Share

Unrest alert over high food costs due to drought

accreditation

There is a risk of riots over high food prices due to the drought, Parliament was told today.

Jannie de Villiers, chief executive of Grain SA, said in a presentation on the effect of the drought that South Africa needed to produce more maize in future, because a surplus yield was important. 

“It is not necessarily good for the farmers to have surpluses because the prices will be low, but that is the best for the nation. 

“We can live with it because we need to be profitable at those low prices, but that will be the best to provide stability to the country because if there is instability – we have seen what the students are doing if there is instability – we know about 2007 when the world had high food prices, there were a lot of food riots, especially in the northern Africa parts.”

However, he added that farmers were very positive that the drought could be overcome.

In 2015, South Africa experienced the lowest rainfall since 1904, said De Villiers. He showed pictures of the effects of the drought – including sandstorms and dead livestock – to members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Wandile Sihlobo, senior agricultural economist at Grain SA, told committee members that South Africa would import 7.3 million tonnes of grain this year. This included 3.8 million tonnes of maize and 2 million tonnes of wheat.

The big question, according to De Villiers, was how grain farmers should deal with 2016 in terms of infrastructure and logistics around importing large quantities of grain and how to get the cattle through the winter.

“We are now distributing all the feed that we have – to help the farmers from this side of the country to that side – but somehow we are worried that the feed might be finished. How are we going to feed the cattle then? And there is a lot of cattle being slaughtered already.”

Grain farmers were also concerned about how to finance planting for the new season.

“As grain farmers we are worried about the crop finance for the new season. There are a lot of farmers who will not be able to access finance,” said De Villiers.

“If their farms come on to the market, all the land prices will drop and [so will their] security – because your land is your security to get a loan. And remember the average grain farmer will borrow R8 million and put into the soil and wait for the rain. That is the reality of it.”

Another problem that farmers faced was that one million tonnes of maize production would need to be migrated from Mpumalanga to the Eastern Cape by 2020. This was because a lot of the agricultural land in Mpumalanga had been bought by companies to mine coal.

Grain SA has already opened three offices in the Eastern Cape and has started a training programme for grain farmers in the province.
We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Voting Booth
Do you believe that the various planned marches against load shedding will prompt government to bring solutions and resolve the power crisis?
Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Results
Yes
21% - 103 votes
No
79% - 394 votes
Vote