The Limpopo government has asked the national government to declare several areas in the region disaster areas after a long spell of drought. The drought has left water resources dry and hundreds of thousands of cattle dead in many parts of the province. The provincial government estimates that more than 170 000 head of cattle have perished.
Limpopo’s cabinet has asked the national government for more than R40-million, but these funds would only partly address the crisis. Worsening the effects of the drought is the geography of Limpopo — most of the affected areas are landlocked and the roads are poor. The central region of Limpopo, where people rely on their livestock to survive, is the worst-affected area.
Experts say that as the dry winter season draws closer, hopes for rain are receding. Tony Long of Agri Letaba in Limpopo said the effects of the drought have been worsened by the lack of effective water resources.
He said that most communal farmers in the region do not have the expertise to deal with drought. Grazing in the northern Lowveld region of the province has been severely affected.
Long said the government should develop water resources and embark on programmes to train communal farmers to deal with drought.
The severity of the drought is revealed starkly in the Blouberg area, near Polokwane. Here it has dealt a double blow to communal cattle farmers — not only has it killed thousands of head of cattle, it has also rendered the farmers’ remaining livestock almost worthless, with cattle in the area now selling for as little as R50 a head. The normal price is R2 000 a head.
Aaron Motsoaledi, MEC for Agriculture in Limpopo, said his department had started noticing the effects of the drought in March. ”Our extension [field] officers started bringing in information about the drought in February. Last month we realised that it was a disaster and started preparing measures to try to address it.”
Motsoaledi said his government moved swiftly in March to create an emergency fund to assist struggling farmers. The provincial government set aside R6-million for the fund.
The money would be used to subsidise communal farmers with forage, used to feed cattle during times of drought. Motsoaledi said the provincial government would pay 75% of the cost of forage for communal farmers.
But the money allocated by the provincial government is not enough to address the problem, and last Wednesday, the provincial government sent a formal request to President Thabo Mbeki for national government aid amounting to more than R40-million.
However, Motsoaledi said the money allocated by his government and the expected aid from national government would not be enough. The funds would cater for only 30% of the cost of forage and would sustain supplies for just three months. He said sacrifices would have to be made as only communal farmers would qualify for the government subsidy, which would cater for 30 head of cattle for each communal farmer.
”Each farmer, regardless of how many cattle he has, would have to choose only 30 head of what we call the nuclear herd that would be saved through our emergency fund and the disaster measures from the national government,” he said.
Of the more than 160 000 head of cattle left in the affected areas, Motsoaledi said the provincial government would be able to save only 30%. And even the 30% that would be saved could not be sustained for more than three months.
Communal farmers, Motsoaledi said, would have to sell the livestock and retain the money with the Land Bank until the rainy season comes.
The most affected areas include Musina, formerly Messina; Makhado; Mutale; Lephalale, formerly Elisrus; Mogalakwena, formerly Potgietersrus; and Blouberg.
Communal farmers in Blouberg, the hardest-hit municipality, started receiving forage from the government on Tuesday. Motsoaledi said the Department of Social Services in the province was also assisting the rural poor with food parcels to cope with the drought.
In another development Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza is believed to have been added to a delegation of ministers to accompany Deputy President Jacob Zuma on his Imbizo visit to Limpopo in the second week of April.
Didiza, who presented her department’s budget to Parliament this week, was initially not on the list of ministers to accompany Zuma.
Senior government officials in Limpopo suggested that her inclusion could have been informed by the drought crisis. Didiza’s spokesperson was not available at the time of going to press.