The sugarcane farming industry bodies in KwaZulu-Natal are calling on the government to urgently assist with financial and infrastructure relief after the recent flooding.
Farmers were affected when floods damaged canefields, farm infrastructure, and access routes that allow growers to deliver cane to mills.
The Canegrowers Association’s Thomas Funke said that growers urgently need assistance as they need to replant their canefields. They also need to sustain a cash flow while they rebuild their farms to ensure production by the next harvest season.
He added that local roads and bridges also needed to be prioritized for repairs so that workers could access farms and growers could transport cane to mills.
“Preliminary results show that just over 2,500 hectares of cane had extensive crop and root damage, totalling just under R195 million. Farm infrastructure to the value of R27.9 million has also been destroyed,” Funke said.
Agri SA’s Andrea Campher said that if there were any unnecessary delays in addressing the problem, it could lead to job losses and possible shortages of agricultural products.
“The situation is very serious is going to require urgent and focused action to ensure that farmers are able to get their products to market,” Campher said.
She added that there were already backlogs, adding that it was particularly serious for the export of perishable agricultural products which needed to be properly stored and transported.
-EWN
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