Agri SA calls for 4 provinces to be declared disaster zones
Four out of nine of the country’s provinces should have been declared disaster zones as a result of current drought gripping parts of the country.
This is according to the federation of agricultural organisations, Agri SA.
The organisation released its 2019/2020 drought report in Centurion on Tuesday, which illustrates the effects of the drought on agricultural industry over the past five years.
Agri SA’s Willem Symington said Limpopo, as well as the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape should’ve been declared disaster zones in 2018.
“On a national level, I don’t foresee that it is necessary at this stage to call for a national disaster declaration. But surely in the four provinces, a disaster declaration should have been done more than a year ago.”
The country has been battling drought-like conditions in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019.
This has had an impact on grain farmers, who have this year had to push back the planting season by at least a month.
“If I look at the eastern side of the country, we produce about 40% of our maize in Mpumalanga, KZN and Eastern Cape. We are basically at 50% of the rain we should’ve received this far and this is why we are so late,” said Grain SA CEO Jan de Villiers.