Pretoria - With agriculture unions reporting damages estimated at more than R2 billion, government on Tuesday pledged to come to the rescue of farmers whose crops and infrastructure have been damaged by the widespread floods across the country.
Several farmers in Kwazulu-Natal, Free State and Northern Cape are said to be on the verge of closing shop after floods wreaked havoc on their farms in the past weeks, killing all hopes of good production.
But Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says government's assistance package will be able to provide "maximum assistance" to all the affected farmers.
Following her meeting with organised agriculture on Tuesday, Joemat-Pettersson said the state will be providing seeds, fertilizers and infrastructure such as canals and pipelines to all the affected farmers across the country.
Government will, however, not commit to any financial compensation as a result of the flood damages.
"We have agreed that government will assist to the best of our ability and we will make sure that all the affected farmers are assisted and that agricultural production is restored in the affected areas," she said.
While it was still not clear how much government will have to set aside for the relief, Agri-SA chairperson Johan Moller said current calculations pointed to more than R2 billion in just crop and infrastructure damages.
"We are still consulting the farmers to get the full scale of the damage and we will know once everyone has come forward as to what we are really looking at," he said.
Joemat-Pettersson said an inter-ministerial committee, established to deal with the crisis, will be working with the farming industry on prevention and mitigation strategies. An advisory team, consisting of industry expects and academics, will also be formed to advise the minister on long term planning to prevent major flood damages in the future.
"We have realised that rains will be with us for some time until at least March, so we have to act now on prevention methods and this team will be advising me on those matters."
Details of the package were expected to be announced by the end of the week.
