Innovation to overcome farming obstacles

HGA director, Dougie Strachan has been working hard at various innovative prototypes that will aid the small-scale farmer. Besides various designs for no-till planters that can be operated manually, he has put together a lightweight cage structure that can be used to cover door-sized vegetable gardens to protect them from chickens and birds. The lightweight cage is easy to manoeuvre when one needs to work in the garden but being covered in a plastic mesh means you have the option of watering the garden without having to move the cage. An accompanying irrigation system is also being designed which involves a small tank positioned about 2m above the garden to provide enough pressure to drip feed the garden through sprinklers.

HGA is also working alongside Dougie to put together an instruction manual for planting maize and beans by hand following his method, which will be a digital document combining photographs and video links that can be easily distributed to the small-scale farmers within our rural communities.