LIMA-SOCIAL EMPLOYMENT FUND (SEF) training, King Cetshwayo
22-24 August 2023
KwaDube Tribal Authory, Esikhawnini
Introducon
Climate change connues to reshape rural livelihoods aswe’ve know them, thus it is important that
parcipants be skilled in adapng to the changes brought about increasing temperatures and rainfall
variability. Lima Rural Development Foundaon has focused eorts into capacitang their supervisors
and eld sta responsible for ground work in their agricultural programs. These eorts are sothat eld
sta is beer equipped to suggest and try out intervenonsto beercope with the ever changing
climate that threaten smallholder agricultural livelihoods. The King Cetshwayo District Municipality;
where uMhlathuze and uMlalazi local municipalies are within; were the rst of the seven two-day
trainings where praccal demonstraons of garden intervenons as well as nutrion and value adding
are done in detail in response to climate change. Prior the two days of training, preparaons takes
place aday before where trainers see the site, asses and plan out demonstraons to go through with
the aendees in supervisors and parcipants.
Site viewing and preparaons.
MDF eld sta made their way to Esikhawini Tuesday morning forsite viewing and preparaons for
the Lima- Social Employment Fund (SEF) training. The team was welcomed by Lima facilitatorsand
interns from the UMhlathuze area where the day started with introducons between the teams before
viewing the site and preparing for the demonstraon staons. The venue used was a tribal court with
a big hall, chairs, tables, and electricity. The garden was also in the venue, planted with vegetables on
raised beds and a fruit tree. We started with prepping thegarden, digging up a 1m diameter eco-circle,
80cm deep, separang the top soil and sub soil. Next to the eco-circlewas digging of atrench bed
which was 80cm deep, 1m wide and 4m long. A cut-o drain was dug along the end of the garden with
the soil dug up placed on the downslope. Mixing of the soil, manure and wood ash for the tower garden
was done next, cungof the banana stem for the enriched foliarsprayand digging up zai pits for
planng fruit trees. With all the garden preparaonsdone, a quick meeng was held to conclude all
the arrangements for thetrainingand this included the starngme, geng more material on site,
sorng out catering and checking if all material needed for the trainings is enough and present.
Training day 1
The day started with a PowerPoint presentaon where we talked through what parcipants are
growing and how they are growing their food. The use of tractors is no longer popular but using hand
hoes to loosen the soil, broadcasngkraal manure and plannginseed and or seedlingsthereaer is
the norm. Kraal manure; as opposed to ferlizer; is connuously added every seasonineorts to
Figure 1: Trainers planning and preparing for the garden
demonstraons
maintain soil ferlity, however parcipants queson the quality of the manure due to poor grazing
lands. Ferlizer prices in shops also connue increase thus forcing focus on livestock formanure as
most parcipants are not employed. Crops grown range from eld crops in maize, beans, peanut,
sweet potatoes and potatoes with garden occupied bygreens such as cabbages, carrots, spinach and
beetroots. Small stock in tradional chickens, goatsand cale for some are keptin the householdas
part of the system.
The group was then asked if they have noced any changes with regards to their livelihoodsand the
group was quick to say that rains are falling later and later every season. They do not only fall later but
are short and intense in their spells making it hard for them to go “ business as usual” in terms of
growing their crops. Temperatures are also geng higher yearonyear, and this puts lots of stress on
available watersources as well quality and quanty of crops. This has adverse eects on livestock as
well where grazing is reduced due to low availability of grass. The follow up queson was asked, what
are farmers doing to carry on planng crops and keeping livestock amid rising heatand low chances
and short rain occasions. Mulching, keeping smallerherds of livestock, diversifying livelihoods were
responses given but no actual pracces menoned. At this point we introduced the weather and
climate termswhere the group explained weather asdaily observaons of temperatures, rain, wind
and so on to help us plan for the day-to-day acvies. Climate is then the observaon of daily weather
over decades that can be used to study trends and thushelp farmers plan their livelihood acvies
beer to adapt to climate change.
Through the PowerPoint presentaon we were able to show the impacts these increased temperatures
and rainfall variability have on live and livelihoods. Parcipants in the room menoned the 2015
drought season, the recent oods in across the Durban area, devastang veld res in the Western Cape
among other. These impacts do not only have repercussions for jobs, schooling, property and
infrastructure but also for the millionsof smallholder livelihoods across the country. For a lot of farmers
and families this translates to no food on the table, no produce to sell, total loss of investment, water
borne diseases, increased pest and disease prevalence on crops and livestock. Floods move insects,
pests and diseases kilometres and kilometres to new areas where they also mulply as winters are no
longer as cold to break the cycle of pests. This iswhere the ve nger principles of climate change
adaptaon; water management, controlling soil movement, crop management, soil ferlity/health and
lastly taking care of the environmentwere introduced. More me was spent on pracces to be
demonstrated in the garden, the point ofusing acombinaon of pracces as opposedto isolang a
pracce was greatly emphasized aspracces work beer together. The group was split in three
groups were they went and rotated around the garden acrossthe dierent staons where we had
dierent pracces.
Naturla pest and disease control, planng of fruit trees
On arrival of the groups at the staon there was a briefdiscussion where we learned that farmers
control pest and diseases using chemicals and how they think those are a quick x to all their problems;
chemicals are costly and poisonous to both humans and benecial insects in the garden. We looked at
the benecial insectsmanual and what role each insect playsin the garden. We then looked atthe
emphasis of using natural control remedies in the garden as they are based on making the best use of
systems in nature, help build healthy soil, reduce the ability of pests damaging crops, and also reduce
pest numbers.
We then looked atsome of the brews that can be used in the gardenwhere a demonstraon of the
chilli, garlic and onion brews explaining how their strong snging taste and smell help repel insects like
aphids, mosquitoes, ants, mites, cks, worms,cutworms etc and also treat some fungi and viruses.
Aer the brews and sharing the handouts we looked at the enriched foliar spray and its role inassisng
both the ferlity and protecon against pest and diseases on crops. We did the foliar spray in a 20l
bucket since we couldn’t get an open drum. In the bucket we mixed 2 spades of manure, 20l of water,
put the banana stem chopping’s with 3 spades of green weed, 1l of milk to help with the fermentaon
process, added 1kg of sugar, 1kg of bonemeal as it contains phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium, 1kg
of lime as it containscalcium and magnesium and lastly 2 spades of wood ash.While adding the
ingredients wemixed the mixture using a spade. The mixture will then be stored for 10 – 15 days
before it can be strained, and the liquid diluted on a 1:5 before applicaon.
Garden layout and pracces
The winter season provides a good opportunity to replan and execute water and soil management
techniques in the garden. Meculously moving soil around the garden to slow down or stop and
inltrate water into the soil will be benecial for reducing soil erosion, increase waterinltraon and
couple with beer soil management to improve soil health and ferlity for beer quality and quanty
crops. Cutoof drains, eco-circles, trench beds, tower gardens and drip kits were demonstrated in
aempts to achieve the aforemenoned results for the adaptaon and improved resilience to shock
and stressors as results for increase temperatures, short, errac and intense rainfall events.
Figure 2: Showcasing home made concocons for managing pests and the planng of fruit trees
Cut-o drains
A lot of water run down the surface of the garden
during the rainy season taking along with it the
rich top soil. This causes the loss of healthy soil at
the top of the garden that sediments at the
boom of the gardenand somemes escaped the
enre garden. A Cut o drain along the top of the
garden has great potenal in stopping water
owing down the garden, allowing it to inltrate
intothe soil, and ow down the slow underneath
the surface of the soil. Soil dug out of the drain is
put below the drain to create a trickling eect
when the drain is full, furthermore this newly
created mound can be planted with cropssuch as
sweet potatoes, lemon grass and even vegetables
where water is readily available at root zone as it
is level with the top of the ditch. Fruit trees can
also be planted right below this drain where roots
will be able to get enough water.
Trench beds and eco circle
Most parcipants have worked with trench beds before and currently do have trench beds in their
garden. For the benet of the fewwho had not see
trenches it was important to go through the detail
as to why the deep trench along with the material
stued in there. In these trenches organic maer
is buried in layers starng with ns and bones at
the boom foriron, phosphorus and other
nutrients. These are layered with organic maer,
manure and soil and watered unl about 15cm
above the surface of the soil. This isa concertaon
of ferlity where a variety of crops are planted in
this sponge like design that inltrates and hold
water for longer. The three groups were taken
through the process but did the praccal lling of
trenches in stages giving each other turns. In
planng the trenches, we talked through the
spacing and mixing for crops for variety, ecient
use of space, insect pest repellent and water use.
Figure 3: Nqobile explaining the thinking behind cut-o
drains
Figure 4: Parcipants overlooking the trench before they
started layering it back in
Eco circle
The eco circle is a similar concept in
taking out soil and I 1m diameter circle
that is lled with layers of organic
maer, manure and soil with a 2L
bole with holes onthe body planted
in the centre of the circle. The idea
behind the bole istoprovide water
directly at root level of crops toreduce
loss of water on the surface of the soil.
The planted mixof crops would then
be layered with a layer of dry grass to
keep soil moist, the grass also
decomposes on the surface pung in
more organic maer in the soil.
As part of the intensive homestead food producon training, a tower garden demonstraon was made
for the Lima trainees, a tower garden is a vercal gardenthat is suitable for people with lile spaces
for planng, as it does not take much space. These types of gardens are suitable for elderly people and
disabled people as they do not require much labour once they have been constructed and use local
resources for construcon. To construct, a tower garden needs soil, dry manure, wood ash, four 1.8m
wooden poles or standards, 80% shade cloth to hold thesoil, a 5 litre bucket and stones to create a
stone column in the middle of the garden.
A 3-meter tower garden was constructed, using two bags of manure, one of wood ash mixed with 3
bags of soil. Wood ash was added to raise the pH and lower the acid in the soil and clean grey water if
used. The trainees were seperated into 3groups, we started building the tower garden with the rst
group, a 5 litre bucket, with a cut out boom was placed on the ground in the middle of the
tower/poles and lled with stones, the mixed soil was added around the bucket, making sure the net
remain straight with no corners, the bucket was moved up leaving crush stones from the boom unl
the top of the tower creang a stone column, with mixed soil around it. The crush stones are for
watering the tower garden, as it allows the use of grey water(used,soapie water from doing dishes,
Figure 5: Eco-circle nicely planted by the groups
Figure 6: Parcipants building a tower garden from scratch
washing or bathing), the crush lters out the sediments inwaterand allows the water tobe distributed
amongst the tower, from top to boom. The ash would also help to sele out soup in the grey water.
One more layer of crush and stones was added in the tower garden for the second group to see, then
the tower was complete, we then started planng two sides of the tower by openning small holes that
t one or two ngers on the sides of the shade cloth ina zig-zag paern, to prevent the vegetables
from shading each other and in case the shade cloth starts tearing down from one hole, it will not tear
too much and let the soil out. The vegetables were mix cropped, making sure there are some herbs in
each side, Inter-cropping wasencouraged to create a natural pest deterrent, herbs for consumpon
and to repel insects with their scents.
The third group planted the remaining two sides of thetower, and the top part, then watered the
garden using two 20L buckets of water. Anemphasize of which crops are to be planted on the sides
and on top was made to the trainees, only leafy vegetables that do not grow underground are to be
planted on the sides of the garden,likespinach, Chinese cabbage, herbs, spring onion, etc. on top,
beetroots, leuce, and the leafy vegetables wereplanted, as they would tear up the cloth when
harvest if planted on the sides. Some of the trainees felt that the tower garden making requires too
much labour, some felt it was easy to manage and a great way to save space.
Figure 7:Planng of the tower garden
Drip kits
Water connues to be an everyday challenge for
South African and it is important that we use every
drop wisely. Greywater can play a vital role is
stretchingthe lile available water we havewhere
sand a sieve remove dirt before water makes it way
down the pipes. Furthermore, drip kits can make
more ecient use of that water by connuously
availing lile drops of water over long periods of
me. Water is provided directly to crop roots slowly
but surely translang to beer water producvity.
This session was used as a wrap up where the three
groups came back together to wrap up the three
staon and providing synergies across the dierent
pracces.
Training day 2
Nutrion and value adding
Discussionsin the nutrion session were mostlyfocused on acquiring what the Lima parcipants
already know about nutrion and expanding their knowledge on it. Their understanding of nutrion
was basically a combinaon of healthy foods and nutrients. It was further explained by the facilitator
that nutrion can alsobe described as a process of converng the food consumed toenergy, and other
vital nutrients required by the human body.The presentaon then further unpacked the importance
of consuming nutrious foods for both children and old people which is to, improve well-being, and
the ability to ght o illness and to also recover from it, protect the human body from chronic diseases
such as heart diseases, diabetes, andcancer. We discussed the major groups of nutrion which are
carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, dietary bre, and water. We haddiscussions on the
dierent roles that these dierent groups of nutrients play in the human body and in which foods we
can nd them in. We then explored the parcipants’ general diets where they all had the chance to
say what they eat daily.
Figure 8: Tesng out drip kit with all three groups as
closure and wrapup of garden demonstraon
Table 1: Foods and drinks that the parcipants generally eat
➢Bread
➢Porridge
➢Uphuthu
➢Rice
➢Steam bread
➢Samp
➢Chicken
➢Tripe
➢Fat cakes
➢Spinach
➢Fried chips
➢tea
➢Tin fish
➢Eggs
➢Beans
➢Sausages
➢Cereal
➢Sour milk
➢Cabbage
➢Butternut
➢Cheese
➢Bacon
➢Beetroot
➢Juice
➢Alcoholic beverages
We then had two parcipants who specically listed what they ate the past two days (this was inclusive
of their breakfast, lunch and supper).
Table 2: Specic previous meals from parcipants
Sduduzo (male)
Londi (female)
Monday
Breakfast
➢Porridge and lemon
Brunch
➢Fatcakes and polony
Lunch
➢Uphuthu, cabbage, and chicken feet
Supper
➢Tea
Tuesday
Breakfast
➢Fat cakes and polony
➢Fried chicken and bread
Lunch
➢Beans and rice
Supper
➢water
Monday
Breakfast
➢weetbix, water, milk, and sugar
Lunch
➢apple, nartjie, and water
supper
➢chicken, rice, butternut, and water
Tuesday
Breakfast
➢3 scones and aquelle
Brunch
➢Gizzards, bread, and cool drink
Lunch
➢Wings, fried chips, and bread
Supper
➢Uphuthu, spinach, and water.
The purpose of these two acvies was to run the group through the dierent nutrients that the food
they eat provides for them. Aer the discussionsthey wereable to see whichfoods provides
carbohydrates, proteins, fats, bre, and vitamins. Through this acvity the parcipants nowknew
which food should be in their diet and the amount of that food they should consume to maintain a
healthy diet. Parcipants were then taken through the 3 dierent food groups which are Go, Glow, and
Grow foods. These food groups were further broken down into simple terms because the parcipants
did not know about these food groups. Go food group gives the body heat and energy and amongst
them we can include foods such as potatoes, cereal, bread, avocado, bananas, and a whole lot more
which were included in the handout parcipants took. We then moved on to discuss the Grow food
group which repairs and builds our body cells and listed a few foodsthat are considered grow foods
which are chicken, beans, sh, eggs, etc. Lastly, we moved on to the glow food group which regulates
and protect our bodies, glow foods include fruits and vegetables, and drinking lots of water.
Aer the food group discussion, there was a short acvity whereby the parcipants were divided into
three groups and the rst group had to propose a meal/full plate for a healthy grown adult, the second
group had to propose ameal for a sick adult, andthe last grouphad to propose ameal for a developing
child. The meals had to clearly be inclusive of go, grow and glow foods. The three proposed meals were
as follows.
Table 3: Plate designs by parcipants for a healthy adult, a sick person and a toddler
A healthy grown adult
A sick grown adult
A developing child
Lunch
➢Mashed potatoes and
sweet corn
➢Fish
➢Carrots
➢water
Snack
➢Protein shake
➢banana
Breakfast
➢Porridge and milk
➢Oats
➢Sweet potatoes
(mashed)
Lunch
➢Uphuthu and potatoes
➢Water
➢fish
Supper
➢Spinach
➢Beetroot
➢Butternut
➢Liver
➢Carrots
Snack
➢Banana and apples
Lunch
➢Spinach
➢Boiled chicken
➢Mashed potatoes
➢Juice
Aer this acvity, the teams rated which meal was the most nutrious and included go, grow, and glow
foods. The meal proposed for a sick adult was rated the most nutrious as it included go, grow, and
glow foods, but mostly had growfoods which repairs and builds up our body cells. Aer the
Figure 9: Groups presenng their plate designs and discussion on their choices
presentaon, parcipants were condent in that they understand the importance ofa well-balanced
and nutrious diet and the dierent food groups and the purposes they serve in the human body.
Value adding
The value adding session comprised ofthree staons of dierent processed food. The staons were
headed by the MDF team. The three staons were as follows:
Table 4: value adding staons and team members
Station 1
(Noxoloand Mazwi)
Station 2
(Nqobile and Hlengiwe)
Station 3
(Lungelo and Sphumelelo)
➢Sweet potato bites
➢Blanching and drying
➢Jam
➢Sweet chillies sauce
➢Pesto
➢Achar
The three groups of parcipants all had a chance to visit the three dierent staons where they were
taken through the acvity. The team clearly explained the process of value adding, and its importance.
We then moved on to the dierent methods of making the processed food in the staons, and the
nutrional value found in the product. Parcipants found much interest in the drying and blanching of
vegetables since they experience problems with rong of vegetables before they could use them, and
they would try out this process. Quesons were around which vegetables they can blanch, and how
long the vegetables can stay aer blanching. The parcipants were given hand-outs to go try out the
dierent recipes in their homes.
Figure 10: Blanching and sweet potato bites with groups
Figure 11: Nqobile and Hlengiwe doing jam and sweet chilli sauce
Figure 12: Achar and pesto in the making with groups awaing to taste
