Durban - Drought is devastating food production in KwaZulu-Natal, with farmers in some areas saying their maize crop is down by half.
This means that South Africa will have to import about 1.65 million tons of yellow maize to make up the shortfall.
Grain SA said that the first summer crop for the 2015/16 season for maize was estimated to be 9.6 million tons – down from 14.25 million the previous year.
“The average yield during the previous season was 5.3 tons per hectare... the average for this season is estimated at only 3.63 tons per hectare.”
The maize harvest ended in April.
Farmers have already begun planning for the worst case scenario.
Roland Driemeyer, a fifth generation farmer in Winterton, said he and others had roughly lost out on R1.5 million of a turnover of R9 million. He grows soya beans, wheat and maize, among other cash crops.
“We have been affected by the overall climatic conditions this year, including hailstorms and the drought. The problem is that insurance sometimes doesn’t always cover all the costs, so there’s always a fall in finance somewhere. For example, a farmer has to farm at least a hundred hectares of sorghum to qualify for insurance.”
Driemeyer, who has been farming for 20 years, said input costs were high and there was no government assistance for commercial farmers.
“All of these things, all these parts of the cycle, can have knock-on effects in the form of lay-offs of farm workers, for example,” said the farmer, whose farm spans 300 hectares and is under irrigation.
He hoped he would cover his losses within two years.
Driemeyer said in places on his farm where there had been no irrigation, he had not harvested “a single pip”.
“In places where you would expect to harvest three tons of soya, we were getting only three to four hundred kilograms per hectare,” he said.
He said some farmers had benefited from the isolated stormy weather, but most had suffered the effects of low rainfall.
Terry Muirhead, chairman of the Winterton Farmers’ Association, said those farmers without supplementary irrigation had faced the biggest impact.
“General maize yield this season has been between four and five tons per hectare. Usually, per hectare, farmers expect to harvest about eight tons. In a good season, a single hectare can yield nine to ten tons of maize,”
“In terms of rands and cents, farmers might, for example, get R2 400 per ton. If they are losing three tons, for example, they can lose up to R7 200 per hectare. These are huge losses,” Muirhead said.
The third generation farmer said he had not been hit as hard as some of the others in the area. He farms maize, soya beans and wheat.
“Soya beans suffered more than maize, with some farmers recording a 50 to 60 percent drop in production,” he said.
Soya is used in the production of cooking oil and for sheep, cow, pig and even dog feed.
But crop farmers were not the only ones affected by the drought.
William Mitchell-Innes, whose family has farmed cattle in Elandslaagte, near Ladysmith, for four generations, said that while it was early in the dry winter months the situation looked grim.
“Because of the limited water supply, we only have half the grass to feed the cattle. Soon we’ll run out of drinking water for them too. We might have to sell some of the animals,” he said.
He said the late rains in December have had catastrophic consequences.
“By August, it’s bone dry. We need the rains in September, after the dry season. Without that rain, I might even have to sell all my cattle” he said.
If this was done by all the stock farmers facing hardship, it would flood the market, driving down the value of the animals, said Mitchell-Innes.
The dam on his farm, which normally held 350 000 cubic metres of water and overflowed, now only held 20 000.
Another cattle farmer, Ladysmith Farmers’ Association chairman Ian King, a fourth generation cattle and sheep farmer, said the drought had had a far-reaching impact on his production. King owns 1 000 sheep and 400 head of cattle.
“We rely on the rains in September to replenish our water and feed stocks.
“Last year the rains came late which is why we are having problems now. If we don’t get that boost soon we’ll be in big trouble,” he said.
While there had been intermittent storms, the area had not received gentle, penetrating rain, which meant that underground water reserves were also dropping.
Daily News