South Africa: There’s nectar in Orange Farm’s urban gardens

“We are encouraging them by giving them seeds, seedlings, compost, gardening tools, free training and telling them to help their neighbours to start making their own food gardens.”

By Derek Davey
Mail And Guardian
April 16, 2024

Excerpt:

It didn’t happen overnight. Abaa has spent the past 15 years promoting urban farming in Orange Farm. The biggest lesson he has learned is patience. “A farmer has to be patient: you have to get land, prepare the soil, plant seeds, water, weed, wait for harvest, then hope that there is a market for what you produce,” he says.

“The same thing applies to the members of the community — you have to be patient with them until they buy into what you stand for. You have to understand them; they think in terms of ‘what is in this for me, and for us?’ But when they begin to see youngsters who are becoming the best agripreneurs, food in abundance and climate change being addressed, then they see an asset.”

His passion is derived from Egerton University in Nairobi, where he says the practice of urban farming is “huge,” and he passes on his knowledge in training and educational workshops across South Africa. Mostly, he shares his agroecology and agripreneurship training at Orange Farm, at his micro urban farm, and at a three-hectare organic farm in Orange Farm South, which has more than 350 kinds of vegetables, herbs and fruit growing on it.

Marigold, which is a natural pesticide, is growing among the food plants and herbs. Abaa says the idea behind agroecology is to study Mother Nature and then try to mimic her. “With the adoption of industrial farming, we lost our natural farming practices. The key is soil health; once the soil is healthy, so are the plants, animals, the community and the entire ecosystem.” He promotes farming methods that integrate science and innovation.

Read the complete article here.