SOUTH African farmers are taking full advantage of good rains that have fallen over the eastern maize belt as the planting season moves into high gear, an agricultural company said this week. Farmers in the north of Mpumalanga were back in their fields after soaking weekend rains, while farmers in the south, where the soil had a higher clay content and was slower to dry out, would be back in their fields by the end of the week. The National Crop Estimates Committee said in September in its first intentions to plant data there would be a major swing out of maize in the 2000/01 season because of the previous season’s bumper 10.14m tonne maize crop and low prices. – Reuters