Loadshedding leaving drought stricken farmers dry
As stage 4 load-shedding continues, farmers in Limpopo are increasingly concerned over the impact of the system on long term food production.
Agri-Limpopo chairperson Leon Botchedts says load shedding is having a severe negative effect on agriculture.
"It makes our irrigation schedules extremely difficult. Yesterday (Sunday) we lost four hours, two hours in the daytime, two hours in the night time.
"We are sitting with extremely dry conditions in our province, it is dry everywhere, we have to irrigate.
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"It becomes virtually impossible to get through your programs and get the water down where we need it," says Botchedts.
He adds that many consumers won't feel impact of a shortage of food production over the short term.
"We won't see the delay now but you're going to see it in fruit sizes or food quality later on.
"So when those foods are being packed for exporting, you will start to release that you got damage to the food most likely because of the irrigation.
"It also has an effect on the internal quality of food, so it's bad for the economy, it's even bad for small businesses in the countryside.