Farmers in the U.S., the world's largest corn producer, will plant the most acres of the crop since 1944, while the sown area for eight major crops is expected to be the second-largest in the past 10 years, according to a government report.
Corn planting will cover 94 million acres in 2012, a 3.1 million acre increase from 2011. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also noted that crops ranging from soybeans to wheat and cotton will also be sown on more acres than in the previous year.
Global food costs are down because of the people who used farm equipment to feed the globe last year, as a 9.9 percent drop in these expenditures occurred due to a rise in grain output, according to Bloomberg.
These prices may drop further, due to this projected increase in acreage, as a surplus could exist due to the rise in productivity.
"The area is available to have huge crops this year," Paul Meyers, a vice president at Foresight Commodities Services Inc. in Long Valley, N.J., told Bloomberg in a separate article by the news outlet. "We are headed for a surplus-supply situation."
American farmers plan most corn crops since mid-1940s
Corn planting will cover 94 million acres in 2012, a 3.1 million acre increase from 2011.