Photo: Agri Western Cape
Farmers in the Northern Cape and Klein Karoo have described the recent heavy rainfall received in these regions as a blessing after years of crippling drought.
Farmers across the Northern Cape rejoiced as rain drenched parts of the province, especially during the first week of December. However, some parts of the province remained dry.
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According to Johannes Möller, a Northern Cape farmer, the northwestern parts of the province received good rainfall in recent weeks, with an average of between 50mm to 200mm.
“However, areas in the Gordonia region, Bushmanland and Northern Namaqualand received little to no rain and are still critically dry.”
Möller said he was optimistic that this rain was an indication of a good rainfall season, and advised producers who had not yet received significant rainfall to remain positive.
“We have been through a very deep drought cycle and hopefully this is now the beginning of a wetter cycle. So far, the development of favourable fronts looks much better than in the past few years.”
Möller pointed out that despite the good rainfall, farmers were not out of the woods yet. “Money and grazing does not fall from the sky. It will take some time for the veld to recover, which is followed by a herd-building phase, and only then a financial recovery phase.”
Although the rain brought much relief to the drought-stricken areas of the province, it was ill-timed for table grape growers in the Orange River table grape production region. According to the South African Table Grape Industry, packing in the region had been disrupted and delayed due to the heavy rain.
According to Alwyn Dippenaar, chairperson of the Orange River Producers’ Association, heavy rain of between 75mm and 100mm in the Kakemas area resulted in non-perennial streams feeding into the Orange River swelling.
He said that there was definitely a lot of damage, but that it was still much too wet to determine the extent of the damage.
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“Only when it’s drier will we be able to move into the vineyards and assess the damage. There’s no doubt there’ll be a lot of damage. No cultivar can escape damage with such [a volume] of rain.”
Furthermore, areas in the Klein Karoo also received some rain, including Merweville, Laingsburg, Beaufort-West and Prince Albert. Jeanne Boshoff, comunication manager at Agri Western Cape, said these areas experienced isolated rainfall.
“Large parts of the Central Karoo received no rain. The entire Central Karoo and Klein Karoo are still critically dry and need a lot of rain. However, producers remain hopeful and say their rain usually starts with isolated rainfall, so they regard it as a good sign,” said Boshoff.
