WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM
DEPARTMENT of Agriculture director-general Bongiwe Njobe-Mbuli says farmers continue to plant crops unsuited to drought areas — such as maize — in response to consumer demand. The only solution, she told a drought workshop in Pretoria on Wednesday, will be to work on changing the public’s eating habits.
Njobe-Mbuli called on farmers to reduce their livestock numbers to reduce the chances of animals going hungry, and warned that prolonged drought would result in job losses, food price inflation, and an increase in diseases such as malnutrition, diarrhoea, dysentery and infectious diseases. South African maize farmers will lose about R5 billion if there are no rains in the next month, agricultural economist Andre Ferreira told the drought workshop.
Ferreira said many farmers, particularly in the north of the country, had not yet started planting because the soild was too dry. in th North West, the major producer of the relatively rare white maize, only about a fifth of land has been planted. In Mpumalanga, where there has been rain, hail storms in the past week have damaged many crops, says Ferreira.