AgriSA renews call to declare drought a national disaster

Nontando Mafanya

23 February 2016

Agri-SA has repeated its call for government to declare the drought a national disaster, saying farmers will need at least R4-billion in aid in the next few years. Role players in the sector are waiting to find out what Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has in store for drought stricken regions – if anything - when he outlines the Budget on Wednesday.        A task team reporting to government paints a dark picture of the drought gripping the country. At least four million tons of maize need to be imported and there are major concerns over cattle deaths.

Agri-SA president Johannes Moller said… “The sector will probably need at least R4-billion of government aid over the next three years to ensure that we can move back to a situation of food security in South Africa and to make sure that the animal herd, the animal production herd, is rebuilt to an acceptable level.”