JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African farmers are expected to plant maize over an area 5.3% smaller than last year due to excessive rain during the planting season, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Thursday.
The CEC forecast a 6.9% drop in the area planted for white maize, and a 2.8% drop in the area planted for yellow maize. Overall farmers were expected to plant 2,609,700 hectares of maize, down from 2,755,400 hectares in 2021.
(Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Promit Mukherjee)
