GMOs save the day for SA

South African farmers know how to farm in a crisis. They are equipped with varieties of maize that are drought- and pest-resistant because of genetic modification.

It was because of GMO crops that the fall armyworm had such a fleeting effect on South Africa’s crops. “Everyone has heard of someone who had them, but no one has had them themselves,” said Wandile Sihlobo, an agricultural economist at Agbiz. “They didn’t affect much of our crop.”

The fall armyworm took hold in neighbouring countries and Zimbabwe is said to have escaped lightly when the pest decimated 10% of its crop. But 85% of the maize grown in South Africa is resistant to such pests.

Dawie Maree, the head of information and marketing at FNB business and agriculture, said the impact was negligible: there was some damage to soybean crops and one case in which 1% of the potato crop was lost.

He said another factor was that farmers thwarted the threat by being proactive and spraying the fields where the pest was detected.

Sihlobo agreed, adding that South Africa has a chemicals industry that can supply farmers’ needs.

continued to rack up when there was no rain.

For crop farmers, it could take up to eight years to return to the financial position they were in before the drought, he said.

Certain livestock will also take a long time to recover, Sihlobo said. Sugar crops may take three years.

But the drought is continuing in the Western Cape and Cape Town has less than 100 days of water left, with a real threat that taps could run dry. But it is a winter rainfall region and it is hoped there could be some relief as early as this month.

The area produces wheat, a winter crop and one of South Africa’s most economically important grains. It has a strong link to the food manufacturing industry, Sihlobo said.

The region exports apples, pears and other deciduous fruits, making it one of the bigger provinces for foreign exchange earnings, said Maree.

Now the fear is that another El Niño could be on the way. “Everyone is saying there is a 60% chance that, as of August, we could see another El Niño creeping in,” Sihlobo said.

Last week, the South African Weather Service’s chief forecaster, Eugene Poolman, said during a presentation to the National Disaster Management Advisory Forum that there is a likelihood of El Niño making a comeback in a few months’ time, towards spring. But it is still too early to predict, if it happens, what its impact might be on Southern Africa’s summer season.

Yet, he said, water in dams and groundwater has been replenished in most areas.