High temperatures and lack of moisture will reduce the yield of corn in Serbia to 50 percent this year, and the condition of that crop could not be improved even by rains.
Zivota Jovanovic, marketing manager at the Zemun Corn Institute “Zemun Polje”, said that, depending on the area, the yield would be 30 to 50 percent lower than expected, but that there was no danger of aflatoxin due to excessive rain and moisture.
“This year will be one of the weaker years due to extremely high temperatures, due to which the corn is poorly pollinated, with little moisture and poorly distributed precipitation,” said Jovanovic.
She added that the worst situation is in Banat, eastern Serbia and part of Sumadija, and that the yield is average or good in western Backa, Srem and the Pozega valley, but that it is not a large territory.
She said that the condition of seed corn on 1,300 hectares of that Institute is good because 85% is irrigated and that it will be enough for the domestic market and for export.
The director of the Association for the Improvement of Cereals and Oilseeds Production “Zita Srbije” Suncica Sakovic said that, according to estimates from a few days ago, the average yield will be 5.9 tons per hectare, and the total yield about six million tons, but that the forecast will safely correct.
She said that last year’s yield was 8.1 tons per hectare, and the total yield was about six million tons.
Sakovic said that in the last few years, there has been a drought, which was especially great in 2012, when the average yield was around three tons per hectare, and the total was 3.75 million tons.
“Although 2012 was a bad year, Serbia then managed to export 575,000 tons of corn,” she said.
She reminded that one of the worse years was 2015, when the average yield was 5.4 tons per hectare, the total yield was 5.68 million tons, of which 1.6 million tons were exported.
Sakovic said that the domestic consumption of corn has increased from 4.4 million tons to 4.6 to 4.7 million tons, and that this year it will be enough for the domestic market, but that exports are endangered.
Slightly more than a million hectares have been sown with corn this year, and about 250,000 hectares with soybeans.
The estimate of the average soybean crop, which is also sensitive to drought, has already been adjusted from 2.2 tons per hectare to two tons, and according to Sakovic, new corrections are possible, Danas reports.
