Low rainfall is delaying the planting of South African maize but next year's crop could still be saved if heavy rains come in the next few weeks, producer body Grain South Africa said on Wednesday. Some rain had fallen on grain producing areas east of Johannesburg and in patches of the Free State, allowing farmers to plant, but elsewhere farmers nervously await rain as they need to sow before early January, Grain SA chairman Bully Botma said. In some areas, the farmers only had weeks left, he said.
"It is a critical situation," he said. "It's too soon to say. If we get rain in the next week or so we can do the planting."
This would still leave farmers under pressure to plant, spray crops and fertilise the soil in only a couple of weeks, he said. Cattle were already suffering, with some farmers selling off livestock as grazing lands dry out, he said.
Without good rain in the next week or so, the next season's groundnut harvest might barely be planted at all, he said.
South African maize futures have rallied in recent weeks on fears of poor rainfall and a weak El Nino effect hitting crops, but some traders say the situation is little different from late 2003.
Poor rain in late 2003 meant many farmers did not plant until early January, but South Africa still had a bumper maize harvest.
"We have a very large carry-over stock from last year," said Botma. "We don't need a very large harvest to be self-sufficient."