Figure 2: SPI for Southern Africa, OctoberDecember 2015 (Source: BFAP, 2016) It is evident from Figure 2 that the drought first impacted on the coastal regions, especially the Western Cape, who had just emerged from a drier-than-usual winter, and KwaZulu-Natal. The drought then intensified in November and December 2015. As these months herald in the end of the planting season, it goes without saying that the drought impacted heavily on key crop production areas (December 2015). As a result