SA boosts estimates for 2017 maize crop
Farmers may harvest at an estimated 14.32 million tonnes of maize in 2017, which represents the third-biggest maize crop on record.
GregMontani via pixabay
Favourable weather conditions have enabled producers to increase the area planted to summer crops, with maize output now expected to be 84% higher in 2017 than in 2016.
In its second estimate for the year, on Tuesday the Crop Estimates Committee said it had revised the maize output estimate by 2.91% from the first estimate.
The three main maize producing areas, namely the Free State, Mpumalanga and the North West were expected to produce 82% of the 2017 maize crop.
However, the production forecast for sunflower seed was expected to drop 3.51% to 896,060 tonnes, while that of soybean would increase 8.59% to 1.070 million tonnes.
Source: BDpro