{"id":323679,"date":"2017-05-30T11:21:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T11:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=323679"},"modified":"2017-05-30T11:21:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T11:21:21","slug":"south-africa-to-harvest-the-highest-maize-crop-in-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=323679","title":{"rendered":"South Africa to harvest the highest maize crop in 40 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is expecting to harvest its biggest maize crop in four decades a year after drought devastated output of the country&#8217;s staple food.<\/p>\n<p>Farmers are set to produce over 15 million tonnes which means the country will have a 50% surplus for the year, according to government figures.<\/p>\n<p>The bumper harvest is a result of good rains in January and February.<\/p>\n<p>The extra produce is expected to help to push food prices down, according to agricultural economists.<\/p>\n<p>Food security is a concern for many and in South Africa rising food prices have made life more difficult particularly for the millions of poor and unemployed, says the BBC&#8217;s Pumza Fihlani.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/732E\/production\/_96268492_afp.jpg\" alt=\"Nono, an elderly maize farmer, inspects maize which has been hung out to dry in Qunu on June 28, 2013. Qunu is where former South African President Nelson Mandela grew up.\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>A drop in the coast of food would be a welcome relief for many households our correspondent says.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa, along with the rest of the region, is still recovering from the effects of last year&#8217;s drought that was caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon and led to widespread food shortages.<\/p>\n<p>But, according to the local weather services, the rainfall recorded in January and February this year was more than double the average.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is expecting to harvest its biggest maize crop in four decades a year after drought devastated output of the country&#8217;s staple food. Farmers are set to produce over 15 million tonnes which means the country will have a 50% surplus for the year, according to government figures. The bumper harvest is a result [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[481],"class_list":["post-323679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}