AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Timeous and effective government assistance for South Africa’s farmers to survive ongoing drought conditions is one of the key aspects that major agricultural organisations are hoping will be highlighted in Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s 2019/2020 National Budget Speech on Wednesday.
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TAU SA’s assistant general manager, Chris van Zyl, said that for the agriculture sector that was already suffering the effects of the drought, the state’s inability to provide meaningful drought relief to farmers “does not promise a bright future”.
“No doubt it will result in rising product prices for already financially stressed consumers and inevitably impact food security, thus creating the need to import food where shortages are experienced,” he said.
Van Zyl added that with the “economy performing poorly”, the South African agriculture sector would also have to consider the advantages and disadvantages of economies of scale, and that this could result in the sector having to shed jobs.
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Dr Requier Wait, head of Agri SA’s Economics and Trade Centre of Excellence, also wanted to see Mboweni promising effective and speedy direct assistance to drought-affected farmers.
