Crop farmers in the Free State say they had a fairly good harvest season in 2023. This was despite erratic power cuts due to load shedding and bad weather.
Free State Agri says they’re looking forward to another good season in 2024.
Planting is currently underway, despite the unstable summer rainy season. Most farmers have already decided to plant various crops such as maize and sunflower.
Charlie Van Der Linde is a third-generation livestock and crop farmer. The 48-year-old says he had a good 2023 harvesting season.
“In our case, the rain came early around October, with good rains as well. In our region, it was 200 milliliters per year. I know in some parts of the northern parts, there are some areas where the rain did come a little late. 2023 season was a good one and they predicted the El Nino weather pattern but we’ve had some really good season in the El Nino.”
A delay in planting crops due to less rain in some parts of the province would have been a financial loss to some farmers.
Farmer Mponeng Lentoro says, “I decided to plant, my maize seed is already in the ground. I decided to do that because I had already prepared the land and I use, I’ve already used more than four-hundred-thousand so I wouldn’t let that just go to waste.”
Free State Agriculture says delayed rains in some parts of the province have resulted in farmers being forced to wait for the rain before they can prepare the ground.
Free State Agri CEO Gernie Botha says, “It was a good year, we obviously had our challenges at the beginning of the year as far as the rainfall is concerned. We’re looking forward to a good season for the coming year as well. We’re dependent on nature to give us some good rain.”
The maize planting season was supposed to have started in October this year.
