The 2024-25 season looks promising for South African agriculture

South African farmers typically till their land from mid-October in the eastern regions and mid-November in the western regions. The crops that South African farmers plant in each of these regions differ. The eastern areas are primarily yellow maize and soybeans, while the western regions are predominantly white maize and sunflower seeds. But this year, the plantings have been slightly slower than usual as we haven’t received meaningful rains yet. If you talk to farmers in rural regions of Limpopo or outside eKomani in the Eastern Cape, they will tell you that the impact of the mid-summer drought 2024 is still lingering in their area. The weather conditions have been quite dry. We have even heard some agricultural analysts speculate that the 2024-25 agricultural season may as well be a continuation of the misery of the 2023-24 season, where the heatwave from February 2024 and drier weather conditions led to major crop losses. South Africa’s 2023-24 summer grains and oilseeds ...