35-year rainfall low hitting rain-fed agriculture
The drought in Southern Africa could become one of the worst on record should the current below-normal rainfall continue, the United Nations World Food Programme said (WFP) earlier this month.
The El Niño conditions presently being experienced in the region had resulted in a 35-year rainfall low between October and December, with early indications of below-normal rainfall patterns continuing to March.
The weather phenomenon had hit rain-fed agriculture particularly severely, with the poor rainfall, exacerbated by excessively high temperatures, failing to create a conducive crop growth environment.
“The current growing season, which spans October 2015 to April, is developing under the peak of El Niño, with the first phase of the growing season characterised by severe and widespread rainfall deficits,” the WFP noted in a statement this week.
The climate outlook for Southern Africa was “particularly concerning” as it emerged atop poor harvests in 2014 and 2015, and even “good rainfall” would not enable recovery as the “window for planting” had closed, the agency warned.
Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe delayed planting by up to two months or more, which had severely impacted on maize yields.
“Poor regional cereal harvests from the 2014 to 2015 season have tightened cereal supplies. On average, harvests were 21% lower than the 2013/14 season and 3% lower than the five-year average. In total, the cereal deficit for the region is 7.9-million tonnes for the 2015/16 marketing year,” it concluded.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Roytec Global is an international company specializing in liquid / solid and mineral separation technologies for the Mining and Industrial sectors.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Virtual Gas Network supplies compressed natural gas via a virtual gas distribution network.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
