South Africa has led farmers to consider switching to small-scale solar in a bid to keep the lights on and pumps running.
Farmers and food processors have been dealing with up to eight hours a day without electricity, leading to the culling of poultry, the waste of fresh milk and the inability to irrigate crops.
Both the South African government and the private sector have recognized the impact of the blackouts on food security, and identified the potential national security risks stemming from disruptions to the agriculture and food processing sector.
South Africa’s publicly-owned electricity generator and distributor, Eskom, has failed to adequately maintain its transmission network, and has been marred by corruption and a recent incident of sabotage.
There has been a surge in interest from farmers and food processors in small-scale renewables as they seek to insulate themselves from the unreliable national power grid.
Johannesburg-based Tiger Foods, one of Africa’s largest food producers, announced last year it would install solar power at four of its manufacturing sites and have 65 per cent of its electricity consumption generated through sustainable methods by 2030.
In 2021, a pecan farm in the country’s Northern Cape Province installed the one of South Africa’s largest private off-grid solar farm to power its irrigation pumps, with an average daily production of 3,500 kilowatt hours.
In 2020, prior to the load shedding crisis, about 10 per cent of all solar installation was in agriculture.
That figure was projected to grow by 10 per cent annually, according to the Western Cape Government Department of Agriculture.