We are in a tricky crop season. At its start, we expected a recovery from the 2023-24 season characterised by the El Niño induced drought damage.
South Africa’s agricultural sector is a key component of the economy, creating jobs and providing food security.
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.
For this coming autumn and winter, the most likely outcome from the predictions issued by the South African Weather Service (Saws) is below-normal rainfall across the Western Cape.
Global climate models, including those from the US Climate Prediction Center (CPC/NCEP/NWS) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), confirm the development of La Niña conditions in September 2025, with a high probability (around 70-71%) of persistence through the first half of South Africa's summer (October 2025–February 2026).
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