Drought has taken him to the depths of depression, destitution and hopelessness, says Naudé Pienaar, Agri North West deputy CEO. However, it has also taught him about the kindness of people, and the 'miracle' that can happen when South Africans join forces to alleviate the plight of farmers caught in the grips of drought.
Agri North West CEO and deputy CEO, Boeta du Toitand Naudé Pienaar, have earned themselves a special place in the hearts of South Africa’s drought- stricken farmers. Their journey of drought support started in 2012/2013, when their own province suffered one of the worst droughts in history.
Naudé is currently still coordinating the delivery of fodder donated to farmers in the Western Cape and Northern Cape by their counterparts in North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
Drought transformed the North West into a barren and desolate landscape, and it is having a similar effect on the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape.
“These farmers need us to help them as much as we can to stretch out their own supplies, if they still have any. For others, it literally means the difference between life and death for the surviving livestock,” Naudé explains.
Boeta and Naudé were introduced to the effects of the drought the hard way. During the drought in the province, Naudé received a phone call from a farmer who cried on the phone, saying that he was in the process of shooting the few remaining cattle on his farm because there was no other way out.
Other phone calls he remembers were from farmers’ wives painting a bleak picture of their husbands having lost all hope. The devastation affects everyone, he emphasises: farmers, farmworkers and all their families.
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