The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, met with leaders of the agriculture sector and food, fibre and beverages value chains to assess the impact of load-shedding on business activity and plans for the sector going forward.

The industry leaders conveyed the difficulties faced by businesses, workers and associated costs for the Minister’s attention. They also highlighted the threat to food security in the event that continuous load shedding continues to take place at short notice, without joint strategies on how to mitigate the impact through contingency plans and predictability. Possible development of alternative energy sources within the sector was also analysed.

The meeting resolved that the Minister establish a small sector task team comprising government, industry participants and energy specialists that will continuously monitor the impact of load shedding in the sector and its ability to provide safe and nutritious food to South Africans. The technical work of measuring the financial costs is underway and will help draft the sector strategy. The task team will also explore short, medium and load-term interventions to ease the burden of load shedding within the farming and other value chains.