Urban agriculture initiatives that supports the smallest farmers to become sustainable, to bring in methods on nutrition and food safety.
Description
AAVF / Ebenezer WESC - Project Scope<br />
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As of right now, only about 5% of Ebenezer's land is being cultivated using traditional agricultural methods; this includes rows of crops that need to be watered by hand every day. These crops have a low priority within the organization’s bigger picture, meaning that the watering is often neglected. The quantity of crops grown and the length of time it takes means that their contribution to the organization’s finances is nearly negligible. <br />
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2ha does not appear to be significant in terms of crop production. After all, there are many commercial farms and plantations surrounding Bushbuckridge that are using thousands of hectares per entity. However, by bringing low-grade agricultural technologies such as drip irrigation, ebb-and-flow hydroponics, vertical growing bags and A-frame Nutrient Film Technique growing systems, 2 hectares can produce enough food to make a significant financial impact, especially for a small enterprise like Ebenezer. This mixed-technology model has been proven in a 2000m2space by a company we are proposing to work with on this project called HyHarvest.<br />
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These technologies vastly improve resource efficiency, growing times and quality of produce, with less reliability on human labour like hand watering. However, this doesn’t mean that there is no net job growth; instead, new, more dynamic jobs are created in the agtech sector. Learning how to build, operate and harvest from hydroponic and vertical production systems is a more marketable skillset and a better investment of time for an interested potential farmer. Who will benefit from this job creation? Who better than the live-in and drop-in youth, many of whom are female, who are already looking to develop employable skills.<br />
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It will allow Ebenezer to produce value out of an underutilized asset (the land), while contributing to food security for itself and its surrounding communities. This controlled environment approach will use no pesticides and focus on freshness, taste and nutrition. While there will be an initial financial input, Ebenezer will, from that point forward, be able to grow consistent high-value produce and prove an element of financial sustainability that will allow them access to continued government grants (unless it becomes possible to become fully self-sustaining through food production).
Creating value that remains local<br />
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We are proposing to help Ebenezer expand its food production with a 200m2, ventilated tunnel greenhouse and ten A-frame NFT hydroponic growing systems. <br />
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The focus will be on high-value, region-specific crops to be sourced from indigenous seed banks cooperated by Izindaba Zokudla, a farmer’s forum in Soweto, Johannesburg. <br />
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These crops will be grown and harvested year-round using biological systems of production. This pesticide-free approach may be stigmatized as “knowledge intensive†and therefore harder to implement, but we will bring in experts who can build climate-controlled ecosystems that do not necessitate any harmful spraying. <br />
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This will expand Ebenezer’s social enterprise, adding an element that focuses on growing foods as a means of:<br />
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Establishing financial sustainability, <br />
Alleviating poverty<br />
Improving community food security<br />
Improving access to nutrition<br />
Creating sustainable jobs and careers<br />
Practicing environmental consciousness<br />
Empowering youth and females<br />
Helping young people develop marketable skills<br />
Creating educators of the future<br />
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4. Concrete Objectives<br />
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To help Ebenezer WSCO become financially sustainable through food production, we must:<br />
1. Expand current farming production with a 200m2 greenhouse that leverages medium-grade agricultural technologies to speed up the production and harvesting cycles.<br />
2. Provide consistent, nutritious food to Ebenezer’s live-in and visited clients.<br />
3. Improve community food security by making excess food available to the wider community through donations, direct street selling and offtake agreements with supermarkets in Bushbuckridge, Hazyview, White River and Nelspruit. <br />
4. Create a strong brand that will be marketable to the many game reserve lodges within an hour’s drive of the Ebenezer campus.<br />
5. Foster stewardship of the environment and care for the soil in the farmers of the future.<br />
6. Create 3 agri-tech jobs within the first year of operation<br />
7. Create an agri-tech education module that can be implemented in the youth care and drop-in centre. <br />
8. The final objective is to be a successful case that can be replicated elsewhere. Other startup enterprises will use the Ebenezer model to prove the efficacy of this system, thereby helping them secure funding of their own.
We first arranged a meeting with the Community elders. We explained to them the many benefits of sustainability. We assured them that we will walk with them during and even after the process. We will provide the needed guidance and training. We were thereafter fully permitted to work on their land. <br />
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We then set up a project team, where we step by step guided them on various necessary Soft/Basic Business skills. The trainings were first classroom type, then purely field training.<br />
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Other necessary interventions included product improvement and support around designs/creativity as well as mentorship or other handholding tasks. <br />
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Through our assessment exercise, we approach each person individually and design solutions that fit individual and group so as to capture interest and motivation around. Delivery of these training is simplified and has many examples for leaners to relate and understand. In many cases we use local languages in delivering the training. Emphasis of the use of digital marketing, social media is also a necessary training topic that we do. This is a doorway to the global market at exceptionally affordable costs. We partner with Designers on Freelance to assist with creativity among crafters. <br />
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We put together a small program:<br />
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Agriculture<br />
Vocational training and skill development for the youth and women in Africa to start growing local food sustainably. Our aim is also to interest the youth to enjoy farming. <br />
Organizing campaigns to spread knowledge about: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Urban Agriculture, Organic Farming, Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and Vertical Farming.<br />
Organizing Agroecology workshops and courses in Africa for young farmers on topics like: Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), controlled grazing systems, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), conservation tillage, crop rotation, mulching, cover crops, water use efficiency and soil nutrient management.<br />
Introducing alternative ways of production to smallholder farmers.<br />
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Environment<br />
Educate farmers about climate change.<br />
Exploring more efficient crops for African food production systems in a changing climate.<br />
Utilizing renewable sources of energy in agriculture through CEA.<br />
Raising environmental awareness through: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), environmental modelling, Biodiversity, preserving local seed varieties, ecological Footprint (EF), carbon sequestration and water quality management.
WavuNow, Mrs. Veronica Shagali, www.wavunow.com, Johannesburg
Ebenezer Welfare Supporting Organization, Reg, Nr. 014-673 NPO, Mrs. Za Bengu
University of Johannesburg, Prof Naud
Malan, Izindaba Zokudla: Innovation in the Soweto Food System. www.facebook.com/Izindaba.Zokudla
HyHarvest (Pty) Ltd, Mrs. Zandile Kumalo
Community Leaders and the Municipality of Shatale, Mrs.
SDGS & Targets
Goal 2
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
2.1
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
2.1.1
Prevalence of undernourishment
2.1.2
Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
2.2
By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
2.2.1
Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
2.2.2
Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
2.2.3
Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years, by pregnancy status (percentage)
2.3
2.3.1
Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size
2.3.2
Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
2.4
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
2.4.1
Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture
2.5
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
2.5.1
Number of (a) plant and (b) animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium- or long-term conservation facilities
2.5.2
Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk of extinction
2.a
2.a.1
The agriculture orientation index for government expenditures
2.a.2
Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector
2.b
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
2.b.1
Agricultural export subsidies
2.c
Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
2.c.1
Indicator of food price anomalies
Goal 5
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
5.1
End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.1.1
Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non‑discrimination on the basis of sex
5.2
5.2.1
Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age
5.2.2
Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence
5.3
5.3.1
Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18
5.3.2
Proportion of girls and women aged 15-49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting, by age
5.4
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.4.1
Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location
5.5
Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
5.5.1
Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments
5.5.2
Proportion of women in managerial positions
5.6
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
5.6.1
Proportion of women aged 15-49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care
5.6.2
Number of countries with laws and regulations that guarantee full and equal access to women and men aged 15 years and older to sexual and reproductive health care, information and education
5.a
Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
5.a.1
(a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure
5.a.2
Proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control
5.b
5.b.1
Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex
5.c
Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
5.c.1
Proportion of countries with systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment
Goal 1
End poverty in all its forms everywhere
1.1
By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day
1.1.1
Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural)
1.2
By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
1.2.1
Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age
1.2.2
Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
1.3
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
1.3.1
Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable
1.4
By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
1.4.1
Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services
1.4.2
Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, (a) with legally recognized documentation, and (b) who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure
1.5
By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
1.5.1
Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
1.5.2
Direct economic loss attributed to disasters in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP)
1.5.3
Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
1.5.4
Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies
1.a
Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
1.a.1
Total official development assistance grants from all donors that focus on poverty reduction as a share of the recipient country's gross national income
1.a.2
Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and social protection)
1.b
Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions
1.b.1
Pro-poor public social spending
Goal 12
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
12.1
Implement the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries
12.1.1
Number of countries developing, adopting or implementing policy instruments aimed at supporting the shift to sustainable consumption and production
12.2
By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
12.2.1
Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP
12.2.2
Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP
12.3
By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
12.3.1
(a) Food loss index and (b) food waste index
12.4
By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
12.4.1
12.4.2
(a) Hazardous waste generated per capita; and (b) proportion of hazardous waste treated, by type of treatment
12.5
By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
12.5.1
National recycling rate, tons of material recycled
12.6
Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
12.6.1
12.7
Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
12.7.1
Number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans
12.8
By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
12.8.1
Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment
12.a
Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
12.a.1
Installed renewable energy-generating capacity in developing and developed countries (in watts per capita)
12.b
Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
12.b.1
Implementation of standard accounting tools to monitor the economic and environmental aspects of tourism sustainability
12.c
Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities
12.c.1
Amount of fossil-fuel subsidies (production and consumption) per unit of GDP
SDG 14 targets covered
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Josephine Favre, President