Researcher needs to study residents’ vegetable gardens
Information will form part of PhD submission
Rhodes University environmental science doctoral researcher, Ruwimbo Mutirwara, is appealing to Port Alfred residents for assistance with her study of vegetable and community gardens.
Mutirwara and her assistant, Xolisa Maganca, have been based in Port Alfred since the end of September, researching information on veggie gardens towards her PhD.
“However it has been difficult when researching the middle to high income groups because I have to go door-todoor unannounced to find residents who will assist me with my research into the project,” Mutirwara said.
“So once I knock on doors, it is difficult to persuade residents who may have veggie gardens to allow myself and Xolisa in to conduct my research, which is understood,” Mutirwara said.
The pair are moving around the town in the hope they could glean information from owners about their veggie gardens as part of the base study.
“We are looking for food gardens, commonly known as veggie gardens, found mostly in the suburbs, while those at schools, churches are known as community food gardens, which is a different part of the same research study,” Mutirwara said.
“We want to understand the crops they are growing, the extent of their practice — how many people are into food gardening and what are the benefits of these gardens which can be socioeconomic and environmental,” Mutirwara said.
“We are working with lowincome, middle-income and high-income owners of veggie and food gardens as my doctoral research focuses on different trends as it concerns sociodemographics. For example, is food gardening in the lowerincome groups approached in the same way as what is being done among middle and higherincome groups?
“Are they growing the same crops? Are their benefits the same? Are they facing the same challenges?”
She said her study so far has found that community gardens and veggie gardens in township areas were being cultivated for subsistence purposes “but their challenges and benefits differ”.
Mutirwara said they were focusing their research on the challenges associated with food gardening and would determine how they could use that information to help those involved in these projects adapt to the effects of climate change, especially hot temperatures.
“So if someone’s got a veggie garden and fruit trees around their home, and it is a very hot day — is the local temperature or micro temperature in that house or yard cooler than those backyards where there is no veggie garden or fruit trees? So that’s what we are basically trying to focus our research on,” Mutirwara said.
Mutirwara says the reason behind the project is that they hoped the research would be able to drive local policy that would support and encourage urban food gardening.
“Food gardening in the townships is cultivated mainly for food sovereignty and to alleviate hunger and to create sustainable communities.”
She says they had already conducted research in the townships, where they had been well received. by the community. “They are all growing all different types of crops and they are benefiting differently.”
An observation Mutirwara had made was varying trends in the different socioeconomic clusters as it concerned food gardening initiatives in Port Alfred.
“If you go to the townships, they have specific crops that they grow, which are different to the veggie gardens in the middle and higher income groups.
“In the latter group you notice herbs and veggies like gem squash being grown there, as opposed to what is cultivated in the lower-income areas.
“The middle income groups also say they are growing their own vegetables because ‘it’s cheaper’ but we are noticing that people who are retired might grow their own because it keeps them busy, and others just like to see things grow. So there are different reasons.
“Even in the townships sometimes we find that people are saying ‘I am planting my own not because I do not want to go hungry, but because I need to keep busy and because I grew up among farmers, and it’s something inside of me, I can’t stop it now’,” she said.
“There is an amazing project in the township where community food gardens have involved the local government who are recruiting local residents who take part in community food garden projects and get paid for it.
“They are growing their own and sell it among themselves sometimes they are also creating jobs at the same time,” Mutirwara said.