Rain was reported in Kameel (20mm), Piet Plessis (34mm) and Tlakgameng (20mm).
“Farmers in the districts of Schweizer Reneke, Christiana, Vryburg and Geysdorp, for instance, are still desperately waiting for rain to start planting summer crops. They must get the seeds in the soil as a matter of urgency because they won’t qualify for crop insurance if the seedlings aren’t up by 1 January. The risk for the insurers is simply too big after that date,” said Pienaar.
“It will take the local government up to the middle of March 2014 to get the animal feed to all the applicants,” he added.
“We’ve used the R200 000 we received via a Facebook drive to pay for the transport costs of 11 loads of animal feed donated to us. We’ve received donations from all over the country, including Oudtshoorn, Pongola and Aberdeen.
Technichem, an agricultural chemical company, has in the meantime undertaken to sponsor at least one interlink of animal feed, transport costs included, for North West farmers.
“We can’t sit back and not help alleviate their plight,” said managing director Boet Wienand. “We therefore challenge all our competitors and suppliers to equal or better our contribution. It’s the right thing to do.”
Contact Boet Wienand on 082 888 1708 for more information.
