Johannesburg - South African maize farmers intend to plant 2.685 million hectares of the staple grain in the 2014 season from 2.78 million hectares in 2013, the country's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Thursday.
A CEC spokeswoman said the fall was due to dry conditions in some maize growing areas and that some farmers opted to plant more oil seeds than maize.
The committee also said the forecast for the 2013 wheat crop output is now at 1.791 million tonnes from 1.758 million tonnes in previous forecast. - Reuters