South Africa, enduring its worst drought in 23 years, may face persistent dry and hot conditions through most parts of the country this summer as an El Nino episode strengthens and may continue throughout autumn, the nation’s weather service said.
Dry conditions “may promote a regional or localised drought, depending on the state of the existing water stress,” the South African Weather Service said in a report on its website.
South Africa is the continent’s biggest maize producer and the El Nino global weather pattern causes dry conditions in the sub-Saharan region.
The nation’s worst drought since 1992 this year hurt crops in the Free State and the North West provinces, which accounted for almost two-thirds of corn output last year. Some parts of the Western Cape province, the region responsible for more than 50% of local wheat output in 2014, has not received enough rain as the harvest started and has reported below-average yields, according to Grain SA, the biggest representative of South African farmers of the cereal.
The Crop Estimates Committee predicts this season’s maize harvest will be 9.84-million tons, the smallest since 2007, and that the nation will probably sow 2.55-million hectares with the grain, the smallest area since 2011.
South Africa’s biggest water utility and municipalities of its largest city and capital last month asked users to consume sparingly as insufficient rains and persistent high temperatures curb supply. High demand in the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni to the east and Pretoria “will cause localised problems,” Rand Water Services said in an e-mailed statement in late October.
South African farmers’ ability to produce food at levels needed to maintain national food security have been threatened by the high probability of a second straight year of drought, said Johannes Moller, president of Agri SA, the biggest representative of growers in the country.
Its members are exposed to financial losses because of the dry weather, which will make it difficult for them to meet their obligations to financial institutions, he said.