Here at the GSAM our farm plays an important role in keeping our need for external funding down. We grow crops to feed ourselves but also to sell and generate income. This project seeks to secure our property through the construction of approximately 1100m of fencing around our Northern field. The fence will help to protect the crops, keep our kids safe within our campus and ensure our physical land is not being encroached upon.
In 2006 we fenced our North field with concrete posts and barbed wire, and while this has been great, there are a few shortcomings. Animals such as goats, wild pigs, deer, cows and buffalo can still get through. We spend a lot of time chasing unwanted animals from our fields, however they often get a good feed before we do.
We plan on replacing much of the 4ft high barbed wire fence with a 6ft high chain link fence with an additional 1.5ft of barbed wire. We have already used this fence around our school campus and it has proved to be very effective, long lasting and strong. The whole project is actually going to cost about $12,500 but we have around $4000 that has been generated by our Agricultural Department in hand to start the work. Check out the Project Proposal .pdf file that is on this page for more details!
The biggest long-term positives of this project are that: 1) We will get more return from our farm, more crops means more to sell and less dependency on donations. 2) We will save money on salaries as we will not need to hire 2 night guards to monitor the fields. 3) It is not just animals, we limit the areas that human beings can enter our campus - one more step in keeping our kids safe. 4) Our physical land is secured as this new fence, unlike the old one, can't be moved or encroached upon.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
