Urban Agriculture magazine • number 24 • September 2010 17 www.ruaf.org V egetab l e Box Scheme in Cap e Town, Sout h Af rica Femke Hoekstra Rob Small Although quite a number of experiences with com- munity supported agriculture (CSA) and box schemes in Europe and the United States have been documented, there are not so many examples from the South. Abalimi/Harvest of Hope is a special case even in the South, as it is a social enterprise that works with poor people in urban areas who are the producers of the vegetables. How it started Abalimi Bezekhaya 1 (meaning“FarmersofHome”inXhosa)isacivilsocietyorganisationworkingtoempowerthedisad- va nta gedthr oug heco log ica l urb anagr iculture. Aba limi oper atesinthetowns hi ps of Khay el it sha, Nyangaandsurr oundin gareasontheCapeFlatsnearCapeT own. Thisareahas apop ula tio nofnea rly one mill ionpeo ple , the majorityofwhomarefromtheEasternCape-theformerapartheidhomelandsofTranskeiandCiskei.Manyareunem- ployed.Abalimihasbeenworkingwithsmall-scaleproduc- ers liv ing inthe seinfor mal settlemen tsfor28years . Theproducers(ormicr ofarmersasA balimicallsthem)arepoorpeo ple –mai nly women–who are eng age dinveget ablegar dening inhomegar densandcommun ity gar densinordertosupplementtheirdiet,improvehouseholdfoodandnutritiona l sec uri ty , andpro vide sustainab leadditiona l income.Otherbenefitsarecommunitybuilding,personalgrowthandself-esteem.Thecentr altoolforthesuccessofAbalimi(andHarvestofHope)isthedevelopmentofthe“DevelopmentChain”.Thera tio nal ebeh indthe Dev elo pme ntCha inistha tconven- tion al app roa che spul l the urb anpoorint ocommercia l produ ctiontoosoon, whiletheyfirstneed togothrou ghanumber ofpre par ato ryste pstoena ble soc ial learni ng. Fur the rmo re , withoutsuf fic ien tsup port (su bsi diesand train ing )the develo pme nttha tens ues isunl ike lytobesustainable.Astep-wiseapproachisnecessarytodealwiththesocio-political,environmentalandeconomicdynamicsandchallen geswhichthepoorencoun teronadaily basis, suchaspooreducation,povertymentality,gender/racialandclasstensions,verypoorsoilandmassunemployment.Thedevelopmentchainhasfourphases:thesurvivalphase,thesubsistencephase ,thelivelihoodphaseand thecommerc ialph ase (r ead more on th e de ve lo pment ch ain in Van Veenhuizen,2009,p.160).OvertimeAbaliminoticedthatsomeoftheproducersinthesubsistencephasehadtheambitiontosell(partoftheir)produce,butitwasastruggletoselltheirproducetoawideraudiencetha nthe irloc al commun ity (se llin g“o ver the fence”).Atthesametime,Abaliminoticedagrowingpublicinterestinqualityorganicpr oduceinCapeT own.Thisev en- tuallyledtothesettingupofamarketingsystemsellingboxesoforganicallygrown,in-seasonvegetablesonaweeklybasis.AmarketingunitwithinAbalimiwascreated,namedHarvestofHope.ThemaingoalsoftheHarvestofHopeinitiativeareto: •crea teasustai nable andexpanda blemark etforpro duc- ersinandaroundCapeTown; •usethismarketasanengine forgrowthandaninstru- mentforpovertyalleviationinpoorcommunities; • gi ve cu stomer s access to freshco mpetit iv e or ga ni c produceandc ontributetofewer foodmiles. Why a box scheme? Afterathoroughmarketanalysis,anorganicvegetableboxwaschosenasthemostp romisingmarke tingoptionfortheproducersforanumberofreasons.Theboxsystemissuffi- cientlyflexibletodealwithcropfailures,lateharvestsandpoorquality,givingproducerstimetolearnaboutconsistentproduction,intermsofbothqualityandquantity.Varyingtheboxcontenteachweekallowsforyieldinconsistencyaspr oducer sbui ldtoward ssta ble outputtar get s, bec ausequantitiesdonothavetobeexact.Theconceptofthefoodboxdealswithvariouschallengestha tpr oducersfa ce: bro ade ningthe dis tri but ioncha in(accesstomarketsoutsidetheirlocalcommunity),cashflowandliquidityissue s(gettingcas hmonthlyinstea dofha vingHarvest of Hope staff packing vegetable boxes Photo: Femke Hoekstra
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8/3/2019 South Africa; Vegetable Box Scheme in Cape Town