South Africa: Planted Area for Summer Field Crops at a 20 year High

South Africa is continuing to experiencing a positive trend in the area planted with summer rainfall field crops during the past two decades. As a result, South African farmers planted a 20-year high of 4.1 million hectares with summer rainfall field crops in the 2020/21 MY. This trend is mainly driven by an increase in soybean plantings. Due to increased local demand through investments in oilseed processing plants?and the increased affinity by farmers to use soybeans as a rotational crop with corn, soybean plantings increased by more than 6-fold over the past 20 years. Adding favorable weather conditions to the 20-year high in plantings, South Africa’s agricultural industry is optimistic that a bumper summer rainfall crop could be produced in the 2020/21 MY.

South Africa: Planted Area for Summer Field Crops at a 20 year High