Sowing the seeds of knowledge

Abstract

WATER HARVESTING Improving food security among the poorest communities in South Africa remains one of the government’s most important development thrusts. It is estimated that 35% of the country’s population or 14 million people are vulnerable to food insecurity and that 43% of households suffer from food poverty. There is thus a dire need to introduce measures that will contribute towards increasing household food and/or income. One of the overarching principles of the government’s integrated food security strategy is that food insecure communities should be made agents of their own development. While research into smallholder farming has increased substantially in the last decade, much of the information generated has not been packaged for use by resource-poor, ill-educated community members. The WRC project, which started last year, intends to develop training guidelines for food insecure households, and develop training material incorporating indigenous farming knowledge in efforts to improve present farming practices and systems.

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