Crops

3. Cambria farms, Dawn Park

Maize, otherwise known as corn, is the second largest crop by tonnage in South Africa. White maize provides the basis for pap, a popular staple porridge, while yellow maize provides the basis for livestock farming feed grain. On the grand stage, however, South Africa has been a net exporter of maize for most of the twenty-first century, with the bulk of annual production moving to the rest of the African continent.
        With climate change comes increasingly pressing questions regarding food security and sustainability. For South Africans, a devastating drought in 2016 reduced maize production to such an extent, that the country became a net importer of maize, and the government allowed the mixing of yellow maize into white maize; these droughts are projected to only increase in frequency and intensity. New and more financially accessible maize production techniques, coupled with a proliferation of small-holder farming, are just some ways of meeting these challenges.