The City of Tshwane Agri-parks initiative as a case study for the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture in South Africa

Abstract

Over the next decade, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is predicted to experience the largest relative population increase of any subcontinent. The region is already greatly impoverished and the least food secure in the world, with 58.7% of the population classified as at least moderately food insecure. Smallholder farmers are the foundation of SSA’s agricultural sector, producing the majority of the region’s grains and legumes, and almost all of the tuberous and root crops. However, the Green Revolution that resulted in dramatic increases in yields across most of the globe is largely considered to have failed in SSA, and yield gaps in the region remain some of the largest in the world.

Sustainable Intensification (SI) has been proposed as the most appropriate means to increase production of smallholder farmers in a way that is both environmentally sustainable and appropriate for the context and complexities of smallholder agriculture in SSA. Numerous examples of SI initiatives across SSA, such as complex cropping systems, small-scale irrigation schemes, and the use of improved germplasm, have demonstrated the potential for increasing yields, reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, and improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers. However, a number of socioeconomic factors still limit widespread adoption. One initiative that aims to overcome these challenges and intensify smallholder agriculture through state-funded development is the Agri-parks programme, which aims to provide farmers with financial and institutional support for a period of ten years, while developing linkages across the agricultural supply chain to ensure long-term economic viability.

On paper, the Agri-parks initiative appears to be a model, scalable SI programme. However, five years since the launch of the Agri-parks programme, various challenges and delays as well as a disconnect between provincial and national governmental departments has resulted in significant delays in the programme’s timeline. The Agri-park in the City of Tshwane (CoT) was found to be limited in size and functionality, with much of the infrastructure originating from previous projects on the sites and in various states of disrepair. Nonetheless, the Agri-parks programme still holds potential to become a flagship SI programme if it is developed to the extent the original model describes.

One of the major limiting factors of small-scale irrigation schemes in SSA is the relatively high costs of equipment, which are economically out of reach for most smallholder farmers. Examples from elsewhere in the world have shown that, given the right institutional and financial support, smallholder farmers can greatly benefit from investment into irrigation technologies. In recent years a number of tools, such as the Wetting Front Detector and the Chameleon sensor, have been developed specifically to help smallholder farmers better manage their irrigation water resources.

These tools formed part of the research projects technology transfer through field trials at the Soshanguve and Rooiwal Farmer Production Support Units (FPSUs); however, uncontrolled circumstances disrupted the field trials at both sites but illustrated the daily struggles faced by the farmers at these sites. In order to replicate the conditions at the CoT Agri-park FPSUs in a more controlled environment, a trial to investigate the impacts of different mulching treatments and weeding practices on weed emergence and pressure was conducted. The trial revealed that mulching treatments had no significant effect on the total weed biomass (p > 0.05) and that weeding had a significant effect on weed population density (p < 0.001) and weed species richness (p < 0.001). However, consultation with the farmers of the Rooiwal FPSU revealed that mulching was not an appropriate strategy for them as they felt the mulch made it more difficult to weed the field. Weed pressure on the site was high, but farmers were hesitant to use chemical control measures. This illustrated the importance of providing comprehensive agricultural extension, to ensure farmers have access to knowledge of scientific best practices on which to base their management decisions. A second trial to investigate the impact of weeding frequency on yield and water productivity indicated that bi-weekly weeding can result in yields 4.2 times greater than yields obtained in unweeded fields (p < 0.001) and irrigation water productivities 4.1 times greater than irrigation water productivity obtained in unweeded fields. This reinforced the need for the use of basic agronomic practices, such as weeding, to increase production outputs and improve resource use efficiencies.

The current limited size of the Agri-parks mean it is unlikely to be viable to appoint a dedicated extension officer to the CoT Agri-park, but social media has the potential to connect a number of Agri-parks to a single extension officer instead. In order to explore the viability of social media as a platform for hosting e-learning programmes, a 14 ‘chapter’ learning programme on the fundamentals of weed science was run through the ‘Ingesta: Farming for the Future’ Facebook page. Thirty-four individuals from six different countries, as well as eight of South Africa’s provinces, successfully completed the learning programme. Feedback from the learning programme was overwhelmingly positive, with 90% of the final participants finding the programme to be at least ‘easy to understand’ and 91% indicating the length of the chapters was ‘just long enough’. All of the final participants indicated that they had learnt information that they felt would better help them manage weeds in their fields, with 17 expressing additional positive comments. As a result, the pilot study was considered a success and social media proven to be a viable platform to provide access to agricultural science learning material for smallholder farmers in SSA.

Although there is insufficient evidence to support that the CoT Agri-park can currently be considered an example of SI, the initiative does still have the potential to be if there is a coordinated approach to develop the Agri-park as the original model describes, and the incorporation of various tools and technologies will enhance support to smallholder farmers.