Download PDFIn the new world of Technology, the Agricultural sector will be one of the industries that will survive as it works with food, a basic need in communities. The industry however has evolved over the years and more foods are processed to increase shelf life and to do away with perishability.
Agriculture is divided into two main parts – subsistence and commercial agriculture. Subsistence farming is small-scale farming, usually done by a family to sustain their livelihoods while the commercial form is farming on a big scale to sell for profit. Agriculture can refer to crop farming or animal rearing, be it poultry or any other livestock that exists in the agriculture world.
Subsistence farming was very popular long before industrialisation and has become scarcer today but still exists in rural settings. Commercial farming however is very popular, and a lot of agricultural produce is from commercial large-scale farming. Although this kind of farming is responsible for a large part of the country’s food production, the processed produce is sometimes not healthy. There are different reasons why these foods are not healthy, some of them include dangerous pesticides and herbicides used on the plants. Preservatives are also not great as they manipulate the natural makeup of the produce and in turn might kill needed nutrients in the produce.
Livestock in this kind of agriculture is kept in controlled facilities where they are injected with chemicals for faster growth and are fed supplements to maintain the desired quality of meat. For example, brining of chicken has been banned in other countries. Brine is a salt solution that is used to preserve vegetables, meat, and fish.
While commercial farming produces very fast and can manipulate the type of produce wanted some of the chemicals used to achieve this are very dangerous as they may either give rise to some disease conditions for them to spread.
Subsistence farming on the other hand is native to the people of South Africa and is a great way to go back into agriculture, although practiced by a few today. It can be a small garden in your backyard or small containers at the corner of your house. There are different plants that are suitable for backyard small gardens like tomatoes, carrots, and spinach. Some of these can even be grown in old buckets.
Sizakele Moyo (23) who is originally from Zimbabwe, says back home farming is still practiced and those without have farms help in other farms in the community for a pay in the form of crops, livestock or money. Moyo who has only been in south Africa for a few months, started a backyard garden in her sister’s Bakhile Moyo’s, yard, as she feels that the space is wasted if it is not used.
Moyo thinks that agriculture can become a big part of society again and can benefit society greatly as it can potentially force down the high prices of food in this country.
She thinks that it is disappointing how the commercial industry tries to genetically modify the food that we eat and how the communities are not interested about farming anymore.
“There is food for every season, and it is important to understand the different seasons and the food that grows in every season. We are eating things that are no longer natural as it is manipulated to fit seasons that are not ideal for its growth. As time moves, we will lose the original crops moves because we are busy trying to modify them instead of waiting for their ideal season,” she concluded.
Bakhile Moyo (30) feels that agriculture is long gone because of modified machinery to farm now than there was in the past. She says that it is too much to ask of people to suddenly go back to years of tradition that they do not know about. She herself went through the hardship of growing up in a family that was very reliant on farming and did not enjoy it. The older Moyo acknowledges that farming did help them in terms of food, but her father worked a very nice job back then and they could afford to buy healthy food. Farming was more of their mother’s passion, and she made sure she kept it alive over the years.
This article is an opinion piece submitted on 24 April 2023. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Karibu! Online or Khanya College. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
