Last month Western Cape Provincial Minister of Agriculture Dr Ivan Meyer’s office sent a press release out stating he had pleaded with Eskom to consider the agriculture sector.
The minister had appealed to Eskom to make special provision for farmers when they prepare for their harvest season. He said in doing so a lot of jobs will be saved.
Furthermore, Meyer said: “The agricultural sector largely depends on the national grid to produce, process and prepare for international and local markets and exports. In addition, farmers rely on electricity to pump water for irrigation purposes. Therefore, load shedding has a devastating impact on the production side of their farms.”
The statement said Meyer had received numerous complaints from farmers about the negative impact load shedding was having on their farming operations.
“Adjusting the daytime load shedding schedule to the sector’s needs will assist in sustaining and growing much-needed jobs in the rural towns of the Western Cape. Municipalities include Matzikama, Witzenberg, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch, Breede Valley, Langeberg and Theewaterskloof.”
Load shedding could potentially negatively affect the agri market.
“The Western Cape is responsible for 53% of South Africa’s agricultural exports,” the minister said. “Consequently, a load-shedding schedule that responds to the requirements of the agri sector will protect rural economies and jobs.”
According to Agri Western Cape it had also received numerous complaints from farmers in the province.
“Agri Western Cape’s managing team, representing every district in the province, and the managing team of the commodity chamber met earlier this week to discuss the energy crisis,” Jannie Strydom, Agri Western Cape’s CEO, said. “It is a massive problem for producers.”
As the minister did, Agri Western Cape also reached out to Eskom regarding the continuous load shedding crisis the country is experiencing.
“We met with the regional office in the Western Cape in December last year, and we’ve met with the Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ivan Meyer.”
Furthermore, Strydom explained how load shedding could negatively influence the agricultural sector.
“If farmers can’t produce food the farmworkers can’t work,” he said. “If the current crisis continues it will definitely impact job creation and the financial sustainability of farming.”
According to Daniel Johnson, spokesperson for Meyer, outlined the consequences of the outages for the sector: “Load shedding impacts on farming operations such as irrigation, pack houses, cooling and storage facilities, and related processing activities. The quality and quantity of agricultural produce, such as fruit and vegetables, can be severely compromised. When this happens it will tarnish the sector’s reputation as a producer and exporter of quality produce.
Johnson added the Western Cape’s agricultural sector was largely dependent on the national grid in its processes – producing, processing and preparing for international and local markets and exports.
“The sustainability of the sector is paramount to the economic development, sustained and increased employment, and socio-economic sustainability of our rural areas, especially in the Western Cape, which is also challenged by the impacts of climate change.
Standard also spoke to some local farmers and asked them what challenges they faced during load shedding and how it impacted their day to day operations.
Johan van Der Merwe from Alfalfa Dairy said the most important thing was to maintain the cold chain for their dairy products, which include milk, cheese and cream.
“So most of the bigger shops have big generators, but the smaller shops will have generators for their cash registers and lights only, and not the fridges,” he explained. “So because the fridges aren’t running as they should, our products’ shelf life is reduced to half of what it normally is.”
This has resulted in the dairy having take a lot of its products back, resulting in losses in sales. He also mentions its daily operations have had to be moved around, and shifts that would normally work during the day have had to do so at night, resulting in activation overtime pay and creating an even bigger chain reaction.
Standard also spoke to Hano Kitshoff of Lemoen Bult in De Doorns, which works with grapes. “We saw this coming and made plans ahead of time. We hired a generator for the storage facilities. That and the diesel obviously adds up to big extra expenses, but it was needed so that we could go on as normally as possible.”
Kitshoff added the farm has had to adjust its approach to the irrigation of the crops. “The irrigation of the crops has become a bit of a challenge. This means some people have to work overtime to make up the time lost during load shedding during the day. One needs a lot of electricity for the irrigation pump, especially when going uphill. I know some of the bigger farms have generators for their pump stations, but one needs a very big and powerful generator for that, which costs a lot of money.”
Harvest is set to continue through March to mid-April, and Kitshoff reckons farmers all over “can do with a bit of good news. We’re all feeling the pain.”
Standard enquired from Eskom why neither Dr Ivan Meyer nor Agri Western Cape had received any feedback from it, and if it was considering a plan of action to accommodate farmers. At the time of going to print the public utility had not yet responded.
