Minister Ivan Meyer welcomes decision to declare the drought a national disaster

Western Cape Minister for Agriculture in the Western Cape, Dr Ivan Meyer welcomes the announcement made yesterday by the National Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to declare the drought a national disaster.

Minister Ivan Meyer said: “I welcome the news as declaring the drought a national disaster lays the platform for the Western Cape Government to access further funding to support our farmers in the drought-stricken parts of the Western Cape.”

The Western Cape Governments recent veld assessment highlights that the northern part of the Matzikama region in the West Coast, the north and east of the Witzenberg regions in the Cape Winelands as well as the whole of the Central Karoo and Little Karoo are still very dry with smaller areas within these regions critically dry. The Cederberg region of the West Coast and most of the Hessequa and Mossel Bay regions of the Eden District and the Overberg district are also in a dry to very dry condition.

“About 1730 Farmers received fodder support in November and December 2019 from the R50 million grant provided by the Western Cape Provincial Government in 2019. This we did because we believe that agriculture in the lifeblood of the rural economy. Declaring the drought, a national disaster will bolster our efforts to continue supporting farmer, protects jobs and the Western Cape agriculture economy. We are looking forward to seeing National Treasury allocating additional money for drought support to our agriculture sector.” concluded Minister Meyer.