Rains fail to wash away farmers' worries
While the recent rains have promised better days for South Africa's farmers who have been plodding a difficult path during four years of drought, their immediate prospects are dire.
In the North West, which once was the breadbasket of the country, farmers face a great many financial hurdles. Their "financial position is under strain because of the continuing drought over a number of seasons. Both the farmers and the towns are affected as the available financial resources have been depleted," said Theo Rabe, financial director at the Lichtenburg-based grain and food firm NWK. "Good rains will improve the outlook, but in general it will take at least two to three above- average production seasons to recover sufficiently from a financial perspective." The government's lack of drought disaster support for the commercial farming sector has generally been unfortunate and a glaring omission, said John Purchase, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber. "This is despite agribusiness and farmers' unions approaching the government pro-actively with assistance schemes to mitigate against the impact of the drought on farmers," he said. The Department of Agriculture, Forest...
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