Farming for the Future, organic urban farming in South Africa
In the urban areas of South Africa there are massive problems of food insecurity and unemployment. Urban farming is increasingly considered to offer a solution to both problems. Urban organic horticulture will lead to a better nutritional situation and will lead to jobs. Additionally it will help green the living environment and contribute to more safety. In spring 2013, Avalon started a six year project to introduce and professionalise organic urban farming in Cape Town.
Three components
www.sosvillages.org.za is implementing various Family Strengthening Programmes (FSP) throughout the country, in which it supports disadvantaged families by bolstering their capacity to protect and care for their children. Growing food can serve both food security and income generation. Although the interest is there, so far resources have been lacking to provide proper training and startup facilities to reach even a stage of subsistence farming. Avalon and SOS SA have decided to work together in this project to build exactly this capacity among caregivers of different FSP’s.
The second component of the project is a training towards semi-commercial farming which will further increase economic independence and will provide better income to the farmers. At the same time farmers will learn basic management skills and start selling surplus produce to the market. The target group for this training are farmers from existing subsistence farmers groups as well as the mentioned SOS group. In both components the local organisation Abalimi will play an important role as it will provide local training on the ground based on its well tested scheme.
The second component of the project is a training towards semi-commercial farming which will further increase economic independence and will provide better income to the farmers. At the same time farmers will learn basic management skills and start selling surplus produce to the market. The target group for this training are farmers from existing subsistence farmers groups as well as the mentioned SOS group. In both components the local organisation Abalimi will play an important role as it will provide local training on the ground based on its well tested scheme.
The third component will start halfway the project, when a vocational training for commercial farmers will be established to guide selected farmers (also from the breeding ground in the first and second component) with sufficient motivation and capacity into managing larger plots of land for a good income.
Results
The project will lead to:
Results
The project will lead to:
- improvement of 20 million meals in 6 years, and each following year almost 8 million meals, so in 10 years more than 50 million meals will be improved
- between 530 and 730 permanent jobs.