Rolling blackouts may impact food security, Agri SA warns
Agri SA says a reliable power supply is critical for the agricultural sector's irrigation and water treatment.
It wants an urgent meeting with Eskom CEO Andre de Ryter to discuss the power cuts, which it says have played havoc with the sector's productivity schedule.
Agri SA's Kulani Siweya says electricity is crucial, especially at this time of the year when farmers are entering the planting season for the summer rainfall crops.
He says the escalating power outages will impact food security next year.
READ: HPCSA pleads for health facilities to be exempt from load shedding
"When there is load shedding or power outages, farmers then lose out on the irrigation widow period that they are able to do.
"They then find themselves either having to irrigate during peak hours or during times when they wouldn't necessarily be irrigating.
"Another challenge is that when there is load shedding, it takes about close to an hour for irrigation units to get back on track."
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