FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT
-
Reduction in maize sown area forecast for the 2012 secondary crop season
-
Lower maize and sorghum production anticipated for 2011
-
White maize prices still high
Area planted to 2012 secondary maize crop forecast to decrease sharply due to dry weather
Sowing of the 2012 autumn-winter season maize crop, which represent about 30 percent of the aggregate annual production, is currently under way. Sowing intentions are 14 percent down from last year’s levels, owing to insufficient rainfall and low reservoir levels in states that produce under irrigation, particularly Sinaloa, but also Sonora, Baja California and Tamaulipas. Assuming sowing intentions are fulfilled, this season’s production is forecast at 4.9 million tonnes 25 percent below the average of the last five years, although still above the poor crop of the same season in 2011, reduced by severe frosts.
Sowing of the 2012 irrigated autumn-winter wheat crop, which accounts for 90 percent of the annual production, is also underway. The output is tentatively forecast at 3.8 million tonnes, close to the high level obtained in the same 2010 season.