OVERVIEW OF THE ECOLOGICAL FARMING PROJECT IN ESWATINI
Young people in Eswatini, as in many other parts of Africa, are struggling to achieve economic independence in a context of weakening family and community structures. This amongst other causes is attributable to an educational system that does not adequately equip them with relevant skills that are demanded in the global economy. Eswatini’s unemployment rate is amongst the highest in sub-Saharan Africa standing at 22.5% of the overall workforce, and at 47.4% for young people aged 15-24 years (Central Statistics Office, 2020). The poverty levels are also startlingly high, with 58.9% (WFP 2019) of the population living below the poverty line.
Young people in the care of SOS Children’s Villages Eswatini are not immune to these challenges, which are a threat to their ability of becoming independent. According to the NA annual review 2020, only 14% of young people who exited alternative care by December 2020 were self-reliant.
It is against this backdrop that the Nhlangano Programme Location proposes to pilot an ecological farming project in the Nhlangano Programme Location. It is anticipated that the project will later be replicated in the other two programme locations of the NA. The idea is to involve young people in the agriculture value chain, specifically in the fields of production, processing and marketing/sales (Including market driven production of commercial crops and linkages to both private and public enterprises) of different vegetable crops all year round.
A market assessment at the beginning of project done by the experts, will identify the crops with the highest revenue. Further, a crop planting and rotation calendar will organize the production cycle. A contract with NAMBOARD, the National Marketing and Agricultural Board, will ensure quality and sale of production.
In order to successfully implement this project, the programme location has started the process of engaging the agricultural partner- National Agricultural marketing Board (NAMBOARD) that has expertise and comparative advantage in ecological farming projects. The partner will mainly provide technical advice, marketing and capacity building on how to implement sustainable ecological farming to the programme location and initially to 30 young people through a training of trainers (ToT) approach; to enable a snowballing effect when the project is replicated after the pilot phase.
Information about NAMBOARD: The National Marketing and Agricultural Board facilitates markets for farmers in and outside the country and assist these farmers with production, processing, storage, transportation, distribution of the produce the sale of scheduled products. Through a Farmer Support Development Unit, the Encabeni Fresh Produce and the Inspectorate NAMBOARD develops sustainable farming business amongst small holder and commercial farmers in the Kingdom of Eswatini, as well as to ensure provision of food, economic security in our communities and a well governed import, export and transitioning system of agricultural produce.
NAMBOARD is certified by GLOBAL GAP and HACCP that ensures safe, sustainable agriculture worldwide.
NAMBOARD is going to be the key partner and the backbone of the project. They will ensure technical farming training to ensure strict quality standards where the quality of the produce from planting phase to post harvesting phase is monitored, marketing and most important, will act as intermediary or kind of cooperative that is selling the fresh produce and taking care about quality, logistics and market prices. Briefly, they will take care about the whole field to market value chain. More information about the whole service can be found here: NAMBOARD – Services.
Target group: Vulnerable young people will be identified from Youth Care and Family Strengthening programme units to form 3 groups of 10 young people. For sustainability purposes, the young people in Family Strengthening Programme will be reached through 2 existing CBOs/ FBOs in 2 separate communities. For the young people in alternative care’s Youth Care programme unit they will be assistant to form a project team that will implement the ecological farming project. Ambitiously, they may later be registered as an entity provided the pilot becomes a success.
The identified group of farmer trainees will undergo hands on agriculture training. Being supervised and shadowed by NAMBOARD, the trainees will conduct the agriculture production cycle “from field to table”. The trainees will be paid for their workforce. Initially by the project and after the first harvest monthly salaries will be paid from the crop sale revenue. The hands on approach aims to enable the young farmers to run a profitable agriculture business after the pilot phase. By building young farmer´s groups, risks shall be reduced, skills and support improved and scale up enabled. Finally, the approach shall lead to the development of the community. Main target of the pilot is to prove that there is potential in the modern agriculture sector and value chain for young people in order to become independent. This pilot shall prove that young people trained in sustainable eco farming are able to set up a profitable smallholder farm. If this test run is successful, SOS Eswatini considers to take up this approach for FS and youth programs.
Main outcome for target group: Improved self-reliance through sustainable ecological farming for 30 young people in SOS Children’s villages Eswatini Programmes by August 2022.
Market analyses: During the training with NAMBOARD plant and harvest plans (crop rotation) will be developed based on the market need. Despite that our rapid assessment showed that 5 types of vegetable crops were found to be suitable for the Highveld climate; these being onions, cabbages, spinach, green pepper and carrots. Apart from these 5 usual crops, the project will consider growing rare crops including garlic, ginger, cucumber, etc. These additional ones are not normally grown not because they are unsuitable for the climate but because existing farmers do not consider them as what general public need yet they are essential and the demand is high. According to a study on Factors Affecting Profitability of Smallholder Vegetable Farmers in the Shiselweni Region, Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland) that was published in January 2019, 80% of farmers grew onions, while 73.6% of grew spinach, 71.7% grew cabbages, 64.9% grew green pepper and 56% of the farmers grew carrots. The farmers reported to face challenges mostly with access to credit, reliable water and market for their produce.
Counteracting identified operational challenges: The ecological farming project has planned to utilize expertise of NAMBOARD to effectively market the produce. Three (3) pieces of fenced land with water supply facilities were identified with the CBOs/ FBOs and within the SOS CV premises for young people in Youth Care. However, one CBOs has a water borehole with blocked pipes that require fixing, the other CBO has available and reliable water supply; they will only need irrigation/ spray piping equipment. The village premises have a fully-functional water borehole. There are no backup facilities to safeguard against water shortage in draught season. Therefore, water catchment tanks will be installed as reserve.
The young people who participate in this project will stand to benefit from the project through wages and profit sharing paid as monthly salary from the sale of produce. Profits will be maximised through low cost of marketing. A certain percentage of profits as agreed among the young people will go to business expansion while the remaining balance will be shared. This will directly translate to their economic freedom; apart from this they will also acquire knowledge and skills on business and farming through capacity building, mentorship and practical experience.