Minister Senzeni Zokwana: Drought relief update and country’s readiness to import grains
15 Jan 2016
Members of the Media
CEO of NAMC Mr Ronald Ramabulana
CEO of AgriSA Mr Omri Van Zyl
President of AFASA Mr. Mahanjana
CEO of Grain SA Mr Jannie de Villiers
Ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon
South African Weather Service indicated that South Africa is currently in the grips of the worst drought in 23 years. The last big El Nino weather pattern that affected South Africa so extremely was back in 1992. The current El Nino is worldwide and is estimated to last for several more months.
Most areas of the country received below-normal rainfall coupled with high temperatures during the late part of the 2014/15 summer season. The continued low rainfall resulted in dry conditions with drought being reported in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State, North West and parts of the Gauteng, Northern, Eastern and Western Cape Provinces. The Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape are still being assessed.
Agricultural production has been severely affected by the drought and veld conditions are very poor and crop farmers could also not plant their crops during the planting season due to inadequate rainfall. The department reprioritised R305.3 million from the CASP and Ilema Funds towards drought relief. Government intervened by assisting the affected livestock farmers with the animal feeds and drilling new boreholes for the provision of water for the livestock.