Agriculture
Over 100 million potential meals lost due to fires─── 15:42 Fri, 28 Sep 2012
Lani Fouché
Bloemfontein - Over 100 million potential meals have been lost due to the thousands of hectares of farming land that were gutted by veld fires in the Free State so far this year.
The provincial department of agriculture's Malcolm Procter says the current figures show that over 232 000 hectares were destroyed in the province since January, which is a mere 5 000 hectares less than the annual average.
He says with an average stocking rate of six hectares per one head of cattle, almost 39 000 heads of cattle could have been fed, which could have gone a long way in providing food security.
Procter says too many fires are a cause of human error, which again reiterates the importance of educating South Africans on fire prevention. He says 95% of all veld and forest fires are started by human error.
Bloemfontein - Over 100 million potential meals have been lost due to the thousands of hectares of farming land that were gutted by veld fires in the Free State so far this year.
The provincial department of agriculture's Malcolm Procter says the current figures show that over 232 000 hectares were destroyed in the province since January, which is a mere 5 000 hectares less than the annual average.
He says with an average stocking rate of six hectares per one head of cattle, almost 39 000 heads of cattle could have been fed, which could have gone a long way in providing food security.
Procter says too many fires are a cause of human error, which again reiterates the importance of educating South Africans on fire prevention. He says 95% of all veld and forest fires are started by human error.
Malcolm Procter:
