South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp, has committed to having the Gamtoos Valley in the Eastern Cape classified as a disaster area after severe floods in May, a first step towards the formal declaration needed to unlock funding.

The Gamtoos River burst its banks during the floods, causing extensive damage across the valley and affecting more than 10 per cent of the region's citrus crop. "The flood damage that we had in May this year is going into the hundreds of millions, if not more," Aucamp said during a visit to meet farmers ahead of the new production season.

Farmers welcomed the visit but asked for action. Oyster Bay dairy farmer Conrad Dreyer said roads were "basically non-existent" and that farmers were repairing them themselves. "The words are positive, but now we want to see implementation," he said.

Farmers also raised the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, which Dreyer estimated has cost producers in the area more than R400 million. He called the Animal Diseases Act of 1984 outdated and said earlier vaccination could have limited the damage. Aucamp called FMD "a disaster" and said the national Department of Agriculture had requested R1.3 billion in the adjusted 2026 budget for national vaccination.

Kouga Executive Mayor Hattingh Bornman said agriculture is one of the municipality's biggest economic drivers and called for a whole-of-society approach with closer cooperation between government and farmers.

The report was written by Octavia Avesca Spandiel.

Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa