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SA government urged to assist drought-stricken farmers

Xinhua, December 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

As a persistent drought continues unabated in South Africa, the government should extend a helping hand to commercial and small-scale farmers to help them survive, Agri SA, a civil group of farmers, said on Monday.

Despite widespread rains over large parts of the country, parts of the Northern Cape, Western Cape, North West, Limpopo and the Free State provinces are still in the grip of the worst drought this decade, according to Agri SA.

"Farmers in certain parts of the country continue to suffer the negative effects of the drought and are struggling to survive," the group said in an appeal to the government for assistance.

During the past year, Agri SA launched various initiatives to provide needy farmers countrywide with drought relief.

The shortage of funds has now resulted in Agri SA being unable to provide further assistance, the group said.

"The time has now come for the government to provide further assistance to commercial and small-scale farmers to help them survive," said Johannes Möller, president of Agri SA.

Agri SA also called urgently on the private sector to make further contributions to the Agri SA drought relief fund.

"Agri SA alone cannot meet the farmers' needs and therefore we call urgently for financial contributions," Möller noted.

Devastating drought conditions in the western parts of the country over the past three years have had a serious impact on cash flow and production credit arrangements, which in turn will increasingly affect farmers' financial survival, according to Möller.

The drought also had an extremely negative effect on the socio-economic conditions of rural farming communities and the development of the rural areas, he said.

Agri SA is concerned about the current welfare of farmers and farm workers and the humanitarian impact of the drought, as well as their ability to survive, Möller said.

"Similarly, we are concerned about the lack of stock feed to pull animals through during this time," he said.

The SA government has rejected calls to declare the drought a "national crisis".

The drought currently being faced by South Africa has reached crisis point. Provincial dam levels are down in all provinces, many of them standing at less than 50 percent of capacity, compared to 82 percent for the same time last year.

This represents a major economic and humanitarian crisis as food security is placed under threat and the livelihood of those in the agricultural sector is placed in jeopardy.

Due to the drought, South Africa, previously a grain exporter, has begun to import grain.

Grain SA said South Africa imported about 750,000 tonnes of maize to meet the country's needs in the 2013/2014 season. The 2015/16 season will see this increase to five million tonnes of maize. Endit