Agriculture
a) How many community food gardens were supported by his Department during the past financial year,
b) what support is offered by the Department to establish and to ensure the continued existence of community food gardens,
c) what is the average cost for his Department to establish a community food garden,
d) (i) what methods are used to utilise water from sources other than potable water and
(ii) how cost-effective are these methods and
e) what are the major factors that determine the continued existence of community food gardens?
(a) During the 2020/2021 financial year, the Department has supported about 130 community food gardens across the province.
(b) The Department offers the following support to the community food gardens to ensure their continued existence:
• Provision of funding through grants for infrastructure and productions inputs;
• Training of beneficiaries;
• Demonstrations on how to establish and maintain food gardens;
• Continued site visits by Extension Officers to offer advice and support;
• Bringing in partners such as NGO’s to ensure continued mentoring & coaching.
(c) The community food garden differs in size, however the maximum cost to establish the food garden is set at R 170 000 at the first round of application, with a further maximum of R30 000 for a second round of funding, thus making a maximum amount of R 200 000. The average cost of establishing a garden can be estimated to be around R 110 000.
(d) (i) The Department discourages the use of potable water (municipal water) for irrigating community food gardens, and encourages beneficiaries to use different methodologies to irrigate their food gardens such as:
• Well points.
• Boreholes.
• Water harvesting.
• Recycled water.
(ii) The initial costs to lay infrastructure for these different methodologies is not cheap, but once instituted allows for sustainability of the food garden.. These methodologies are also instituted in a way that the beneficiaries can easily operate, maintain or repair it themselves thus lowering the overhead costs.
(e) Some of the major success factors towards ensuring the continued existence of the community food gardens are as follows:
• Encourage use of cheap sources of non-potable water;
• Build strong partnerships with stakeholders such as NGO’s, CBO’s and private companies etc.;
• Provisioning of training and demonstrations;
• Continued provision of extension and advisory services to food garden owners;
• Facilitated access to markets to sell surplus produce where possible;
• Alignment of focus amongst and with all beneficiaries.
