Agri SA’s Christo van der Rheede said that they supported calls for the regions affected by wildfires to be declared disaster areas.
FILE: A helicopter water bombs a wildfire. Picture: EWN
CAPE TOWN – AgriSA said that farmers in parts of the Free State and the Northern Cape needed urgent help as they faced wildfires.
Parliament’s agriculture committee is calling on government to declare regions in the two provinces disaster areas.
The committee said that many farms in areas like Hertzogville, Hoopstad and Bultfontein had been destroyed.
Agri SA’s Christo van der Rheede said that they supported calls for the regions affected by wildfires to be declared disaster areas: “The fires were absolutely devastating. Farmers have lost cattle and a range of other types of livestock and in addition to that, they have also lost their homesteads.”
Van Der Rheede is appealing for financial support: “AgriSA has already made funding available to the tune of R300,000 and we call on the boarder public out there to support AgriSA’s campaign to support those farmers in need.”
An assessment is under way to determine the extent of the damage: “Thousands of hectares of agricultural land has been destroyed.”
And the fires are still burning.