Maize plantings in France are expected to jump by nearly 11% this year as farmers switch to spring crops after adverse weather hit sowing of winter varieties, the French farm ministry said on Tuesday.
French farmers will sow 1.60 million hectares of grain maize, excluding crop grown for seeds, up 10.9% from 2019, the ministry said in its first estimate of this year's maize area.
The projected maize area would be 12.2% above the average of the past five years, the ministry added in a crop report.
"The rise in spring sowing partly compensates for the drop in area for winter cereals that were affected by waterlogged soils at sowing time, as well as the decline in the rapeseed area," it said.
The ministry also projected a sharp increase in area for sunflower, another spring-sown crop, with the area expected to reach 690,000 hectares, up 14.3% from last year and 18.9% above the five-year average.
It also made a slight upward revision to the area allocated to spring barley to 717,000 hectares from the 696,000 hectares seen last month. The new estimate is 12.2% higher than last year and 43.1% above the five-year mean. The estimated total barley area, including winter crop, was stable compared with last month at 2.0 million hectares.