Road to food insecurity | Production costs grow due to poor roads

JOHANNESBURG - Farmers are being driven to desperation over the poor state of roads.

Some are now maintaining roads themselves to get their produce to market.

READ: Potholes keep SA’s road users fuming

AgriSA says poorly maintained roads are just one of the many issues faced by local farmers.

This results in increased input costs which are unfortunately passed onto consumers.

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"Indeed it has this fall-over impact because somewhere along the value chain, this cost must be absorbed, and sadly though, it's consumers that then experience the brunt of it," said AgriSA's Christo van der Rheede.

"I know some of our big agribusinesses are already spending a lot of money to just maintain roads. The big question is for how long can the agriculture sector really absorb all of these additional costs."