Drought misery extends
NOT a single crop from a community farming project in Limpopo meant to feed 589 vulnerable and orphaned children has survived recent weeks of drought.
Yesterday, a distraught Bethuel Masikhwa, a worker at the Centre of Hope at Tshirenzheni village near Thohoyandou, said none of their crops survived.
Last week Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha announced that the province would be declared a disaster area as rivers, boreholes and other water resources dried up.
The Department of Agriculture ‚ Forestry and Fisheries has also said provincial agricultural departments have provided R14.7million in drought relief assistance to small-scale and subsistence farmers.
Severe drought has driven parts of the country into crisis resulting in water restrictions.
Masikhwa said they were now forced to uproot cabbage, butternut and tomato plants and give them away as animal feed.
“We do not want to give up but there is nothing left. We don’t know how we will feed our children,” he said.
President of the African Farmers Association of South Africa in Limpopo, Tshianeo Mathidi, said the situation was at its worst.
Mathidi said they were now recording more losses of crops and livestock as the heat intensified and water resources continued to dwindle. “We are experiencing our worst losses from all sides,” he said.
Abiott Senoamadi of the Henley Group, the company that manages the famous Zebediela Citrus Estate, said some of their trees were starting to wither due to the lack of rain.
“We are in serious trouble.”