Weather-related problems are expected to adversely affect the prospects for harvesting wheat in South Africa. However, some producers in arid areas in the Free State are concerned that they will not harvest even at the level of 1 ton / ha.

This became known during the discussions at the seminar on the prospects of the agricultural market, which was presented on Friday by Bloemfontein, professor and economist in agriculture, Professor Johan Willems.

Willems said that the prospects for growing wheat across the country were negatively affected by various adverse weather conditions. "It seems that the wheat crop will be much smaller than originally expected, and may even be lower than the last estimate."

Willems said there was also concern about frost damage in inland irrigation areas such as the eastern Free State and KwaZulu-Natal; however, the degree of this still had to be determined.

Jan Grenewald, a dry wheat farmer in Klokolan in the Eastern Free State, said he planted 1,000 hectares of crops this season, but did not believe he would harvest enough to break even.

According to him, this year he decided to plant wheat again on a much larger area due to a very good level of humidity after rainfall in late summer. Dirk van Rensburg, a farmer from Arlington, said he plans to harvest around 0.5-1 ton / ha. in this season.

“If it does not rain in the next two weeks, then perhaps there will be no harvest,” he said. Clacy Jacobs, a manufacturer of irrigation systems near Douglas in Northern Cape, said he was worried about possible damage to his crop after freezing in the last week of October.