To South Africa, where an inter-ministerial task force has declared an ongoing drought to be a national disaster. Cape Town is one of the worst affected areas. The declaration should allow the city easier access to emergency funding and resources from the national government. The agricultural sector has already lost over a billion dollars in revenue due to the drought which is now entering its 3rd year. CGTN's Travers Andrews has this story.  

The Phillipi Horticultural Zone is the Western Cape's fruit and vegetable basket and is responsible for producing the majority of greens that end up in the consumer trolley.

Normally it's high water table keeps crops well hydrated throughout the year, but these aren't normal times and signs of the region's worst drought are abundantly clear.

Zak Schultz farms microgreens for the restaurant market. He has had 7 crop failures since the onset of the drought, now just retaining his small workforce has become one of his biggest obstacles.

ZAK SCHULTZ MICRO HERB FARMER "A lot of the guys over here are actually crying because the water table levels are low, dams are not keeping up, so you have to cut down. For example, if you were farming 300 hectares, you don't have the water for 300 hectares. Now you have to cut down to 150 and that at the end of the day, there is staff. If you can't produce, how do you keep the same amount of staff?"

It's a sentiment being felt by the Western Cape's farming sector, where many are said to be on their knees or under pressure irrespective of their level of farming activity.

Just down the road from micro green's holding lies another operation of manure farmers who are not even beholden to good quality water for production but even they are now under pressure.

MADALA CHIRYA MANURE FARMER "That water stinks, you know it's from underground. You see that bore how is always never clean, the water is like relish from underground."

PRECIOUS WHITE MANURE FARMER "We are worried because that water you can't drink. Sometimes we need to drink but we can't drink that water. We go far to drink, to get ice water."

Livestock farmers have also been under pressure and have been totally reliant on drought relief from as early as 2015

TRAVERS ANDREWS CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA "The drought has had an adverse effect on just about all sectors of the agricultural industry and for many, day zero is of little consolation."

CARL OPPERMAN CEO, AGRI-ESCAPE "It's a problem for all farmers, not just emerging farmers, also for established commercial farms. That's why we've been in front of the portfolio committee on water and sanitation. We've put some recommendations on the table to help these people, tick over their financial recommendations. There're human resources recommendations and there're also water recommendations in the future and how it's got to be managed."

Some good news though is that day zero is now predicted for the 4th of June when the rainy season is set to get underway and perhaps, the heavens may just bring some good rains this time around, Travers Andrews, CGTN, Cape Town."