Farmers suffer huge losses

Farmers were in “dire straits” following a recent cold spell over large parts of South Africa, a spokesman for the Agricultural Union of South Africa (Agri-SA) told IRIN on Wednesday. Koos Du Toit said farmers in the eastern part of Free State province, in KwaZulu-Natal province and in parts of Mpumalanga province had seen large numbers of their herds destroyed by the cold weather.

“In some areas farmers have told us that up to 90 percent of their cattle herds have been destroyed. But we have to remember that it is not only cattle, but sheep, goats and in some cases donkeys as well,” Du Toit said. He told IRIN that in some areas provisional calculations indicated that the commercial farming sector had lost about R25-million (US $3 million).

He said it was not only the recent cold weather which had adversely affected farmers. “Prior to this disaster, we experienced devastating veld fires because we went almost immediately from winter to summer, with virtually no spring. Many farmers lost huge tracts of natural grazing land and it is estimated that up to 30,000 hectares of natural forest was lost,” he said.

Du Toit said there was concern not only for commercial farmers, but for smaller communal farmers who had also experienced huge losses. “Farmers both commercial and communal are facing great financial problems. As it is, in recent years we have seen the profitability of farming decline.

Farmers don’t only have personal financial obligations, but they also have outside obligations such as paying their workers and paying loans to financial institutions.”

Meanwhile, some farmers have already approached the government for assistance. “We as a national body have not yet approached the government, but some of our provincial agricultural unions have approached the provincial agricultural authorities for some kind of help,” Du Toit told IRIN.