April 14, 2005

US may shift towards corn

A shift away from soybeans towards corn in the US may change global grain and soybean markets.

Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist at Indiana's Purdue University says there is a trend of production of certain crops being concentrated in specialised regions in the world. The US will then become a larger grower of corn and a smaller producer of soybeans. Similarly, soybean-producing countries in South American will dominate soy production.

US farmers are starting to feel that soybeans are becoming less attractive because they have become more disease-prone. The discovery of Asian soybean rust late last year has added to their reluctance to expand cultivation.

The US Department of Agriculture forecasts that by 2014, the ratio of land in the US planted with corn compared with soybeans is likely to be 54:45 per cent, compared with 52:48 per cent now.