The most crucial time for SA’s summer crop and some horticulture products, and by extension the livestock sector, is between October and February each year.

Sponsored by Santam Agriculture -Johan van den Berg -Independent Agricultural Meteorologist (M.Sc Agric, Agricultural meteorology, UFS)

LA NIÑA kan ook aanleiding gee tot tropiese siklone, soos die onlangse Eloise, sê prof. Francois Engelbrecht, klimatoloog van die Global Change Institute aan die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand. En, waarsku hy, die weer kan vorentoe nog stormagtiger raak.

LA NINA- 

Een swaeltjie maak nie ’n somer nie, en een alarmistiese artikel oor die invloed van klimaatsverandering op seestrome en sogenoemde heeltydse La Niña-toestande rig baie skade aan.

As the deepening energy crisis continues to present problems for different parts of the agricultural sector, another major challenge looms — a change in weather conditions from favourable rains to drier, hotter conditions.

On April 4, the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, declared a "State of Drought Disaster" due to the "severe food situation caused by the El Nino effect."

One of the big contributors to the record-breaking global temperatures over the past year—El Niño—is nearly gone, and its opposite, La Niña, is on the way.

El Niño has officially come to an end and the ripples from its demise will shake up weather around the globe.

We are two months away from the start of the 2024/25 summer crop season. Early indications of weather prospects are encouraging, showing a firm likelihood of a La Niña occurrence.

La Niña is here!

The ruinous legacy of last year’s El Niño still stalks the grain-growing areas of southern Africa, which is in the grip of historic levels of hunger.

The latest forecast bodes cautiously well for domestic agriculture and comes after South Africa’s maize harvest last season is estimated to have reached a robust 15.8 million tonnes, 23% above the previous summer’s crop that was hit with drought triggered by a scorching El Niño.