The outlook for the 1998 main “Gu” cereal crop, accounting for some 80 percent of the annual production in normal years, is unfavourable. The area planted to the main maize and sorghum crops is estimated to be substantially reduced as a result of insufficient and irregular rains since the beginning of the season, coupled with a combination of negative factors associated with last year’s floods. These include an overlapping of the harvest of the off-season crops sown from January to March with planting of the Gu crops; excessive weeds; insect and rodent attacks; fields still flooded; destruction of canals and river embankments; loss of pumps and lack of cash for hiring tractors following the loss of employment opportunities. Insecurity also contributed to the reductions in the area planted in parts.
Yields are also likely to be negatively affected due a prolonged dry spell in the second dekad of May and because most of the sorghum consists of lower yielding “ratoons” from crops of the previous season.