AmanziforFood(WRCProject2023/2024–01446)
BriefingPaper,January2024
Background
The Amanzi for Food project has been implemented by the Environmental Learning Research
Centre (ELRC)at Rhodes University since April 2013. It is now starting the second year of the
3rd phase of funding from the Water Research Commission (WRC), and this phase is focused
on both consolidating the work of the past 10 years and expanding the impact and influence
of the project. The purpose of this short Briefing Paper is to summarise the key achievements
of the past 2 phases, and set the direction for this 3rd phase.
Phase 1 (July 2013 – July 2016)
The key aim of the Amanzi for Food project was to develop an Action Oriented Strategy (AOS)
by whichto share the immensely valuable information on Rainwater Harvesting and
Conservation (RWH&C) contained in2 WRC research reports, aswidely as possible. To this
end considerable research was conducted into how this was covered inexisting curricula
(mostly associated with Agricultural Colleges and University Faculties) and training courses
(particularly those offered by the agricultural extension services). It appeared that there was
little coverage of RWH&Cand one initial output from the project was a short document
entitled Possible Options for Integration into College Curricula. This set out the different ways
in which information on RWH&C could be integrated into existing curricula and training
courses.
Considerable efforts were also made toestablish partnerships with the Colleges and
University Agricultural Faculties, andwith the agricultural extension services. This remainsa
focus in phase 3.
A decision was taken very early in the project to focus on the real-life implementation of the
RWH&C ‘practices’ described in the various research reports. The centrality ofthese practices
has remained key to the project to this day, and shaped the development of the project
website https://amanziforfood.co.za/. The website also provided an opportunity to make the
information in the WRC materials accessible to as many people as possible, and a Navigation
Tool was developed to help people find the information on particular practices in whichthey
were interested in the WRC materials.
29 practices were selected, and these were categorised as General Skills: Catching, Reducing
Loss and Holding Rainwater; Storing Rainwater and;Using Rainwater (irrigation).Each
practice was also described in terms of the scales of farming for which they were appropriate
and the levels of finances, skills and maintenance required for each of them. Information
cards(‘Info-cards’) were produced for each of them, with the page references foreach WRC
research report included. For a few practices postersand videos were also developed. All
these resources are downloadable from the website. One aim of Phase 3 is to produce these
for all practices.
A key activity in Phase 1 was the development of a very comprehensive face-to-face Training
of Trainers Course, leading to a Rhodes University Certificate. This was initially a 5 contact
session/5 assignment course, but subsequently reduced to a 3 session course. The full course
was implemented inthe Eastern Cape (by the ELRC)and Mpumalanga (through the University
of Mpumalanga Agricultural Faculty), and a shortened version in the North West Province at
the Taung Agricultural College. The course has been a core activity throughout the life of the
project, and is now offered online.
A key componentof the course, in keeping with theAmanzi for Food focus on the practices,
is the opportunity for participants to work with others to develop Productive Demonstration
Sites to share their learning about specific practices with others.
An important product of the courses was the establishment of WhatsApp-based Learning
Networks in each province, with the course tutors and participants forming the core
membership and, over time, inviting other farmersand agricultural partners to join the
networks.
A further activity was the use of community radio for sharing ideas on RWH&C. Out of this
was developed the Radio Handbook.
Phase 2 (April 2017 to March 2021)
Phase 2 was very mucha continuation andconsolidation of the workcommenced in Phase 1.
The WRC provided a further 6 research publications with content related to RWH&C practices.
These were treated in very much the same way as the original 2 publications and both
included in the Navigation Tool and posted on the website. Further materials from other
projects, including Climate Smart Agriculture were also added to the resource libraryon the
website.
Some key outcomes of the Training of Trainers course were curriculum changes initiated by
course participants in the formal education sector. These gave rise to the publication of the
Curriculum Innovation Booklet.
A key shift was the taking the contact course and adapting it to an online course. This was
necessitated by boththe COVID-19 pandemic making it impossible to hold face-to-face
training for almost 2 years, and by a recognition that it would not be possible to scale up the
contact course nationally. The online course provided a wonderful opportunity to make the
information in the WRC research materials accessible to even more people as the course was
located on the Amanzi for Food website and encouraged course participants to refer to and
use the materials intheir studies. In order to further improve the accessibility of the
informationit was decided that participants only needed to register if they were seeking
certification, but the entire course was completely open to anyone who wished to go through
it in their own time, and they could also access all the materials.
The online course gave birth to a national learning network which will be central to the third
phase activities.
Further support was provided to the existing learning networks and the experience with these
led to the publication of the Guidelines for the Establishment and Support of an Effective
Learning Network.
Underpinning the work of the project from the very beginning has been research into the
agricultural learning system, in particular the issue of knowledge flow fromresearch
institution to knowledge users. Phase 2 embarked on the design of a systems-oriented
approach to knowledge flow and dissemination. A theoretical framework for conceptualizing
knowledge flows was developed, which argues for a systems approach to knowledge flow and
mediation that supports social learning and social innovation approaches. Five iterative
mediationprocessesfrom the project were used, and these enabled deeper insight into a
systems approach to knowledge flow, and showedhow social learning network formation can
be enabled amongst multi-actors engaged in the small-scale farmer and householdfood
production agricultural learning system. Furthermore, a value creation framework was
developed for monitoring and evaluation of social learning within social learning networks
that emergedwithin the project. This research and orientation to the engagement with all
activities is being carried forward in Phase 3.
Phase 3 (April 2023 –March 2027)
This Phase is very much concerned with both consolidating the work of the previous Phases
and extending the learning derived from the cumulative experience of what will be some 14
years of intensive research and implementation. This will include, in particular, further
research into agricultural learning systems and the dynamics of learning networks, and
expanding the access to and use of the information in the WRC and other materialsby
farmers, trainers, agricultural extension officers andcollege and university lecturingstaff. One
key development to aid the facilitation of access will be the creation of a digital support tool
to enable ready access to all the information stored on the website from any smartphone
anywhere in South Africa and beyond.
The online course will continue to be offered and continuously refined and improved. The
website analytics for 2023 indicate 2,600 new users, the vast majority following launches of
the course in August and again in November. Many of these then went on to register for the
course and access the WRC resources.
This phase will therefore involverevitalisation of previously developed partnerships and the
initiationof new partnerships with key players in the agricultural sector. The broad aim is to
establish and support anationwide network of active partners involved in the implementation
of RWH&Cpractices and in the training ofothers inthis area.To this endthe project team will
be reaching out to previous and potential partners and convening face-to-face partnership
workshops in years2023/24 and 2025/26. These workshops will focus on the potential for
partners to takeup the online course for their ownpurposes, in their own contexts, and to
use the digital support tool to access the wealth of WRC and other information on WRWH&C
and related practices.
The team extends anopen invitationto all players in theagricultural sector to join us in
sharing the learning about RWH&C to strengthen the potential for food security, particularly
among small-scale and homestead food producers.
For discussion on partnership possibilities, please contact:
Wilma van Staden - wilmavanstaden@gmail.com - +27 (0)83 949 3831
Lawrence Sisitka – heilaw@imaginet.co.za - +27 (0)83 621 3422
Useful Links
Amanzi for Food Social Learning
Publications
https://amanziforfood.co.za/social-learning/
AfF Online Trainer of Trainers Course
https://amanziforfood.co.za/courses/online-
training-of-trainers-course/
AfF Video Resource Hub
https://amanziforfood.co.za/videos/
AfF Catch, Store and Water Use Resource
Hub
https://amanziforfood.co.za/videos/
WRC Resource Hub
https://amanziforfood.co.za/downloadble-
resources/