Drought Hurts South Africa Corn, Soy Plantings, Grain SA Says

The window for planting corn and soybeans in South Africa has passed, and with hardly anything planted in western growing ares because of drought, the likelihood of the need for imports increases, a grain farmers’ lobby group said.

“The probability of a repeat of the 2016 drought is increasing daily” Jannie de Villiers, the chief executive officer of Grain SA, said in an emailed statement Thursday. “Some of the scenarios we are facing look even grimmer than the previous drought. The financial position of most farming units in the production area are far worse than it was in 2016. The current grain prices are not high enough and thus do not favor nor encourage farmers to take a similar risk by planting beyond the optimum window, as they did in 2016.”