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Discussion about entry: Hydroponics Project to Reduce Poverty and the Spread of HIV in Rural South Africa
This is discussion about Hydroponics Project to Reduce Poverty and the Spread of HIV in Rural South Africa.
Comentários
Hello Mokgadi,
Thank you for your very thourough entry form! I enjoyed learning more about your approach to development and agree that income generation is an excellent place to start in a community with many intertwined problems.
Can you tell me a little more about how hydroponics differs from other farming strategies? It says on your application that the project has been running for less than a year. How many harvests have you had so far and what were your results? Is the equipment needed for hydroponics locally available?
Thank you for your time!
Stephanie
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Stephanie Marienau
Ashoka Africa Team Associate
Featured Commentator
The hydroponic project has been in existence for period of almost six months but not yet produced the first production. The tomatoes were in the plastics first in April. The first harvest will be around July 2009.
Since the inception of the project, orphan vulunerable children, youth and unemployed were given an opportunity for skill improvement through job skill training. An increasing number of orphans and children are exposed to negative circumstances and have a challenge facing development of skills. In response to this challenge, impact and sustainable livelihood of job skill training was constructed to ensure that children and youth have skill on agrculture practices. A group of 20 children and youth has to attend the training. The training topics covers how to plant tomatoes within the plastics not on the soil, the irrigation method, trellissing and harvesting. With this skills, orphan vulnerable children can make a life for themselves and not go into drug and alcohol abuse and pull themselves out of poverty.
Yours in development,
GM Legodi
Hi Stephanie~
I'm Ronda Ansted, the Peace Corps Volunteer who helped with this project. Mma Legodi asked me to initially respond because she's away from the office for the next few days, but she'll add her comments when she gets back.
There are actually a lot of different ways to do hydroponics. Our first crop is tomatoes, which we have been growing more traditionally using drip irrigation until we started this project. Now, our tomatoes are growing in plastic bags instead of directly in the soil. They are grown under a shade net and, using the same drip irrigation system we've been using, we're adding fertilizers and nutrients to the water that go directly to each plant. The research behind hydroponics is that roots absorb what they need through water directly. Soil just holds the water for the roots, so if there is an alternative way to hold the water (in our case, plastic bags with a mixture of sand and compost) then the plants can grow in just about anything: ash, sawdust, gravel. This is a huge benefit for areas with infertile lands. Makotse Women's Club has been growing a food garden for years, but because they couldn't afford expensive fertilizers, the yields haven't been very big. We're expecting an increase of 2,400%! Our constant battles with red spiders has gone way down.
We got all the equipment locally: poles, plastic, the pump and shade netting were all sold at local agriculture stores. I hadn't thought about it before, but now I'm curious if hydroponics could be adapted to manual pumps. We're using a diesel pump.
This project came together quickly, thanks to the Department of Agriculture. We started building in February, and just finished getting the last plants in the bags two weeks ago. We're expecting our first harvest in two months.
Thanks so much for your questions. Mma Legodi will add more soon.
Cheers,
Ronda
This sounds fantastic! My husband, Brian, and I were there in February, just before the tomatoes were planted. Brian coated some poles with creosote, while I sat in the shade and peeled marula with other women. I can still see the field, smell the chemicals, and feel the juice on my hands. I can't wait to vote for this project!
I became aware of this project through our daughter, a Peace Corps volunteer working with the Makotse Women's Club. When we were visiting there, I volunteered a few hours of my time to this project.
It's my opinion that this project needs a full-time manager/trainer to even come close to reaching its full potential. I've seen small hydroponic operations and have been impressed with their yields, especially considering the area that they take up. If successful, this project will not only provide food and income for the Makotse Women's Club to continue their work in the community but will also encourage small scale developments within the community, which will provide better nutrition and income for individual families. This also has the potential for providing a community development model for other communities in South Africa and beyond.
Given the breadth of the services that the MWC provides within its community, I hope that this project will receive serious consideration. Again, I feel a professional manager/trainer may be the deciding factor in its success.
On July 10, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Cultivating Innovations: Solutions for Rural Communities” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“There is a global need to explore the impact of hydroponics. The implementation of this initiative was new and innovative, and I look forward to seeing its progress.”
- Changemakers “Cultivating Innovations: Solutions for Rural Communities” Judges: TED, General Mills, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, StuffedandStarved.org, Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research).
Fran Holuba
Ashoka's Changemakers