Augustus 2014
98
Promoting conservation agricul-
ture to increase the sustainability of
smallholders inMatatiele
C
onservation agriculture (CA) provides an attractive alter-
native for smallholderswhere environmental and economic
stresses have reduced grain production considerably.
As a result, a long-term project has been launched in two
smallholder pilot study areas to investigate and promote the use of
CA for sustainable cropproduction.
These smallholder projects have been funded and established
under the umbrella of the new CA Farmer Innovation Programme
(FIP) at Grain SA and the Maize Trust, through collaboration be-
tween the SaveAct Trust, Mahlathini Organics, the Maize Trust and
GrainSA.
Their aim is to apply innovation systems and processes assisting
smallholder farmers in growing maize and legumes using CA
practices. This article deals with the first study area in Matatiele,
EasternCapeProvince.
Using vibrant community structures and
partners as project platforms
SaveAct is a non-profit organisation working in the microfinance
and rural development sector within South Africa. SaveAct’s
achievements in building sustainable livelihoods through financial
educationwere recognised inApril 2013when it received aConcept
Award from thePlaNet FinanceGroup and theCiti Foundation.
Their primary role is to facilitate and support the establishment of
community-based and -managed savings and credit groups (SCG’s).
According to SaveAct’s model, members of the community self-
select voluntarily to form a group and save money in the form of
sharepurchases.
Savings are invested in the loan fund, from which members can
borrow and repay with an applicable service charge or interest.
Loans can be used to start small businesses (farming enterprises,
tuck shops, etc.), buildor renovatehomes, or topay school fees and
buy food, etc.
SaveAct’swork is basedon threephases:
Setting up and putting into operation the savings and credit
groups.
Financial education.
Enterprisedevelopment.
All three phases include training andongoingmentoringprocesses.
These groups provide a strong organisational backbone to initiate
any innovation process and hence were identified as an ideal plat-
form to launch a CA-FIP project among their smallholder members,
in this case focussing on agricultural enterprise development with
CA as best practice.
Mahlathini Organics is a non-profit consulting group based in
Pietermaritzburg, an organisation that mainly seeks collaboration
for pro-poor innovation, centredonagricultural activities.Mahlathini
Organics has inter alia beenworkingwith SaveAct inMatatiele and
Bergville for over three years, to assist beneficiaries in establishing
informal enterprises after assistingwith financial andbusiness start-
up andmanagement education.
In this instance, they aim to help farmers to save money in their
groups, lending thosemonies as start-up capital for their enterprise
interests, and as a result, generating income. This translates into
growth in revenue from the profits earned as well as decreased
dependency rates on government pensions and remittances from
familymembers.
The CA-FIP project in Matatiele was formally launched in October
2013 and served the need fromGrainSA to establish these projects
on vibrant local farmer structures supported by resourceful part-
ners, whilst fulfilling the need of the SCGmembers for innovative
and sustainable ways of producing maize, after they have been
recognisingmaize as a viable commodity.
Matatiele study area – a closer look
The project was introduced to theMatatiele smallholder farmers in
the Pontsheng, Lubisini and Khaoue villages, for whommaize is an
important staple food crop.Maize is dried andused as chicken feed,
maize stalks are cut and piled as cattle feed in winter due to a lack
of grazing andmaize is also dried and threshed for sale in town. For
one of the project participants, Mrs SibongileSuthu, maize is a very
important crop for her family.
The story of Sibongile Suthu
Suthu (53) is a single mother and heads a household of nine
members. Born and bred in the Pontsheng area, she provides for
her family through selling vegetables and maize that she grows in
her field. She is amember of theMazincede SCGwhich she joined
in 2011 (
Photo 1
).
Themain reasons she joined the SCG, is because it acts as a safety
net for her and her entire family, particularly her children attending
school and college. It alsoprovides finance for her small enterprise.
ON FARM LEVEL
Sustainability / Smallholders /Conservation agriculture
Conservationagriculture
MAZWI DLAMINI,
Mahlathini Organics,
ERNAKRUGER,
Mahlathini Organics and
HENDRIKSMITH,
Grain SA
“
Alonewe can do so
little; together we can do so
much”
Accessed 29April, 2014).
“
