Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
With regard to the current drought in the province:
- (a) What is the current state of the drought in the province and (b) what impact has it had on (i) agricultural production, (ii) food security, (iii) employment and (iv) farm sustainability.
- whether his Department has (a) compiled or is in possession of a report detailing the state of the drought in each municipality in the province and (b) plans to mitigate the impact of the drought; if not, why not; if so, (i) what are the key findings per muni-cipality and (ii) what mitigation measures are planned or currently being imple-mented and (c) can copies of the relevant reports and supporting documents be made available;
- whether his Department has developed a plan to support emerging and informal farmers in municipalities affected by the drought; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the details of this plan, (b) which municipalities and categories of farmers are targeted and (c) what resources have been allocated for this purpose?
(1)
(2)
(3) | (a) On 4 February 2026, the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) classified the drought in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape as a national disaster. The agricultural areas mostly affected are Central Karoo, Garden Route, Tankwa Karoo (Cape Winelands) and Barrydale (Overberg).
(b) The Department is in the process of gathering data to ascertain the impact of the drought on (i) agricultural production, (ii) food security, (iii) employment and (iv)farm sustainability.
(a) Refer to 2 (c)
(b) (i) Based on the scientific veld condition assessments to determine the status of affected areas, the Central Karoo, Little Karoo, and Barrydale (Overberg) are mostly affected. ii) To mitigate the impact of the dry conditions and the poor natural veld conditions, the Department will provide one month fodder support to affected farmers. In addition, a request for support was submitted to the national Department for further assistance.
(c) Attached is the copy of the map of the scientific veld condition assessments which identifies the areas impacted.
(a) The Department conducts risk assessments with all farmers, which provides the information pertaining to hazards such as drought, floods, fires and pests, that could potentially negatively affect the farmers.
(b) Risk assessments are conducted across the entire province. The list of the municipalities and areas engaged is as follows:
(c) Human and financial resources are used to complete the risk assessments. The Department has a footprint across all the districts in order to complete these assessments.
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