The weather is again a central focus in South Africa's agriculture

Sorghum

Published Apr 7, 2021

Tridge summary

The weather will be the main focus in South Africa's agriculture for both summer and winter crops, and to a lesser extent, horticulture in the near term. The summer crop growing areas are approaching a harvest period, with early planted soybeans and sunflower seed already being harvested across the country. In contrast, maize and sorghum harvesting has only started in a few areas, such as the early planted ones in Mpumalanga.

Original content

The harvesting process requires dry weather conditions, and the same is needed for crops that are already maturing across the country. On 31 March 2021, the South African Weather Service confirmed that South Africa is still in a La Niña state. Its multi-model rainfall forecast indicates mostly above-normal rainfall during late-autumn (Apr-May-Jun) and early-winter (May-Jun-Jul). Nevertheless, it is unclear how much rain will materialize. We hope that it will mostly be light showers with minimal impact on crops. Over the past few weeks, the weather conditions have generally been favourable across South Africa, although with frequent light rains, which so far have had minimal impact on crops. As we've noted before, the Crop Estimates Committee forecasts South Africa's 2020/21 summer grain and oilseeds production at 18,7 million tonnes, up by 6% from the 2019/20 season. The upward adjustments were on maize, soybeans, sorghum and groundnuts, whereas sunflower seed and dry bean ...

Source: Farmingportal