Enterprising young people revive backyard gardening
A group of enterprising youth commemorated World Food Day this past Saturday by planting vegetables at Sebele clinic garden, a community project set up to feed those in need and inculcate a culture of farming.
Project coordinator Omphile Buyani, a BUAN graduate and an Agricpreneur alumni, told The Midweek Sun that he is working with a select group of youth in Sebele on a vegetable backyard farming initiative.
They intend to utilise vacant spaces in residential plots in and around the Sebele area, with the aim of helping community members to develop sustainable food production and reduce household food expenditure.
“Our agricultural passion, skills and experience can be an asset to our initiative and majority of them have been involved in various agricultural projects at BUAN on a freelancing basis for several years although we all hold different educational qualifications. However, we are knowledgeable on crop production from Junior school, which we believe will come in handy in our project,” he said.
Buyani explained that the main goal of this initiative is to eventually form an agriculturebased Youths Producer Cooperative that would enable them to fulfil Botswana’s development goal of Poverty Eradication and also contribute to combating hunger in communities.
“The initiative will promote the culture and practice of backyard gardening in Botswana which will help bridge the gap of vegetable demand and eventually eradicate dependency on other countries for vegetables.
“We also want to motivate community members to go into backyard farming, and encourage more people to play part in food production, which would in turn help the nation to stop starvation during this time of crisis, and also help reduce the country’s food import bill through instilling a social culture of producing agriculturally based products in years to come.”
World Food Day, spearheaded by United Nations arm, Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is commemorated annually, was held under the theme: ‘Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow,’ promote global awareness and action for those affected by hunger, and to highlight the need to ensure healthy diets for all people, which is based on appreciating the role that individuals have towards creating sustainable surroundings, and collates with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of achieving reducing hunger and ensuring food security for all nations by 2030, through inculcating a culture of farming practices that promote sustainable agriculture and improved nutrition.