Crops for the community
The fruit and vegetables to be harvested will be sold and a portion will be given to impoverished members of the community.
Agriculture is not only about crops. It also is about taking care of and developing the community.
Ward 4, of which the DA’s Sina Erasmus is councillor, has a new community agricultural development. Through this venture, the community will be supplied with food with a view to sustainable development.
Sina explained that her ward used to have a vegetable patch where the new Randgate Clinic is. Their garden had to moved to make way for the clinic, and as a result it snowballed into a bigger project.
The farm the vegetables now are grown on is in Wilbotsdal. So far Community Development Workers (CWP) and Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) have prepared soil for the vegetables across an area the size of approximately half a football field, which is only a fraction of the size of the land they received.
We are allowed only to plant vegetables and fruit trees on the property,” Sina explained.
The project was started in 2014 but the spells of dry, hot weather Gauteng has been experiencing lately have delayed progress. Workers have planted green beans and as well as aubergine, which seem successful.
The project is run in partnership with the Departments of Agriculture and of Rural Development, as well as the Randfontein Local Municipality.
So far the beneficiaries of the project have received Jojo water tanks, a borehole, a container for their hardware as well as a storage facility for all their seeds. An electrical point is in the process of being connected.
The fruit and vegetables harvested from the project will be sold and a portion will go to impoverished community members in the area.
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