South Africa: fighting back against food poverty and climate change through Indigenous farming methods

Rosa Ramaipadi, a small-scale farmer and agroecology advocate in Onverwacht, Limpopo, encourages her community to use climate-smart farming methods to produce their food and sell the excess harvest.

It’s early December, yet the farms’ landscape in Onverwacht, near Polokwane in Limpopo, northeast South Africa, is a dull brown and dry. Red dust rises into the sky as a hot wind sweeps in the late morning. Usually, the land looks green at this time of the year, but the rains have not been good.

Frustrated farmer Rosa Ramaipadi (58) is still hopeful, though. “We don’t have much rain, so we haven’t yet planted. But we still have a chance [if it rains] in late December,” says the agroecological farmer from her 12-hectare farm.

Ramaipadi is the president of Mzansi Climate Smart Agriculture, a network of rural-based small-scale and backyard farmers who engage in organic farming and permaculture to reduce their negative environmental impact.

“So far, we have more than 100 farmers, and I encourage them to do organic farming and plant their indigenous food and fruits,” Ramaipadi says.

The network also works to build a seed bank of indigenous crops. The seeds for crops such as millet, beans, vegetables, and herbs are distributed to farmers to increase their use.

“The indigenous crops are very resistant to drought,” says Ramaipadi. “That is why the old people planted them every year. Even though [sometimes] there was not too much rain, they could harvest.”

Ramaipadi says Indigenous farming systems that sustained generations have been replaced by nonorganic systems that have increased the impact of climate change.

“Our farming systems are no longer working like in the past. Too many chemicals and synthetic fertilizers have destroyed our land and soil. So we need to go back to our roots and plant our indigenous food,” she says.

Agroecology promotes organic farming methods such as green fertilizers, rainwater harvesting, composting, and soil and water conservation.

“What we are doing now is about food security and sovereignty, and we are also looking at climate justice,” Ramaipadi says. “When we farm organically, we are at least trying to clean the air because our surroundings are full of chemicals.”

A 2020 report by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment says significant impacts of climate change include a reduction in the amount of suitable arable and pastoral land, a shortening of the growing season, and a decrease in crop yields. Rural-based communities, where economic opportunities are limited and poverty levels high, are more likely to feel the impact of climate change.

Inclusive, sustainable approach

But Ramaipadi and her colleagues are working to encourage communities to use climate-smart farming methods to produce their food and sell the excess harvest.

“Our communities have come to understand what we are doing. As an organization, we are going to the villages, going house to house to say, let everyone have a backyard garden where you grow your food.”

Ramaipadi’s love for farming was nurtured during her upbringing in Sekhukhune, where her parents had a dairy farm. “I grew up milking cattle. My mother ran that dairy farm. After school, I would go to the farm and be there with my mother milking the cows,” she says.

One of the important lessons she learned during this period was to process sour milk, a skill she is now using well as a trainer and agro-processor.

After matriculating, Ramaipadi enrolled for a teacher’s diploma and later earned a degree in education at the University of Limpopo. Although she taught mathematics and physical science for years at various schools, she eventually quit teaching in 2007 and began life as a farmer.

However, she continues to teach with a different curriculum and works with different NGOs to organize farmers and facilitate workshops. “I teach them plant production, animal production, and other farming skills,” says Ramaipadi.

She is encouraged that many emerging farmers participating in these workshops and programs are young.

“A lot of them are into agro-processing. One boy is processing moringa and making moringa soaps, drinks, and juices. They’re producing detergent using moringa and other natural products like turmeric and bay leaves — they are producing many things.”

In June, the Polokwane Local Municipality gave the farmers space in the provincial capital to set up their inaugural farmer’s market. The event drew an overwhelming response from members of the public who were fascinated by types of crops such as millet that have all but disappeared from their communities.

The United Nations and its Food and Agricultural Organization underlined millet’s significance as an important food source by declaring 2023 the International Year of Millet.

“What we are trying to do is to ensure that people go back to eating healthy food. We are trying to say we’re eating a lot of genetically modified crops. It doesn’t work for us because too many illnesses and sicknesses exist. We can’t even explain what’s happening,” says Ramaipadi.

The effects of climate change continue to weigh heavily on farmers, but Ramaipadi doesn’t believe all is lost. “The climate is not going to go back to normal. We should go back to normal to help the climate to go back to normal,” she says.

She also wishes for more government support: “They are slow in coming closer to us.”

This story was originally published in Daily Maverick (South Africa) and is republished within the Human Journalism Network program, supported by the ICFJ, International Center for Journalists.