Agriculture sector seeks R12 billion in state aid

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THE drought-ravaged agriculture sector would need R12bn in government support over three years if it were to return to pre-drought levels of food security, AgriSA said on Monday. The support should be in the form of guarantees to enable farmers to secure loans to plant crops when the rain returns.

AgriSA president Johannes Möller and his delegation on Monday told the Cape Town Press Club of farmers losing their land, farm workers losing their jobs, and many of them going hungry.

State support would be used to save commercial farmers, emerging commercial farmers, and small-scale farmers from financial ruin as a result of failed crops and having to thin out herds.

AgriSA executive director Omri van Zyl said that while a medium-term scenario would require R12.5bn in support over three years, this could rocket to R16bn in three years in a worst-case scenario, or fall to about R7bn in a best-case scenario, "and this is just to get us back to where we were before the drought".