The Western Cape has just been declared a disaster area due to the drought. According to Premier Helen Zille: “Pure drinking water is only for drinking, cooking and washing clothes.”
In some areas in the Boland the irrigation access for farmers has been cut off, affecting about 600 farmers in the Berg River district and table grape and citrus production. Growers that FreshPlaza spoke to expressed the opinion that the declaration was just a formality and that the province had already been a disaster area for some time. “It’s actually already too late,” a table grape grower in the Hex River Valley said.
Most farms have boreholes and small dams but in some areas like the Olifantsrivier, which is only 50 to 60m above sea level, most boreholes provide water with too high saline levels. “It’s a crisis, we’re very worried,” says Nico Greeff who grows table grapes in the Olifantsrivier District. “At the moment we’re not irrigating which could have an impact on fruiting next year. Normally we would irrigate once monthly throughout the winter, unless we get good winter rain. Fortunately we have finished harvesting but vegetable farmers in our area are sinking boreholes but the water is very salty, only here and there one hits fresh water.”
Pomefruit growers have also finished their harvest, and Hannes Pienaar of Capespan says that most irrigation from the Theewaterskloof Dam in the Villiersdorp area has ceased. Luckily their orchards now need relatively little water. The water shortage has forced growers to take out orchards now that were earmarked for removal a few years hence, to reduce pressure on water provision systems.
In this area some growers still have some of their water allocation left but due to the low level of the Theewaterskloof dam – currently at 14% - the water is muddy and of low quality.
According to Prof Wiehann Steyn, HORTGRO’s crop production manager, when irrigation is restricted to below 50% of the needs of orchards, profitable fruit farming becomes impossible: “Biomass production (both growth and fruit yield) of fruit trees relates directly to the availability of water during the growing season since trees cannot photosynthesise and produce carbohydrates in the absence of water. At moderate water stress, as experienced during the previous two seasons, young trees grow less and mature trees carry fewer and smaller fruit. Fruit quality is also reduced under moderate water stress due to increased levels of sunburn and internal defects that result in fruit being unsuitable for fresh consumption and long-term storage.”
He continues that severe water stress may be experienced during the 2017/18 season if there is insufficient rainfall this coming winter. “If irrigation water becomes very limited, growers may need to remove all fruit from the trees, rip out less productive orchards to save water for remaining orchards or even remove the aboveground parts of trees to try to keep at least the root system alive.”
“The annual production cost of a full bearing apple orchard runs close to R150,000 [€10,000] per ha, therefore growers may incur considerable debts in a severe drought year with diminished means to recuperate these debts in future seasons. Since deciduous fruit trees only attain full production 5 to 6 years after planting, it takes a long time to fully replace lost orchards while reduced growth of young orchards can have a significant impact on profitability, considering that establishment costs may exceed R350,000 [€23,600] per ha.”
Jacques du Preez, product manager for pome and stone fruit at HORTGRO, doesn’t consider the situation a catastrophe yet, but says one can expect that deciduous fruit trees won’t bear as well next year. “This is one of the warmest, driest autumns in years. Trees ought to be going into dormancy now and we should definitely have had some cold units and rain by this time.”
What the Boland usually looks like in the month of May
In Citrusdal farmers are managing through good water management and parsimonious water use. Across the province growers have fine-tuned their water use through the employment of, for instance, soil moisture probes, more effective irrigation methods and measures to preserve soil moisture.
There is a feeling among growers that longterm measures, such scraping of dam bottoms or increasing the height of dam walls, should be undertaken.
Premier Zille hopes that drastic measures such as designating the province a disaster area, will have positive spinoffs. “This is an opportunity for South Africa to emerge as the fastest growing water economy in the world.” She refers to the electricity crisis of 2008 that led to an explosion of renewable energy initiatives in the Western Cape, where 70% of South Africa’s renewable energy generation takes place.
The first substantial rain for the Western Cape is expected to come late, in June or July. Longterm climate modelling predicts a reduction in rainfall of 30% by 2050 in the Western Cape. Approximately 132,000 people are involved in the farming sector and secondary industries related to the deciduous fruit industry in the Western and Eastern Cape.
For more information:
Prof Wiehann Steyn
HORTGRO
Tel: +27 21 870 2900
Email: wiehann@hortgro.co.za