Agriculture Minister confirms financial plan for commercial farmers
Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana has confirmed about half a billion rand has been set aside for the provision of soft loans to aid commercial farmers.
Zokwana visited Borrelskop Farm in the Northern Cape as part of a national drought tour.
Zokwana says government has heard the calls of farmers for assistance and says the R16-billion worse case scenario mentioned by organised agriculture as necessary to overcome the drought must be placed in context.
He says farmers are not necessarily asking for cash.
He says this sum includes measures such as approaching Treasury to get government to stand surety for loans as well provision of soft loans
"And for commercial farmers, I'm happy to announced that we have agreed with IDC (Industrial Development Corporation) and Land Bank to make sure that there are soft loans that are made available," he said.
He says the drought has also prevented an opportunity to start a debate around cover for farmers in future such as insurance against drought.
(File photo)