Hlaleleni Sikhakhane and Beauty Goge, right, work on their community garden, which sustains their families in KwaDabeka, near Pinetown. Above is their harvest.Picture: Nqobile Mbonambi Hlaleleni Sikhakhane and Beauty Goge, right, work on their community garden, which sustains their families in KwaDabeka, near Pinetown. Above is their harvest.Picture: Nqobile Mbonambi
Johannesburg - South African white-corn futures rose by the daily limit for
a second day as dry weather and forecasts for two weeks without rain raised
concern about the strength of a recovery from last year’s poor harvest.
The country’s prime corn-growing areas in the Free State and
Mpumalanga provinces had strong rain in November, following the worst drought
since records started in 1904 last year. The dry weather has returned to the
Free State this month, Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG, said by
phone.
“We were all lulled by the good rains last month but now the
forecasts show very little until at least the new year,” Van Wyk said. “In some
areas, the crop is covered with sand - it’s that dry.”
White corn for delivery in March climbed by as much as R100 ($7.16), or 2.6 percent, to R3 895 a metric ton by 9:38 a.m. in
Johannesburg. The most actively traded contract touched a low this year of R3 428 on October 10.
Read also: Favourable weather for maize farmers forecast
“Despite widespread rains over large parts of the country,
parts of the Northern Cape, Western Cape, North West, Limpopo and the Free
State are still in the grip of the worst drought this decade,” AGRI SA, the
biggest organisation representing farmers in the country, said in an e-mailed
statement Monday. “We therefore urge government and the private sector to
contribute so that we can again be in a position to support these communities
in their battle for survival.”