Livestock and crops are struggling for survival as an El Niño-influenced drought continues to take hold in Africa.South and east Africa is in the grip of a growing drought which is leading to animal deaths and delayed crop planting. Internationally, the main effect will include a demand for more aid for countries like Ethiopia and Sudan, while South Africa will be forced to increase imports of livestock feed and possibly beef.
Livestock and crops are struggling for survival as an El Niño-influenced drought continues to take hold in Africa.
South and east Africa is in the grip of a growing drought which is leading to animal deaths and delayed crop planting. Internationally, the main effect will include a demand for more aid for countries like Ethiopia and Sudan, while South Africa will be forced to increase imports of livestock feed and possibly beef.
Over much of South Africa, 2015 rainfall to date is only one-third of normal and with the traditional wet season over, there is little prospect of early drought relief.
Dehydration
Last week, Agri SA, South Africa’s largest farm organisation, reported that 40,000 cattle in KwaZulu-Natal had died from dehydration and that crop planting in North West and Free State Provinces had come to a halt due to parched soils. New startup small-scale black farmers are reckoned to be the most vulnerable to drought devastation.
Nationally it is reckoned that the drought will have a knock-on effect on consumer prices and inflation and will cut overall economic growth by at least 1%.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: