Pretoria - The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) says significant progress has been made with regards to drought relief interventions nationwide.
The department went through a difficult period last year due to the drought. Continued low rainfall resulted in very dry conditions with drought being reported in all nine provinces.
As a result, eight provinces, excluding Gauteng, were declared a state of drought disaster.
As part of its continued efforts to assist distressed farmers, the department said it has engaged with all relevant stakeholders regarding the drought situation to find solutions to mitigate the drought.
The department has further requested funds for drought assistance from National Treasury, through the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) in the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, following the verification of drought in the declared areas.
“As a result of these assessments, National Treasury made an amount of R212 million available for the financial year 2016/17 to assist affected farmers across the country. Provinces have made R198 million available through equitable share funding.
“These funds were utilised to assist the affected farmers. Funding from programmes such as the Prevention and Mitigation of Disaster Risk (PMDR) was also expended, with interventions including borehole drilling and construction of fire breaks,” the department said.
The department said all the affected provinces are implementing the allocated R212 million as part of assistance to the affected farmers.
“Deliveries and distributions of feeds are almost complete in the affected provinces. DAFF is expected to continue offering much needed support to the affected farmers.” – SAnews.gov.za
