Micro-farming among the poor Cape Town

Abalimi Bezekhaya is a 35 year old development organization that is based in Cape Town, South Africa. We train and equip people and their communities for food security and urban agriculture. We aim to create a food secure world with an abundance of healthy and local, organically grown food through community and home gardening and believe that by empowering communities to grow their own food, care for the environment, and work together in all health and education initiatives, we can ensure a healthy future for all. We work at a grassroots level as well as a theoretical/research level, implementing practical and sustainable solutions through up-lifting communities.

Abalimi operates two garden centres in the heart rural areas within an urban landscape. These centres train individuals in how to organically grow their own food to create a more food secure community. The outreach team are constantly meeting with farmers in their gardens to problem solve and offer support to the wider network. Abalimi’s education department manage the basic training as well as a new Young Farmer Training Centre (YFTC) hoping to bring in a new generation of urban farmers with a focus on growing commercially. Abalimi manages the resources, payments, and researchers/volunteers who come to Cape Town to learn more about the in-depth approach to urban gardening and farming through Abalimi attracting international attention. 

Harvest of Hope (HoH), a project of Abalimi that guarantees the purchase from community garden farmers, this relationship with farmers is unlike any other program available in the Western Cape. Our team of outreach and production specialists support farmers through targeted/one-to-one support and subsidized supplies. Abalimi aids the farmers in collecting harvested vegetables for HoH which buys and resells throughout the local market. All training and growing methods focus on organic, chemical, and pesticide free solutions. The customers or members who buy our farmers produce, enter into a “CSA” like program in that they accept seasonal and local varieties year round rather than selecting their own produce. With HoH you can actually “know your farmer” while connecting with the seasons, eating healthy, and building a greener community. Our production has increased 27% since last year and in January 2017 we broke the 10 000kg produce mark for the month