Wheat crop hit by drought

DRIVE the N7 through the Swartland and fields of tawny wheat stretch to the horizon.

This area, together with the Southern Cape, is the heart of South Africa’s wheat production.

But farmers here are not expecting a good harvest this year, with much of the wheat stunted after months of poor rainfall.

On Jan- Hendrik Visser’s farm Meintjieskraal, outside Piketberg, rows of wheat stalks ready for harvest are barely 30cm high.

Visser said his farm usually receives 280mm of rain a year, almost all in the winter months. This year it has received only 135mm.

When Visser last planted wheat on this field in 2013 (like other farmers, he rotates his crops) he received a yield of 3.6 tons per hectare.

As he looked out over the field this week, he said he fears he’ll only harvest half a ton per hectare this year.

Visser said he had had high hopes of a good crop when he planted wheat in May.

“But then it simply stopped raining.”

According to figures from the province’s research station at Langgewens, outside the town of Moorreesburg about 30km south of Visser’s farm, only 30mm of rain fell in August and September.

As a result, the crop’s growth was stunted and the province is expected to produce more than 100 000 tons less than last year.

The only time when less rain fell during these two months was in 1937, when 29.5mm fell.

According to the latest wheat crop estimates from the agriculture department, wheat production in the province will fall from 899 000 tons last year, to 775 000 tons this year.

Another production forecast will be published on Tuesday.

Piketberg is only one Swartland area where the wheat crop is expected to be poor.

According to Dr Johann Strauss, a scientist in sustainable cropping systems for the provincial agriculture department, the Swartland as a whole has received only half its average rainfall.

The Langgewens research Station shows that 196mm of rain recorded so far.

In the past four years, comparative figures all show rainfall of more than 380mm, with a high of 506mm in 2013.

This is the lowest rainfall since the drought of 2003.

Particularly badly affected are regions around the towns of Piketberg, Eendekuil and Porterville.

Agriculture MEC Alan Winde said the drought meant less money for the region, with some farmers expecting a 50 percent decrease in yield.

“There are farmers who are not breaking even because of lower yields. This will have a knock-on effect on the rest of economy in the West Coast towns,” he said.

The Swartland had not yet been declared a disaster area.

“( The provincial government) is closely monitoring the impact of unusual seasonal weather in some regions,” he said.

Strauss agreed the drought would have a knock-on effect on farmers. “A lot of farmers work on loans to plant their crops,” he said.

With farmers earning less, this could make it more difficult to plant crops next year.

Strauss, who works on conservation agriculture –a means to sustainably increase crop yields over time, said the results of the drought would probably not be as bad as that of 2003, because many farmers had improved farming techniques.

By decreasing ploughing, practising no-till agriculture and leaving harvested chaff and stalks in the soil, more moisture and nutrients are retained, which leads to higher yields.

Winde said he was encouraged to see more farmers had in recent years migrated to more responsible practices, and that the yields of these farmers were, on the whole, higher than those who hadn’t switched to conservation agriculture.

While farmers 50 years ago planted wheat annually in the Swartland, today most rotate wheat with crops like canola, lupin and annual pastures.

“Farmers have embraced the idea of conservation agriculture, and are at different stages of implementing it fully,” said Strauss.

But despite this, they will still suffer. Many farmers would this season use the residues of wheat – which ideally stay on the land to help with nutrient cycling – as feed for their sheep so they can save on buying in fodder.

This, however, would mean that next year’s crops would not be growing in such protected nutrient-rich soil, resulting in its own set of problems.

South Africa is a net importer of wheat, and will likely need to import more next year to offset decreased production.

PICTURES: LEON LESTRADE PLANNING: Toit Wessels of Grain SA, left, speaks to Agriculture MEC Alan Winde on a farm in the Swartland on Wednesday.

DRY TIMES: A patch of a burned wheat field near Moorreesburg in the Swartland. Some farmers in the area are facing only half the yield of an average year.