Rain won’t douse farmers’ problems

Despite the Western Cape’s expectation of heavy rainfall in winter, the agricultural sector is anticipating more drought-related challenges in the months ahead.

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Despite the expectation of heavy rainfall in winter in the Western Cape, the agricultural sector is expecting challenges after the ongoing drought.

AgriSA chief executive Omri van Zyl said the sector is expecting more challenges this winter.

Read: Parts of Western Cape 'are disaster areas'

He said even though the Western Cape receives more rain in winter, drought had already affected many farmers, who had to get rid of their animals.

Van Zyl said the situation had stabilised, but AgriSA was still concerned about the small farmers, who are battling to survive.

“The West Coast region is very important in our sector and we hope it doesn’t get affected severely,” he said.

He added that AgriSA was doing all it could and, if the drought became worse, the government would need to assist.

The region’s famous wine industry also took a knock from the drought.

Industry body VinPro said the overall crop was down compared with record harvests in 2014 and last year.

“While areas such as Worcester and Robertson were able to largely substitute rainfall with irrigation, dryland farmers – notably from Swartland, Darling and parts of Paarl – produced significantly smaller crops,” Van Zyl said.

VinPro executive director Rico Basson said the wine industry lost about R500 million because of the smaller harvest.

VinPro’s head of consultation services, Francois Viljoen, said: “This year’s dry season could negatively impact the 2017 vintage as well, if there is not significant rainfall this winter. A grapevine is, however, a tough and resilient plant and is known to have bounced back remarkably well after difficult seasons like this one.”

Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde said the dams are, on average, half what they were last year.

“We are still in big trouble. We need rain and snow because rain fills our dams and snow replenishes underground water.

He said the province would take a while to recover and the pressure was continuous.

Winde said the government was concerned that the sector had lost billions because of the drought.

He said the government would decide on action to take if winter produced little rain.

South African Weather Service senior forecaster Henning Grobler said the expected rainfall for April to June in the eastern part of the region was expected to be above normal.

And in the western part, chances were fairly good for normal rainfall, he added.

siyabonga.kalipa@inl.co.za

CAPE ARGUS