With loadshedding the order of the day, farms could go from being green and lush to brown and desert Photo Pexels
South Africa – Eskom has moved the country into stage 6 loadshedding until further notice. Businesses have already closed down because of the intense level of loadshedding and it is likely some farmers will have to follow that path too. If they do, South Africa may face a shortage of all kinds of produce.
Loadshedding is causing havoc to primary and secondary farms across the country. Farmers also have to contend with the heat wave spreading across the country. With long periods without electricity, keeping the land irrigated becomes an impossible task, explained Wannie Scribante, Deputy President of Transvaal Agricultural Union (TLU SA)
“At the moment we are experiencing a heat wave in the Northern Cape and the North West. The irrigation farmers are now in a critical state. They can’t irrigate sufficiently. Their whole crop will be damaged. It’s an irreversible problem. If you have damage now, you cannot recover the crops. That causes a big concern for food security in the future and at the moment there’s already reports of some shortages of something as simple as maize meal because the millers can’t mill enough.”
Small scale farmers cannot afford to purchase alternative energy batteries or generators. The costs are way too high for them and therefore, they need to be exempt from loadshedding, said Scribante.
Meeting with government to help farmers
TLU SA along with other farming organisations arranged a meeting with the Agricultural Minister, Angela Thokozile Didiza to express their concerns and worried. Scribante was part of those meetings and felt their concerns were heard but now it is time to look for solutions to these problems.
“We already had a meeting on Friday. I counted 177 of us on an MS teams meeting and that was an information session. Every part of the sector expressed their concerns. She took notice of that. We have a small working group of experts who, in the next few weeks, must come up with some suggestions to the minister. I don’t think she can do much about the situation other than influencing the minister of energy.”
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Farmers are struggling and shortages can be expected
Currently South Africa is on the brink of facing a potato shortage as many farmers have decided to reduce production or stop it entirely. This is due to farmers being unable to irrigate their crop properly which has led to potatoes being small in size, said Scribante. Smaller potatoes means less profits and farmers have had to move on to other crop in order to sustain themselves.
“The profit margins on a potato is very small. At the moment it’s not only costly if you do not do enough irrigation but the grade of the potato goes down and then it just isn’t profitable at all. So the farmers recovery cost over their input cost, they would rather not plant which is understandable. We are heading for a disaster.”
It is not just farmers who are struggling but also abattoirs. Tebogo Madlala, an abattoir worker, expressed his frustrations at having constant loadshedding. The abattoir has many electrical equipment vital to their operations.
“There are different equipment we use and most of them become useless when we have no lights. We also have to worry about the big freezer that we have where we store the carcasses. On normal days it is alright but during this heat wave, there is always a worry something might happen.”
Madlala uses an electrical track to help lift the bulls they cut to an upright position in order to skin it. When there is no lights, this all has to be done manually which can be quite labour intensive.
“Normally we just hook the bulls by their ankles and press one button and its done. Now, we have to pull a chain and it is not easy at all, especially if it is a big bull. This is only a problem with the larger cattle. Sheep are easy to hang up and skin whether we have lights or not.
The next big issue is slicing the animal. This requires a slicing machine and when the power goes, Madlala can do nothing without it. This frustrates customers especially if they are expecting everything to be ready by a certain time.
“We normally use a chainsaw to cut the carcass of the cow or bull in half which makes it easier to slice. That isn’t an issue but with no lights means we can’t use the slicing machine. From everything we do, I would say that takes the longest. So even if the lights come back an hour before we close, we leave it for the next day.”
Since they are a small abattoir, getting a generator is too costly and so Madlala and his coworkers do as much as they can by hand.
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Importing food might become the norm
If things carry on this way, sooner or later South Africa will have to import the bulk of their food from other countries. The high cost of that coupled with the decaying infrastructure at ports makes it a very non-viable solution, said Scribante.
“The dire state of our ports is such that we will not be able to import the food even if it’s available. Another huge concern is our infrastructure is in such a state that we cannot transport goods to and from the ports. The ports are not operating effectively. So, it’s not as simple as that.”
The way forward for farmers
With farmers facing such intense conditions, Scribante has called on everyone to try and help as much as they can. He has called for groups of all kinds to start putting pressure on the government to change their policies.
“Start putting pleasure on the government and say change your policies. Change your ideas. Start running the country as a business. The policies up to now obviously do not work. Change the basics, the policies and then change the way the government is doing business.”
Scribante admits it is not an easy task to exempt all farms from loadshedding. However, special treatment must be given to those who are being impacted by the heat wave. They need their irrigation system desperately.
Scribante and other organisations will have to wait for two more weeks for feedback from Didiza. He hopes whatever is put on the table is a sustainable solution that will help farmers and the country.
