Agri SA has noted its concerns about the potential negative impact of load-shedding on the agricultural sector and the broader value chain.

The agriculture industry association highlighted in a statement that electricity was an important input cost for many farmers, especially farmers that depended on irrigation.

It indicated that the agriculture sector had spent about R146-billion on intermediate goods and services in 2017/18, of which electricity amounted to R7-billion, or 5%.

“Load-shedding will have an impact on irrigation-reliant and energy-intensive industries like the horticulture, dairy, poultry, grains and agroprocessing industry,” Agri SA Centre of Excellence: Economics and Trade chairperson Nicol Jansen warned.

“The negative impact affects producers, as well as the end consumer, as these subsectors play a vital role in ensuring South Africa’s food security. Over 25% of the country’s food is produced by irrigation-reliant and energy-intensive industries.”

Agri SA met with Eskom on January 22 to discuss possible ways to mitigate the negative impact of load-shedding on agriculture.

Within the context of food security, Agri SA requested Eskom to, at least, exclude agriculture from Stage 1 load-shedding.

However, Eskom indicated that this would not be possible, as agriculture was not serviced by a dedicated network and that other stakeholders were similarly affected by load-shedding.

Load-shedding can affect irrigation activities directly in terms of load-shedding experienced by farmers who cannot use their electric pumps during their access window to water, and/or indirectly by the load-shedding of key irrigation scheme pumpstations.

In the latter case, a farmer may have access to electricity, but the irrigation scheme pumpstations may be affected by load-shedding or vice versa.

To resolve this specific coordination problem, Agri SA’s provincial members will engage with Eskom representatives in their respective provinces to identify key irrigation scheme pumpstations and determine how their load-shedding can be minimised.