Contingency planning for agriculture
South Africa has experienced an unprecedented number of disasters (natural and man-made) over the past 15 years, which, at the time of occurrence, had a significant impact on agriculture, and in certain regions, affected the overall economic prosperity of farmers.
Some of the most significant events include the 2011 floodings, 2012 labour disruptions in the Western Cape, 2015/16 drought conditions, the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020/2021, the 2021 KwaZulu-Natal looting, 2021/22 floods across provinces, fire disasters, foot and mouth disease and locust outbreaks during 2022, and more recently the floods in the summer and winter rainfall regions.
External risks that threaten the sector’s sustainability are the increase in input costs, deteriorating road and transport infrastructure, climate change, policy uncertainty, minimum wage, rural safety, and water rights, to name a few. These pressures influence the ability of agriculture to thrive and be economically viable under challenging conditions.
To plan for disasters, the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 provides a legal framework that requires the national, provincial and local spheres of government to prepare disaster management plans containing contingency strategies and emergency procedures in the event of a disaster, including measures to finance these strategies. This legal obligation also extends to other institutional role-players involved in disaster management to develop, regularly review, update, coordinate, share and implement disaster management plans. The core business of organised agriculture, which includes local farmer organisations, provincial unions and national bodies, is not to execute disaster management. However, to a large extent, they are in consultation with municipal, provincial or national disaster management centres on disaster management within their areas.
While resilience-building and response actions are critical mechanisms that farmers integrate into their day-to-day management, it will be necessary for organised agriculture also to develop contingency plans to guide effective responses to disaster management. This, in return, will provide a value-add to farming communities where existential risks threaten food production and national food security.
Agri SA, in conjunction with its members, developed a risk register which enables the organisation to identify and categorise risks. The purpose of this register is to guide the organisation in managing internal and external agriculture risks, developing strategies and considering appropriate controls to reduce vulnerability. One of the control mechanisms is developing a holistic contingency plan for agriculture. This, however, is not a one size fits all approach. The goal should be transparent and adaptable to apply to different scenarios.
As a proactive measure, Agri SA will develop a contingency plan in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), including members’ input to ensure that risks are mitigated, and controls are in place in line with the rule of law.
The structure of these plans will seek answers/responses to underlining questions such as:
- ‘What’ has been accomplished thus far;
- ‘What’ must be done by the farmer organisation;
- ‘Why’ must the farmer organisation do so;
- ‘Who’ from farmer organisations must do it;
- ‘How’ must it be done;
- ‘Where’ must it be done;
- ‘When’ must it be done; and
- ‘What’ is needed to get it done?
This will inform the development of a disaster management plan known as a contingency plan during any hazard. A guideline for developing and structuring a disaster management plan was published in Government Gazette no. 40865 on 26 May 2017. This is considered an appropriate structure that any farmer’s organisation can also follow in developing its contingency plan. It will require a deep dive into the possible risks farmer organisations experience and how they intend to deal with them. Streamlining contingency plans with the government or even addressing the shortcoming of the government’s disaster management plans will ultimately significantly impact reducing risks.
In the development of a contingency plan, the following guidelines will need to be included:
Preface
To provide the preliminary information of the plan.
Chapter 1
Introduction and background to provide a detailed description of the farmer’s organisation about disaster management.
Chapter 2
Constitutional, legislative and policy mandates to provide particulars of the procedure and legal obligation(s) applicable in terms of the DMA, the respective farmer organisations’ legal order and an examination of which risks could be adequately dealt with within that legislation.
Chapter 3
Integrated institutional capacity to provide particulars of the ability established within the organ of state to enable the effective development and implementation of disaster management policy and legislation.
Chapter 4
Risk assessment to provide a uniform approach to assessing and monitoring disaster risks that will inform disaster risk management planning and disaster risk reduction undertaken by the farmer’s organisation.
Chapter 5
Disaster risk reduction to ensure that the farmer’s organisation develop and implement integrated disaster risk management plans and risk reduction programmes by approved framework mandates.
Chapter 6
Preparedness planning to ensure effective and appropriate preparedness planning by implementing a uniform approach to the dissemination of early warnings and averting or reducing the potential impact in respect of personal injury, health, loss of life, property, infrastructure, environments and services through appropriate contingency plans.
Chapter 7
Response to ensure effective and appropriate disaster response by implementing immediate integrated and proper response measures when significant events or disasters occur or are threatening to occur.
Chapter 8
Recovery to ensure effective and appropriate disaster recovery by implementing all rehabilitation and reconstruction strategies following a disaster in an integrated and developmental manner.
Chapter 9
Testing and review of the plan to set out the testing and review schedule of the project.
Chapter 10
Contact details & reference documents to provide contact details and information on the reference material relevant to the plan.
Development structure of a contingency plan according to the NDMC:
Figure 1: shows how the three Enablers and the four KPIs within the legislative framework of disaster management and linked to the structure (respective chapters).
This guideline will inform a national contingency plan that Agri SA, in collaboration with affiliated members and the NDMC, will develop to guide national farmer organisations and provincial and local unions on best practices in managing varied risks. In essence, the development of a national disaster management contingency plan will require to a great extent, input from various role-players, especially those affected most by hazards. We should strive to promote a prosperous sector by increasing resilience and strengthening food security.
Sources:
Sections 25, 38,39, 52 and 53 of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002.
