Johannesburg - Increases in food prices are inevitable because of the drought ravaging large parts of South Africa, says Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana.
He promised the government would keep an eye on rising food prices.
Food production partners would have to stretch their resources to avert a greater crisis, he told the media on Friday in providing a status report on the drought.
“Food security will be heavily affected because we won’t harvest the yield we expected. We’ll import between five and six million tons of white and yellow maize to meet the needs of the country.”
Zokwana said the sporadic rains were not sufficient to bring relief to farms across several drought-stricken provinces.
Zokwana met Rural Development Minister Gugile Nkwinti and agriculture MECs in Pretoria to discuss the drought.
The ministers said they emerged with a clearer picture of the effects of the drought on crop production, livestock, agro-processing, agriculture infrastructure and food security in the worst-affected provinces.
The agriculture MECs for Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State said 5 million farm animals had died or were affected by the drought.
Desperate farmers had sought water and help from the government to feed them.
“We’re grateful for the occasional showers we’ve had, but the levels are not enough to give us hope that the situation will get any better soon,” said KwaZulu-Natal MEC Meshack Radebe.
His province had been the first affected and had been hit hardest by the drought.
“We’re fast approaching winter and if there are not sufficient rains leading up to it the situation will be worse.”
Zokwana said: “Some outcomes (in the agricultural sector) won’t be accomplished as planned because food and feed grain prices will (increase) debt levels and… job loses.”
Nkwinti said the ministerial drought relief being co-ordinated by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs was directed at easing the effects of the drought.
“We just need to improve on our administration issues, so we know where all the money goes and what relief it brings.”
The co-ordination and technical support had been “resolved well” by the team working on drought relief.
“We’ve identified the need to bring together the government and the private sector to work on mitigating the drought.”
Strategies were also on the cards to prepare the country for any eventuality of drought and shortages of water, Zokwana said.
Saturday Star
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