JOHANNESBURG — Happy Letsitsa hasn’t paid off the money he borrowed to survive a 2019 drought that ravaged his maize and sunflower farm in the South African province of Free State.
He has no drought insurance. If rains fail again, they could spell the end of his business, which supports his wife, child, father and extended family.
“It’s like going to a casino and playing a high bet,” he said of running his smallholder farm without cover. “It’s not easy, especially if you’ve got one stream of income: farming.”
This precarious livelihood is common among the hundreds of thousands of small farmers in South Africa. Most can’t access any dr…
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