In various parts of the country, farmers struggle to turn a profit as Eskom’s threatening energy crisis forces the country’s food producers to find innovative ways to survive load shedding on their farms.
The agricultural sector is bleeding billions as a result of load shedding, and small-scale farmers are especially vulnerable. According to Agri SA, the agricultural sector lost more than R23 billion between January and September 2022. If load shedding and its disastrous impact on food production are not curbed, this loss could be exceeded in 2023, threatening the sustainability of the sector and the 800 000 jobs it provides.
Until then, small-scale farmers are implementing small changes to safeguard their businesses from load shedding.
Modern out, traditional farming in
Goat breeder and meat processor Mpendulo Mbatha from KwaZulu-Natal, finds himself farming in a very traditional way. Instead of using a miller to process his animal feed, Mbatha mixes the feed manually by hand. Although this takes a bit more time little, it saves him a lot of money on diesel costs to run a generator.
“When we need to mix, and process feeds our milling grinders require electricity,” he said. “[Also we] try to purchase already processed feeds, which is a bit expensive.”
Mbatha pumps water from the borehole on his farm to keep his goats hydrated. However, with load shedding, this has been close to impossible.
“The water pumps end up not working when there’s load shedding,” he said.
During no load shedding periods, Mbatha pumps as much water from the borehole which he then stores. “As difficult as it is we’ve resorted to trying and do things manually. [We] store water in containers for the animals.”
Unfortunately, Mbatha has also had to reduce meat orders, as regular power cuts have damaged his refrigerator system.
“But for the meat deliveries we’ve had to cut down on orders, so not to process a lot of meat at once,” he explained.
Manual irrigation is the way to go
Hydroponic farmers are heavily dependent on electricity, in fact, electricity is their biggest cost. Byron Booysen, a hydroponic farmer in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, has had to make a few small changes to his irrigation scheduling.
According to Booysen, he irrigates his crops more manually and more frequently, which adds more pressure on both him and his team.
“In the Western Cape, we don’t really have summer rains, so we really are depending on accurate scheduling for irrigation and what happens now is that we’re put under pressure.”
Irrigation done by automation is more accurate than when it is done manually. “The only way for me to mitigate [load shedding] is to add extra scheduling for my irrigation unit.”
Practising climate-smart farming
North West cattle farmer, Ipeleng Kwadi leans heavily on climate-smart agricultural practices. This, she said has helped her pivot around load shedding.
“We make sure our cattle scale is charged on time so that the process of weighing our bulls and newborn calves is not affected.”
Kwadi also has a borehole on the farm and makes use of a generator to pump water from it.
ALSO READ: Load shedding pummels local food businesses
The use of generators
Aquaponics and vegetable farmer Angelo Maarman told Food For Mzansi that the lack of sufficient power has caused many obstacles for his farming enterprise, AbitzFarming in Malmesbury, Western Cape.
“Irrigating our crops has become irregular and insufficient. [This] cuts into our administration side as well.”
Clients are ordering less produce due to refrigeration issues, he said.
To cut costs on his farm, Maarman said they “use generators to pump in-between load shedding times or irrigate longer at night. Looking for new markets is also key.”
ALSO READ: Eskom: Deciduous farmer development at risk
Back to basics for hops farmer
Hops farmer Khaya Maloney said to bypass the effects of load shedding, he has gone back to basics.
The Johannesburg-based rooftop farmer told Food For Mzansi that he feeds each and every plant with the required dosage of nutrients as opposed to automation.
“I [also have to] leave the farm door open for excessive heat on the farm [This] leaves my crop susceptible to pests and I use a lot of water because the recycle pump is off during load shedding times,” Maloney explained.
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