Leading South African table grape producer and exporter Karsten Group is not only celebrating one of its best harvests ever, but has also won the prestigious government award for achieving water savings in agriculture.
The company achieved water savings of up to 30 per cent in irrigation on its table grape farms over the past four years by using an effective computerised system.
The awards were handed out by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs across four categories, namely Agriculture, Industry, Mining & Power, Domestic or Local Government and Business. The Karsten Group was the top achiever in the Agricultural sector.
In announcing the winners, deputy minister of water and environmental affairs Rejoice Mabudafhasi congratulated Karsten Farms for successfully championing innovative water conservation and water demand management programmes that ensure water savings, benefit communities and promote economic benefit and sustainability.
The Karsten Group's table grape business stretches over a distance of more than 250km along the Orange River and the company has won universal praise for its innovative and ground-breaking farming practices. Recently, the Group’s innovative energy saving programme – which is aimed at transferring the Group’s farms as far as possible to solar power – was highlighted at the COP 17 summit in Durban.
Willem van Aarde, the Karsten Group's agriculturalist, said that water saving systems are a key priority on all the Group’s farms, where more than 1000ha have been planted under table grapes.
'We are striving for optimal use of water without using too much or too little,' explained Van Aarde. 'In the process we have achieved savings of up to 30 per cent over the past four years in the vineyards where we use the system.'
Van Aarde noted that the Group uses probes to measure the water content at various levels in the soil in vineyards, and then transfers the information to a computer programme, called Erricheck, which gives agriculturists a picture of what is happening under the soil.
'The success is the culmination of many years of hard work striving for optimal water use. The results can be seen in lower electricity costs,' he said.
While it is difficult to establish just how much the water saving measures contributed to optimum production and fruit quality, Van Aarde said that it is significant that the Karsten table grape farms produced one of its best ever crops during the past season.
Analysts noted that the savings achieved on 560ha at the Karsten table grape farms is sufficient to irrigate an additional 211ha. In a water-scarce country, these kind of savings can make a huge difference in the future development of the table grape industry.
