Develop sustainable farming in rural South Africa

One of Biowatch's primary objectives is to promote seed diversity, seed saving and an agro-ecological approach to agriculture at the grassroots level. This is the over-riding objective of the project and has been the focus of the work in communities KwaHhohho, Ntandabantu, Tshaneni and Ekuthuleni.

In late 2010, the decision of the South African government NOT to allow Monsanto to buy the largest national seed producer was a huge victory for Biowatch activists, and a victory for small farmers that save domestic seeds. By keeping a seed bank, seeds from many different areas can be saved and used to grow indigenous crops. Other initiatives for seed diversity and a sustainalbe agro-ecological approach has included:

• Training on agro–ecological farming systems for local farmers
• GMO awareness and information on traditional seed varieties
• Promoting seed diversity and seed saving in households with gardens and crops.

The gap in this work has been the provision of materials - which is why donations to this project go a long way. Thank you for your generosity. This work couldn't continue without grassroots funding!

Biowatch was featured in an article in the The Huffington Post at the beginning of February. Part of the article is reprinted below. Read the original here, and please share and comment.

“A small community garden, situated in a remote rural backwater, is breaking new ground towards sustainable, organic, healthy food production. Twenty-one women have converted their subsistence gardens that once barely produced enough to feed their own families into a robust community garden producing a surplus for sale at the local market.

In the words of the group’s treasurer, “Many of our neighbors use artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides, but we now have the skills to be able to produce naturally and successfully.” Her name is Mrs. Mncube. She and her neighbors live in the KwaHhohho region of South Africa.

To counter rural South Africa’s ongoing food crisis, Biowatch has established indigenous seed banks to empower Ms. Mncube and other farmers to preserve local “food sovereignty” with sustainable, organic food production methods. You can watch a video about Mrs. Mncube and her campaign for food justice below.

“The reason people go hungry today has nothing at all to do with a gap between the amount of food in the world….There’s more than enough food on earth today to feed the world one and half times over,” according to Raj Patel in the Value of Nothing. The challenge, Patel concludes, is lack of economic and political empowerment.

One out of seven people in the world is slowly starving to death — a de facto global concentration camp of hunger. One billion people lack the basic daily calories needed to survive. This is what the policy wonks mean by “food insecurity.”

Casting aside the sterile language of the economic development geeks, imagine if one out of seven people lacked “clothes security” and walked around nearly naked part of the year. Global hunger should make you sad or mad.............. “

Links:

• Grassroots Grows Anti-Starvation Gardens