IDEX Program Officers, Kat and Vini recently went on field visits in South Africa to research groups IDEX could support through our catalyst grants program. This blog post comes from Kat, who visited Rainman Landcare at the end of April.

Today I'm in the Valley of 1,000 Hills, a long stretch of hills between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Years ago the Zulus would have their huts on each of the hills and call out to each other, or so I was told. I’m here to visit Rainman Landcare Foundation in an area called Peacevale.

Raymond Auerbach is the director and founder of Rainman Landcare Foundation. He used to be a university professor at Pietermaritzburg but saw the academic field of organic farming lacked a way of teaching practical skills. He was inspired to found Rainman Landcare to provide the services such as:
1) Vocational skill training in organic farming,
2) Organic farming facilitator course following the train the trainer model, and
3) Policy work in terms of lobbying for more support for the organic movement in South Africa.

Today is the first day back from Easter break for 23 students and they are eager to see the progress their green beans have made. They come here to become accredited as an organic farmer, and the training takes 8 months. The students are all community members who want to learn about organic farming so they can grow their own food gardens.

Before the break, the students had put mulch on the land to maintain moisture in the soil, and to protect their beans from pests during their absence. Now they observed the differences in bean growth between those students who had mulched properly and those who hadn’t.

Raymond then took me to visit a community in Cliffdale. One of his graduates from the course had trained other members in his community to farm organically. 16 community members are managing the land quite successfully. But even though they've been able to farm good organic crops they haven't been able to transport any of their products to sell at the bigger stores, such as Woolworth's or Pick and Pay, as no one owns a car.

They’ve also grown indigenous plants to encourage the preservation of their culture. The crops that are grown on this field go first to the members working on the garden and then the food is distributed for those who can't work the land, such as young orphans or the sick. The rest is then sold to the community.

Building on their success they have started to raise free-range chickens. The group hopes to access government resources to repair their chicken coop so the chickens feel comfortable in laying their eggs.

Although Rainman Landcare organic farming skills were taught to just one person in Cliffdale, 16 people can now farm in an organic way. They continue to find ways to use the skills and training to improve their community. They are even involving the local school and want persuade the school to allow them to develop an organic garden in their backyard for the student to learn about their vegetables and food.

Labels: organic farming, Rainman Lancare Foundation, South Africa

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