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Agbiz hopeful SA will weather fall armyworm challenge

───   SABRINA DEAN 07:36 Tue, 21 Feb 2017

Agbiz hopeful SA will weather fall armyworm challenge | News Article
Photo: Sabrina Dean/OFM News

Bloemfontein - If the rest of the season goes according to plan, South Africa could produce over 50% more maize than last year.


This is according to Agbiz economist, Wandile Sihlobo, who says the agricultural business chamber is of the view South Africa’s maize crop could reach 11.9 million tons this year. He says this is a conservative estimate compared to the US Department of Agriculture’s prediction for South Africa of nearly 13 million tons.

Sihlobo says while the fall army worm could pose a challenge, hopes are that South Africa will be spared the worst. “It appears – at least from where we are sitting – as if it is in isolated areas. Yes, it is definitely one of the critical things to watch out for but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a crisis.

“We have the Daff (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) and many guys in organised agriculture looking at this. There is also the fact that we are planting a lot more GM maize, 85% of our maize is GM. It might be affected but I think it puts us in a much better place than the rest of the region.”

Commenting on other commodities, Sihlobo says there is some concern about reports of sclerotinia, or white mold, in some sunflower fields in North West.

“Some pockets of the province are seeing sclerotinia affecting some of the sunflower crops but we hope that the farmers will be able to spray and control that in time.”

The full morning market commentary report by Agbiz can be downloaded here:

20170220 Agbiz Morning Market Viewpoint on Agri-Commodities.pdf

- OFM News

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