Identifying weaknesses Ailing infrastructure The agriculture sector’s growth and its contribution to the South African economy, although positive, continues to be hindered by crumbling infrastructure, particularly economic infrastructure such as roads, ports, railways, telecommunication networks and electricity generation. The agriculture sector is increasingly shifting from rail to road transport to move goods between provinces and to ports for export. The modal shift is driven by the steady decline in the efficiency of the State-owned rail industry, partly owing to theft and vandalism of critical infrastructure. The ‘Ctrack Freight Transport Index’ illustrates the change in fortunes between rail and road, particularly since the Covid-19 lockdown. Ctrack’s road freight index reached a level of 129.90 points in January 2022, compared with rail freight’s index level of 81.70 in the same month (Ctrack, 2022). In the 2021 financial year, agricultural products accounted for only 0.60% of Transnet revenue from commodities transported (Transnet, 2022). There is concern that an increase in the number of heavy trucks on the roads results in more safety incidents, damages the road infrastructure and results in more congestion. For example, to load a vessel with a 55 000 t carrying capacity, requires 1 617 trucks loaded with 34 t each, the equivalent of a line of trucks 37 km long. Poor road infrastructure, particularly in rural areas where farmers rely on gravel roads, further
“The agriculture sector’s . . . contribution to the South African economy . . . continues to be hindered by crumbling infrastructure . . .”
increases production costs to the industry.
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