The Farmers shoes and The communicators experience

image: The Elastic Troop

Food insecurity has been a major global crisis that hasn’t received much attention in some other countries but most especially our youth. The increase in poverty and unemployment plays an effective role within South African citizens from the economic crisis adding to the struggle of not affording to buy food to eat. Venturing in this particular task of knowing more about Food security and engaging with a local farmer, Mma Mathabo Tlaka from Soweto has enabled me to be more aware of the food that I eat and the process of planting and harvesting crops. This is not the only facet but developing ways to give back to the community which is through CSI projects.

Now possibly for those who are still unaware of Food security or Food insecurity, it all revolves around the ability in which people can obtain food on a day to day basis; and Food insecurity is the inability of people who are unable to obtain food on a day to day basis due to financial problems and unemployment. These two factors are some of the issues that lead to the increase of food insecurity within South Africa as well as other countries affected by the same factors.

image: Jabulie Radebe, separating spinach 

Mma Mathabo Tlaka is a humble and committed woman who is passionate about farming and giving back to the community as she understands how it feels like to grow up struggling and not having the basic needs to go through your day. On the 30^th of March 2015, in a group of seven students we traveled to Soweto to meet and engage with our farmer for the first time. The name of the group was called, The Elastic Troop. Our farmer welcomed us on the day to help her and the other farmers to clean up the gardens so that they can plant more vegetables. My experience of ploughing and understanding the process of planting was a way for me to get educated but the best experience I still carry with me is being the voice for these farmers and giving back to the community as well as creating business opportunities for the farmers.

image: Poster for community project

image: Hauweng logo

We were able to go to different markets within the area and create awareness through word of mouth marketing and posters about the farm. We also developed a community project to get younger individuals involved in farming and our first group was a youth from the Universal Kingdom church that were not far from the farm. I had the opportunity to do what I’m most passionate about to contribute to creating more awareness which is designing a poster and logo for the farmer to add on to their packaging. Language being a barrier I had to learn from my group how to respond to the farmers; and another thrilling experience I had was approaching the Machochonono Primary school to partner with the farmer in providing learners with vegetables to contribute to the feeding scheme which enabled me to learn how to communicate and present an idea which was acceptable.

Fun facts I have learnt during my experience at the farm:

image: spinach

• Did you know that the stamp of the spinach that normally people throw away is actually important because it is used as medicine to treat babies when they have constipation issues? 

• Did you also know the strategy used to scare away the birds if they are a problem in your farm?, you simply place sticks or polls by the sides or corners of your garden plot and attach plastics to the sticks which can be easily blown away by the wind to scare the birds.