Western Cape Agriculture Promotes Sustainbale Resource Use And Management

This year, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture commemorates World Environment Day (WED) by encouraging the agricultural sector to adopt sustainable resource use and management practices.

Climate change poses a threat to food and job security in the agricultural sector.

For this reason, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA) is committed to managing its resources more sustainably.

I am proud that the agricultural sector in the Western Cape has adopted sustainable resource use and management practices.

Both research and recorded incidents have shown an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Farmers in the Central Karoo, parts of the Garden Route, Overberg, Cape Winelands and West Coast Districts continue to experience the negative impact of the prolonged drought. In addition to the drought, farmers in the Western Cape have been impacted by other incidents such as flash floods, wildfires, hail, locust outbreaks and animal diseases.

The WCDoA is one of the few provincial departments with a dedicated disaster risk reduction unit within the Western Cape. The key focus of this programme has shifted from post-disaster support and recovery and adapted to the global trends of disaster risk reduction and mitigation. The ultimate goal is to build a resilient agricultural sector that can thrive within a climate change landscape.

Our sub-Programme Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) prevents and limits resource loss by compiling frameworks and plans to direct disaster risk management from a reactive function to a more proactive function.

The sub-programme collaborates closely with Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) to declare a local and provincial disaster. This is done by assessing local vulnerabilities to enable farming communities to access disaster relief funding schemes when needed.

We implement sustainable resource management practices in the agriculture sector to preserve our natural resources for future generations.