Milestone 5 Annexure Open Day Join Community Based Review of Learnings to Date

AWARD_ Milestone 5 Annexure _Open day_

Joint community based review of learnings to

date and Local Facilitator

training_Sedawa_20170424

Introduction

An open day was arranged at Christine Thobejane’s homestead in Sedawa. The aims of this open day

were as follows:

To provide an opportunity for members form all 6 villages to visit a good working examples of

To provide a learning and mentoring opportunity for Local Facilitators who would be introducing and

talking to the different practices.

Attendance

(Attendance register attached)

Co-facilitation team: Erna Kruger and Sylvester Selala from Mahlathini, BB Mkhabela and Happy from

AWARD, Trygive Nxumalo from Seeds of Light

-Community members: 60 participants from Botshabelo, Sedawa, Willows, The Okas, Finala and Lepelle. A

number of new participants also joined this session as it was opened to community participation.

2.Five finger outline and review of good practices

3.Small group stations: LF’s hosted a station and described the implementation of various practices.

Physical demonstrations were in place as well as a broad of relevant A4 photographs

a.WATER: line levels, diversion ditches, ridges and furrows, banana basins, mulching

b.TRENCHBEDS: packing of trench beds, mixed cropping, mulching, irrigation using 20l drip

kit

c. TUNNEL: Construction, microclimate creation, planting, mixed cropping and irrigation using

200l drip kit

d.CONSERVATION AGRICULUTRE AND LIQUID MANURE: The three main principles

minimal soil disturbance, soil cover and diversified cropping, planting – including close

Using a farmer experimentation approach work with local innovations and good practices and introduce

further innovations in soil and water conservation (e.g. diversion ditches), intensive homestead food

production using agroecological principles(e.g. trench beds and mulching) and climate smart adaptations

(e.g. tunnels and drip kits). Also, in these learning groups undertake collaborative activities in soil and water

conservation that would benefit householders (e.g. run-off and erosion control along the roads and verges

close to the homesteads).

2.Five fingers review of good practices

The definition of the five fingers as broad principles in good practice for climate change adaptation was

reviewedwith the group. Participants names the five fingers (easily!!) and gave a few brief examples of

what they meant

GREEN_ These practices are implemented by most of the participants.

The table below describes the outcomes of this exercise, participants were fully engaged and thoroughly

enjoyed this process.

Note 1: The percentages in the last column comes from a hand count of participants present who have implemented the practices.

This is indicative only as there were community members present who have as yet not been involved as well as a number of

visitors.

Note 2: Light grey blocks in the practices column denote those where participants felt more input and

mentoring would still need to be provided.

Right: Sylvester introducing local facilitators including

Christina Thobejane, Obed Mosiea, Florence Lewelle,

Alex (Lepelle), Meisie and Esinah (Mmametja) –who

would be running the different demonstration stations

Each station had a physical demonstration and a board

of illustrative photographs

Here they discussed diversion ditches, waterflow line levels and making furrows and ridges on contour,

Here the packing of trenches was discussed as was mixed cropping, mulching and a micro drip kit irrigation

system. The use of herbs as pest repellent plants and for nutritional and medicinal purposes was also

discussed and demonstrated.

Clockwise from top left: Florence Lewelle discussed trench bed

construction with a small group of participants using the photo board. A well

mulched trench bed with mixed cropping (Okra, brinjal, onion and swiss

chard) and close spacing. A micro drip kit set up on a 1mx3m mixed

cropping trench bed with mulching. A trench bed planted to multipurpose

herbs including parsley, coriander, mint, garlic chives and fennel

- I am feeling a lot more confident as a local facilitator now that I have talked to people and explained

how these practices work

- In Lepelle people said the hoes were better and did not want to use the MBLIs. But now we see how

well it can work with the planted

- The facilitator at the station was explaining that it is easier to do this in 10mx10m blocks to make it

easier to remember the spacing arrangements

- No cost on tractors

- CA doesn’t go without mulching – you need the mulching for it to work well

- Use of available resources to do liquid manure such as weeds, banana stems and manure

Lima took the opportunity to introduce their food security programme through Wesbank which will be

implemented also in these villages in the near future. They talked about gardening as a small business

option and that they would assist in training and monitoring, as well as helping people to look for markets.

They said that they would need learning groups of 20-25 people to be able to start.

The activities for the winter season were discussed:

- Learning sessions would continue in the various villages and specific attention would be given to

topics participants have highlighted for more attention. Refresher mini-workshop will also be held to

include the new participants and bring everyone up to speed. Local Facilitators will play an

important role here.

- Local facilitators will now start to visit all participants to support and mentor them and also monitor

their progress with implementation of the innovative practices.

- The winter season when people are at home is a good time to start on the collaborative erosion

control efforts in and around the participants’ homesteads

- *The implementation of a process for participants to access tunnels and drip kits was introduced. In

- *For the piloting of underground RWH tanks it was suggested that participants who do not have

*Note: Participants volunteered for the tunnels, drip kits and RWH tanks by placing their names and contact

details on lists provided.