Healing the soil to survive the droughts

On Nooitgedacht farm near Kenhardt in the Northern Cape, drought isn't a crisis - it's a way of life. But by improving soil health, Charl Saunderson has managed to make his land more resilient and productive in one of South Africa's toughest farming regions.

- Glenneis Kriel

There isn’t much you can tell Charl Saunderson and his wife, Isabel, about drought.

Their farm, Nooitgedacht, near Kenhardt in the Northern Cape, receives an average of just 130mm of rain a year - with some years being far drier - and others, occasionally, a lot or a little wetter.

"Drought isn’t an eventuality here, it’s a way of life. You have to plan for it," says Saunderson. "There’s not much you can do about the weather, but on a sheep farm like ours, improving soil health can go a long way in buffering you against long dry spells."

But how? As the sun sets over the Boesmanland, Saunderson picks up a 30cm-long pipe, about 10cm in diameter, to demonstrate the difference between compacted and healthy soil.

Near the farmhouse lies a patch of land where, in his great-grandfather's time, farmers from the region used to bring their sheep to drink. When Saunderson pours 500ml of water through the pipe onto this soil, it takes more than 15 minutes for the water to seep in.

"The test shows what happens when you get heavy rains," he explains. "The soil is so compacted that the water simply runs off, leaving it dry and barren. It will take years to rehabilitate this land from the damage done in the 1920s and 1930s."

Water infiltration tests from other parts of the farm tell a different story.

Where the soil has been ripped to break compaction, the water takes less than half the time to sink in, sometimes even shorter. In areas that have been ripped and enriched with organic matter, the water disappears within seconds.

"This is what you want when you receive rain," he says with a smile.

REMOVING INVASIVE SPECIES