Urban farming has been touted as a way to adopt and transform how we deal with food insecurity and possibly create food sovereignty.
Another organisation which has shown that urban farm sustainability needs support, funds and passion is the Sisonke Garden in North Beach, Durban. It was founded by homeless men in 2020 and became a viable business supplying a chain store, surrounding restaurants and soup kitchens.
“One challenge has to be initial seed funding — as is always necessary to get any project started with the basics needed — do a garden plan layout, buy tools, seeds, compost, a water tank, fencing maybe, and to pay initial amounts to a trainer or mentor if they are needed.— there is usually no shortage of unused urban municipal land. Then of course there is access to markets and providing the volumes of veggies that are needed by customers.
She said that urban food gardens can enable food security, support livelihoods and promote social cohesion. “A network of urban food gardens could be a real game-changer in the South African landscape — and be part of real systems change that is needed in this country, ie, to create local opportunities for local production of food which then creates livelihoods for people, as well as encourages healthy eating of fresh produce.
The Sisonke project is piloting composting at the garden, diverting one tonne of food surplus and waste from the Elangeni Hotel per month. This is treated using Bokashi bran to initiate fermentation and is then mixed with garden waste.“When we had the civil unrest in KZN last year and the floods, what was clear was the disruption of supply chains and how to get food to people.
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