A task team is being set up to keep a watchful eye over the impact of the crippling rolling blackouts on the agriculture sector as well as food security in the country.

The team will be made up of government, members of the agriculture sector and energy specialists. The decision to establish such a body was made during a meeting between Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza and leaders of the agriculture sector as well as those from the food, fibre and beverages value chain.

Farmers highlighted the difficulties that the sector is facing due to load shedding and the associated costs as well as the threat it poses to food security.

According to the Agriculture Department technical work of measuring the financial costs of load shedding is underway and this information will be used to help draft a sector strategy.

The task team will also explore short, medium and long-term interventions to ease the burden of load shedding.

Over the past few months’ farmers have been calling on Eskom to exempt them from load shedding.