KZN farmers assist Eastern Cape counterparts affected by drought
KwaZulu Natal farmers are rallying together to assist their Eastern Cape counterparts who are struggling to keep their livestock alive, amid severe drought conditions.
Some local farmers are trying to collect feed to transport to the worst affected areas.
MJ Hillhouse, who manages a farm in the Eston area, near Camperdown, says transportation costs are also crippling.
"What's killing these guys is the transport costs of getting feed in, there are a lot of people who are willing to donate feed. Within an 800 kilometre radius of where they are there is zero grass, zero feed. There is nothing and they having to transport from 2 000 kilometres away from them, and it is coming at a phenomenal cost. It is just eating them alive,"
Hillhouse says he has heard of some farmers in the Graaf Reniet, Cradock and Aberdeen areas who have only received 200 millimetres of rain in the past five years.
He says KZN farmers can assist by bailing unused sugar cane.
"In this area we are predominantly a sugarcane area and once the sugarcane is harvested we cut the tops off which is an unutilised part of the cane that sugar mills cant crush but it is still high in energy nutrients and fibre. Most the farmers here just burn it because we don't have a use for it and its a potential food source that just get burnt in this area because we don't have an outlet for it," he said.
If you want to assist farmers in the Eastern Cape contact MJ Hillhouse on 031-781-1690 or Email [email protected]
For more on this and other developing stories, here's your latest Newswatch bulletin.
