Therefore, extreme weather events could mean excessive rains in Southern Africa, while other regions would remain dry...
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