WANDILE SIHLOBO: Farmers in recovery mode after fraught summer season
The 2023/24 summer crop may have fallen as much as 22% from the previous season
By this time next month the fields across the eastern regions of SA will likely be a hive of activity. Farmers will be tilling the land for the 2024/25 summer grains and oilseed production season in mid-October. It will be another month before the western regions start to till the land, from mid-November.
The variation in the optimal planting windows is mainly due to differences in rainfall patterns. From now on through the season the weather outlook will remain a primary focus for agricultural stakeholders. We are emerging from a challenging 2023/24 summer grains and oilseed season, which resulted in major crop losses. The latest figures from the crop estimates committee show the 2023/24 summer crop may have fallen as much as 22% from the previous season, to 15.69-million tonnes. ..
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