As if the agri sector in South Africa isn’t faced with enough problems at the moment, in a few months there will probably be a change in weather conditions from favorable rains to drier and hot conditions. This would be a switch from a prolonged period of La Niña to El Niño.
South Africa has had a good four seasons of La Niña-induced heavy rains from 2019/20 to 2022/23. These above-normal rains supported agriculture leading to higher yields across various field crops, fruits and vegetables. Having four consecutive La Niña seasons was an unusual occurrence. The typical cycles are two seasons of higher rainfall followed by normal-drier seasons.
Excluding the current trend, the only other period in the recent past with three successive years of conducive weather conditions and a large crop harvest ran through 2007/08, 2008/09, and 2009/10 production seasons.
Source - https://www.freshplaza.com
