Heavy rains draw mixed reaction from local farmers

Local farmer and President of the World Agricultural Organisation, Dr Theo de Jager said that farmers are very grateful for the good rainfall this season which came after a prolonged dry spell, low dam levels and low ground water levels.

However, De Jager, who is also the Executive Board Chairman of Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI), said many farmers have suffered damage from the rain.

“A number of dam walls broke, top soil has been washed away causing erosion, and most farmers are busy fixing roads. The wet conditions bring with it higher pressure of plant disease and fewer opportunities to get into fields and orchards to attend to it,” he said.

He said that the challenges are minute in comparison to the benefit of entering the winter with full dams and high ground water levels.

“The general high spirits of the farming community in the Letaba area speaks of joy and a new appetite for development and wealth creation,” he added.

Deer Park based commercial mango grower, Ernest Mukhawane said that although dams on his farms are full and overflowing, the heavy down pours have had a devastating effect on the mango harvest this season.

“At face value we probably had the poorest harvest in ten years. Above all, the grass in our orchards is overgrown due to the last heavy rainfall in January and February respectively and it will take a great effort and hard work for the farmers to clean the orchards again coupled with looming fires this winter,” said Mukhawane.

Carel Minnaar of Minnaar Boerdery in Letsitele is very pleased with the good rains thus far this season.

“We just emerged from a drought that lasted roughly for the past three years and crippled agricultural activity in our area and also that of secondary businesses that depends on primary agriculture. Farmers are reluctant to invest in new vehicles or equipment when they face tough times brought on by drought or the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Minnaar.

He said however that since 2018 the agricultural irrigation from the Letaba water system has been limited to only 30% of the allocated volumes and the effect thereof meant that production went down drastically in the last few years.

Also read: Weekend heavy rain did not cause much havoc in Mopani

Many citrus orchards scheduled for replanting in the Letsitele area were simply not replaced. Remaining orchards did not perform nearly to capacity because of the reduced irrigation.

This also affected the employment of seasonal workers and in some instances permanent job losses.

“It is a pity that the raising of the Tzaneen Dam wall fell victim to the corruption and looting because the Department of Water and Sanitation put the project on hold due to a lack of funds.

“Now the Tzaneen Dam can only take 70% of its original capacity,” said Minnaar.

He said it probably could have filled up this season, but the inflow of water for the rest of the season will be lost.

“The 30% of water that will be lost is roughly 47 million cubes of water which could have irrigated 5000 hectares of citrus for a whole year. A lot of possible jobs have been lost to corruption again,” he added.

Also read: Dam levels remain dire

Meanwhile, some of the province’s low level dams are now up the brim following the heavy rains.

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly report (last week’s report) shows water levels have made a remarkable improvement and are now brimming at over 100%.

The province’s dam levels’ aggregate stands at 86,2% as compared to last week’s 85,0%, with stored water currently at 1278.6 cubic metres out of a capacity of 1482.6 cubic metres.

The province’s dam levels have seen a remarkable improvement from last year when levels were at a low of 68,1% during this period.

Tzaneen Dam which supplies water for farmers for irrigation in the area has also experienced a huge increase from 83,4% a week ago to 88,8% this week.

This dam was at a very low with 17,8% last year this time.”