Report on a visit to South Africa to facilitate a participatory workshop for an urban agriculture project in Sobantu Village, KwaZulu-Natal, as part of the DfID funded project: "Support to the Institute of Natural Resources for institutional development in South Africa"

Abstract

The DfID project "Support to the INR for institutional development in South Africa" is led by the Natural Resources Adviser at DfID in Pretoria, and managed by NRinternational. The project consists of several components (curriculum development, project management, appropriate technology, participatory rural appraisal and farming systems/fanner participatory research FSRIFPR) with inputs from Reading University, Intermediate Technology Consultants and NRI. The project is due to finish by July 1998. In two previous visits, the authors have given courses in Farming Systems and Farmer Participatory Research to members of the Institute for Natural Resources (INR), the Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Council and other institutions concerned with agricultural development of disadvantaged communities in KwaZulu Natal. The content of these training courses has been compiled into a draft training handbook. This visit was made at the request of INR. Unlike previous visits it was concerned with a real development initiative, rather than training, and provided an excellent opportunity to put into practice many of the approaches and methods which had been the focus of training in previous visits. Visit Objectives. The objectives of the visit were as follows: a) With the Sobantu community and INR and Department of Agriculture staff, facilitate a participatory workshop to identify organisational/institutional, social, technical and financial issues and the processes and activities necessary to initiate an urban agriculture project; b) Discuss the draft of a manual on FSR/FPR being prepared by NRI/INR; c) Discuss follow-on activities with INR Chief Executive and staff (given that the present project finishes by July 1998)