Summer crop plantings data shows better-than-expected outlook in South Africa
South Africa
Published Jan 29, 2022
Tridge summary
The excessive rains since the start of South Africa’s 2021/22 summer crop production season in October 2021 have raised concerns that farmers might not have been able to till the initially planned 4.34-million hectares, industry organisation the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) says. Preliminary plantings data released on January 27 by the Crop Estimates Committee showed that expectation to be accurate.
Original content
However, Agbiz says the actual plantings data includes some positives, as many analysts, including the organisation, thought it would be a much smaller area. Farmers are estimated to have planted 4.21-million hectares, which is 3% less than their target at the start of the season. The slight declines are in maize, soybeans, groundnuts, sorghum and dry beans. Meanwhile, sunflower seed plantings are up from the initial targets. Agbiz posits that the best way to view this data is by comparing it with the area planted in the 2020/21 production season, and from this perspective, farmers planted 0.4% more hectares. The increase is on sunflower seed (up 21% year-on-year with 580 000 ha) and soybeans (up 10% year-on-year with 910 000 ha). For these crops, the estimated area is above the ten-year average plantings, and is also a record area for soybeans, Agbiz acclaims. Other crops’ area declined, specifically maize, whose plantings fell by 5% year-on-year, with 2.61-million hectares. ...
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