3.3 million hectares of maize in France c. 10% of the UAA With acreage totalling approximately 3.3 million hectares, maize covers some 10% of France’s UAA. Maize is mainly found in the South-West, Alsace and the Atlantic hinterland.
There is nearly as much silage maize as grain maize. The breakdown between silage maize and grain maize is fairly even, with acreage changing from one to the other according to the weather. For example, after the 2003 Summer drought, some of the acreage sown with grain maize (200 000 hectares) had to be harvested as silage and used as animal feed. This explains the figures for the 2003 harvest showing grain and silage at similar levels: respectively 1.62 and 1.65 million hectares.
It can be estimated that under normal conditions, silage maize covers approximately 1.5 million hectares, and grain maize a slightly larger area of around 1.8 million hectares.
The regions of Aquitaine, Pays de Loire and Brittany produce 40% of French maize. The development of silage maize, introduced some thirty years ago, led to the expansion of maize farming in France. The crop is concentrated in 3 regions accounting for 40% of France’s total maize acreage: Aquitaine, Pays de Loire and Brittany (each with approximately 13% of the national acreage).
