Caution has entered the agricultural production market as summer crop harvesting comes to an end and farmers look ahead to prepare for the new summer-cropping season and winter crop harvesting, says the South African Agricultural Machinery Association (Saama).
The organisation’s chairperson Tallie Giessing said expectations of the El Niño phenomenon and the uncertainty of the possible severity of this were adding to this caution.
“It is likely, therefore, that lower sales will prevail until the course of the forthcoming summer rainfall season is known,” Giessing said.
The July tractor sales of 660 units were 15% less than the 777 units sold in July last year.
On a year-to-date basis tractor sales are now approximately 4% down on last year.
Thirty-two combine harvesters were sold in July, some four units less than the 36 units sold in July last year. On a year-to-date basis combine harvester sales were now 44% more than last year.
Giessing said that nevertheless, forecasts for tractor sales for this calendar year were still that they would be between 10 and 15% down on last year.
Combine harvester sales were still very buoyant and it was likely that sales for this calendar year would be between 10 and 20% up on last year.
Meanwhile, Prof Driekie Fourie, nematode specialist and Technical Product Lead for Seedcare at Syngenta, said the problems associated with plant-parasitic nematodes extend beyond traditional “hot spot” areas and have a significant impact on crop yields.
Nematodes, microscopic worms that inhabit the soil, pose a greater risk to South African growers than they may realise. Prof Fourie’s latest research indicated that once nematodes were diagnosed in the soil, eradication became almost impossible. This leads not only to substantial yield losses; more importantly, it threatened sustainable crop production.
“Approximately 12% of yield losses in South Africa are attributed to plant-parasitic nematodes, with highly infested fields experiencing losses of up to 60% or more,” Prof Fourie said.
Nematodes also severely impacted maize root health.
The tiny, fresh, white roots were especially vulnerable when it comes to nematode infection and parasitism.
Dicotyledonous crops, such as soy beans, were also highly susceptible to nematode infections.
There were two major nematode groups that cause the most significant problems in South Africa.
The first was the root-knot nematode, which caused the yellowing, stunting and/or wilting of aerial plant parts in severely infested areas in fields. Female root-knot nematodes could produce up to 1 800 eggs at a time, as Fourie herself recorded from one egg mass produced on the roots of a susceptible soy bean cultivar.
The second group was lesion nematodes whose females produce one egg at a time but for a continuous period.
While certain cover crops, like clovers, helped manage nematode populations, they could also sustain them. Other popular cover crops, such as sunn hemp, would reduce root-knot nematode population densities but enable an increase in lesion nematode numbers.
Fourie said grain crop production in South Africa was especially hampered by endo- and ectoparasitic nematodes. She mentioned that ectoparasite population densities seemed to be on the rise in conservation farming areas where she was involved in research projects.
“The emergence of new nematode species, such as the highly pathogenic root-knot nematode Meloidogyne enterolobii, further highlighted the need to conduct more research on these organisms. Understanding the correlation between nematode numbers and irrigation practices is crucial as the combination of cover crops that are good nematode hosts and warmer soils, caused by the covering of soil in conservation farming systems, favour nematode survival (nematodes perish in excessively cold temperatures). Moreover, surveys done in local grain crop production areas have linked higher levels of rainfall and irrigation to increased nematode pest populations.”
She added that while there have been improvements in the academic understanding of nematodes, there is still insufficient knowledge at the farm level.
The professor said growers needed to be educated about nematodes and their potential impact on root and soil health.
“Identifying and understanding the presence of new nematode species is crucial for effective management and research. By becoming more aware of and investing in research and management strategies, South African growers can mitigate the negative effects of nematodes and improve agricultural sustainability.”
Syngenta said the ongoing challenge posed by climate change that caused shifts in geographical row crop production, was a game changer that needed to be considered. Furthermore, it said price sensitivity around nematode management practices on the farm, especially in rain-fed areas, was a pressing concern. Current crop rotation systems may inadvertently promote nematode build-ups, as the predominant and economically important root-knot and lesion nematodes that occur widely in local crop fields have a wide host range, it said.
The company said the good news was that damage could be mitigated by using rotation crops that were nematode resistant or poor host genotypes in maize-based cropping systems. Research has shown promising results, with resistant soybean cultivars recording a 39% yield increase.
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