In the last 16 years the amount of land cultivated with white corn has grown at an average annual rate of barely 1%, while in the case of beans, growth has been at an average annual rate of 6%.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
From the executive summary of the report "Current situation of basic grains in Honduras", prepared by the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise:
Productive aspects
In terms of production, the surface and the production of the crop of basic grains shows a diverse behavior, for example white cornhas grown at very conservative rates. Consequently, between the harvests 2001 / 2002- 2016/2017 the surface area grew only at an average annual rate of 1.0%, going from 406.5 thousand manzanas in the 2001-2002 harvest to 471.8 thousand manzanas in the 2016-2017 harvest, while production grew at a moderate rate of 2.8%, increasing from 8.6 million hundredweight in the 2001-2002 harvest to 13.0 million hundredweight in the 2016-2017 harvest, notwithstanding the 2014-2015 and 2015 harvest cycle -2016 grain production was reduced, as a consequence of the presence of the 'el niño' phenomenon which caused a lack of prolonged rain (drought) which affected production of the grain.
Accordingly, data estimated by the Directorate of Agricultural Science and Technology (DICTA) at the SAG, shows that in the 2015-2016 harvest, approximately 39% (183.3 thousand manzanas) of the total cultivated area was lost, which amounted to 470.0 thousand manzanas, while losses in production amounted to 5.2 million hundredweight with an approximate production value of L. 1,800.0 million.
It has been estimated that the agricultural cycle 2017/18 will close with a production of 19 million hundredweight of maize, 2.2 million hundredweight of sorghum and 1.3 million hundredweight of beans.
The Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium-sized Agricultural Producers (Campo) foresees a reduction in most grains, mainly due to an expected reduction in the delivery of agricultural parcels on the part of the government to small and medium producers.
Maize production declined from 20.4 million hundredweight in the 2012/13 harvest to 15.6 million in the 2015/16 cycle, and yield per cultivated hectare has also declined.
In the case of beans, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) show greater variability, depending on the bean and crop variety, as some have reported better results.However, bean productivity has deteriorated in recent harvests. Laprensagrafica.com reports that"... performance went from 15.1 hundredweight per hectare on average in the 2014/15 season, to 13.1 in the 2015/16 cycle."
It has been estimated that the total production of beans, sorghum and maize at the end the 2016 harvest will exceed 12 million hundredweight.
Laprensa.hn reports that "...Corn growers (white, yellow and sorghum) forecast a harvest of between eight million and nine million hundredweight at the end of the year, which will mean an increase of 60% compared to the figures recorded in 2015, which barely reached four million hundredweight."
Estimates for the 2014/2015 harvest are that production will be less than the 120 million hundredweight of beans demanded per year in the country.
Compared with the previous crop year there will be a deficit of 6,698 hundredweight, as 359 hectares less have been cultivated than last year, according to the National Directorate of Agriculture.
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