Various farmers in the Fochville area suffered damages of more than R1.8 million as a result of veld fires recently.
One of the farmers Peet Marx, has suffered terrible losses due to stock theft as well.
“I am a beginner farmer who just started. First, they stole 85 goats and 54 of my sheep. Then they stole my cattle, luckily, we found them back. Now my whole farm is blackened and there is no grass for the animals to eat,” he lamented. At another farm, belonging to Bernadette Hall, 80% of the grazing as well as many pecan nut trees and olive trees burned down.
“This is a devastating loss as olive trees only start bearing fruit from four years. The trees on the farm were all between five to seven years old. Pecan trees only start bearing nuts from five years,” says Maryke Ras, also a farmer from the area who is involved with the Fochville Community Policing Forum (CPF).
This means that a farmer whose trees burned down, has to wait several years to get another crop. Ras added that where plants are scorched there is a higher danger of ground erosion after heavy rains. Another problem is that even though new grass grows after a fire, the nutritional value is not the same and it can take up to seven years for grazing to recover. During this time a farmer has to give extra feed to their animals.
Veld fires also damage the ecosystem in other ways such as killing small animals and insects.
