Gamtoos Irrigation Board (Twitter)
At least five farmers in the Gamtoos River Valley have packed up and moved on as cuts to water quotas and the ongoing drought take their toll.
The Gamtoos Irrigation Board says the long-running drought, coupled with a severe restriction of just 20% on the abstraction of water by commercial farmers from the Kouga Dam, has had a devastating impact on the economy of the Valley.
The restrictions were imposed by the Department of Water and Sanitation last year.
Gamtoos Irrigation Board CEO Reinette Kolesky says the allocation has had a devastating impact on the economy of the valley.
She said over the six-year period of the restrictions, the water allocation for commercial farmers from the Kouga Dam had varied from 85% in one year to 15% the next, and now 20% this financial year.
"Obviously it has a great impact on our farmers, who are at the end of the line now. There's not much more that they can pull out of the hat to make farming as profitable as it was previously," she told Algoa FM News.
She said over this time some farming practices changed, with less dairy farming at Mondplaas as some of the farmers moved to other areas.
"Our cash crop farmers have also moved away, mostly from the Gamtoos Valley and are cultivating their crops in other areas which are more water-rich. The reason why they are doing that is to keep their contracts with retailers and not lose them," Kolesky said.
One emerging citrus farmer, Khaya Katoo of Threepence Farm, said their income dropped 61% last year.
He said their fruit was not of a good size and they were not able to fetch good prices overseas.
"Because of a lack of water, we had to completely uproot some of our orchards, something we only intended to do in five years' time," said Katoo.
"But we had to make the decision now if we wanted to keep going."
Commercial farmer Noelie le Roux said over the past five years they'd moved around the province hiring land in places like Kareedouw, Steynsburg and Hofmeyr where there is more water.
"We've had to scale down massively and retrench long-standing labourers," Le Roux said.
Kolesky said that while farmers had to bear the brunt of the cutbacks, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's allocation from the Kouga Dam was just 35% lower than normal.
"This means that the Bay's water allocation for 2022/23 totals 15 million cubic metres, compared with 12 million cubic metres for Valley farmers. It is the first time that the City's allocation from the Kouga Dam exceeds the farmers' allocation," she said.
