The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TLU SA) is calling on the government to exempt farmers from load shedding as the latest extended stages wreak havoc on farming operations, tipping food security to the edge of the precipice.
In a statement ahead of a meeting on the invitation from the Minister of Agriculture Thoko Didiza, where different parties will discuss the energy crisis in South Africa, TLU SA said the government should consider agriculture as an essential service for the sake of food surety, where no load shedding is applied.
It said cold chain farmers and farmers dependent on irrigation should be released from load shedding or load shedding should be applied to them outside of peak times.
“The government has to realise that the current energy crisis puts food security in question. This is something no country can afford,” Bennie van Zyl, general manager said.
Producers of cold chain products (temperature regulated) cannot guarantee shelf life as it is. Farmers who use irrigation cannot sustainably produce with diesel and some potato farmers needed to stop production because of their inability to irrigate.
“Farmers face huge input costs after the president’s promise that the electricity situation will improve, with already established crops that will now desiccate. Not only do crop farmers suffer from this, but also winter crops and lucerne, which will cause animals not surviving the winter,” Van Zyl said.
He said with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announcing an 18.65% increase in electricity as from April 1, there was more pressure on agriculture in the midst of load shedding and load reduction.
“Even the largest farmers are now facing irreversible losses. This definitely fortifies the arguments and requests we are submitting to the minister today. Eskom is an excellent example of an institution, as a result of transformation, that harms the economy and the image foreign countries have of South Africa,” he said.
The TLU SA said farmers had to register for irrigation water according to estimates that cannot happen now due to load shedding, but the amount of water that was already registered cannot be reduced.
It said this is because a farmer, when he wants to irrigate at full capacity again, needs to register all over again, with an environmental impact study of more than R100 000 together with administrative red tape.
“We have reached a point in South Africa where responsible, active citizens realise that we are left to one’s own resources and to look at and implement alternative solutions,” Van Zyl said.