Download PDFIn Extension 30 Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg, 16 women have come together and organised themselves to start an agricultural project in the community. The founder of the project, Martha Xakaza said that she decided to approach the ward counsellor in 2018 to use a dump site to plant vegetables but was denied permission until 2020 when Covid-19 started.
“I started this group in August 2020 with other two men, but they ran away in two weeks, but I didn’t stop, till I got one woman who is now my partner. It’s taking place where it was Katorus College and we’re surrounding the football ground,” said Xakaza.
“I decided to go out there to plant because I was chasing away the poverty. The following year I started organising other women to join us, now we’ve been doing this for 3 years,” added Xakaza, she continued by saying, “We approached the Department of Agriculture for giving us a bigger land.”
Martha said that during harvest time they always give to the elders and sell fresh vegetables in their community. “We share the skills with our community because at the moment we are 14 women and two middle-aged boys, and we still need more women.”
The project founder said, “When someone needs a place to plant, they show her the right place and show her [how] to take off the grass to prepare the soil for planting”, as a part of getting the community into the project
Xakaza said that “There is [a] future in the farming project because if we can get a big land, we can plant big and sell to big shops.”
The group wishes to take the project far by planting vegetables and crops in a much bigger area like in hectares instead of an acre.
This article was submitted on 17 May 2023. 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.
