Home gardening survey
In an effort to try and have a better handle on the status of home gardening in our rural communities, HGA began a series of food security surveys the first of which took place in Madakeni near Umzimkhulu and involved 30 households. Thanks go to Mr Aphelele Dlamini, one of the youth from the community, who assisted with the survey.
The following emerged as key findings:
Two-thirds of respondents were female and an average age of 42 years old (range: 17 – 77yr)
It was encouraging to find that 86 % of households were cultivating at the time with 67 % having cultivated their gardens every year for the last five years. Despite this, the majority (42 %) believed that the number of people cultivating their gardens had actually decreased over the last five years. This was attributed largely to the lack of access to labour with respondents stating that those that normally cultivate had become old and weak and that the youth were not interested in getting involved. The lack of fencing was also cited as a common barrier to entry and those that attempt to cultivate their gardens without or with inadequate fencing become discouraged because they lose their crop to raiding livestock.
A good variety of different crops were being cultivated by households with six being the average but one household cultivating up to 13 different crops over the course of a normal year. The most popular crops being grown were maize (48 % of households), potato (33 %), spinach (29 %), squash (28 %), cabbage (22 %) and madumbi (20 %).
Access to inputs is of course a critical factor determining ones involvement in cultivation and Mr Dougie Strachan’s repackaging of seed and fertilizer into affordable and appropriate quantities and then distributing these to nodes within the community from where they can be sold has been instrumental in getting more households involved. Half of the respondents said that this was where they were obtaining their seed with others still obtaining theirs from retailers in town and/or harvesting seed from their previous crops. The majority (46 %) were obtaining their fertilizer through Mr Strachan’s support while a third (33 %) made use of locally sourced manure.
Multiple reasons were cited for ones motivation for getting involved in home garden cultivation including the cost-saving advantage it presents, the need for food, or because it is part of one’s culture or that they are interested in it.
What was also encouraging to note was that the majority (57 %) stated that were able to sell surplus produce at times and this income generating opportunity was another aspect prompting one to get involved.
A rather concerning finding was that despite the average household size being five permanent residents, almost half of respondents (46 %) stated that no-one was receiving an income at the time. There is a tremendous reliance on social grants with 77 % of households receiving either the old-age or child support grant and some households receiving up to five grants per month.
The cultivation of a home garden offers an invaluable safety net for rural households and for some, the opportunity to derive an income. Despite the obstacles to involvement people recognise this. The vast majority (81 %) said that they were planning on cultivating in the next season.
Although this is really only a snapshot of cultivation activity and only from one of our rural communities, it affirms the need to upskill and support those with even an inkling of interest in growing their own food.