Urban farms in the air
FARMS ON SKYSCRAPERS TRAIN GREEN ‘AGRIPRENEURS’ Inner city partnership sees hundreds of small lots tilled by formerly unemployed.
The soaring Chamber of Mines building in central Johannesburg, a hub of the mining industry, is a symbol of a bygone era when pioneers began flocking in to dig for gold.
Today, it is also the site of a new venture aiming to entice the city’s unemployed youth into green entrepreneurship.
The action this time is happening not underground. It is sprouting from the rooftops of the inner city’s iconic skyscraper.
The initiative to create urban gardening businesses on vacant roofs was launched more than a year and a half ago by the public-private Johannesburg Inner City Partnership.
Farming is hardly the first thing that comes to mind as a source of job creation and entrepreneurship, said Brendon Martens of Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC), an innovation incubator leading the effort.
“Agriculture is generally seen as a low-tech, bottom of the pyramid-type activity when it’s small scale. It’s what a single mom does just to make ends meet,” he said.
But Martens and his team are striving to turn the concept on its head by bringing market needs together with cutting-edge farming methods and hands-on business training.
The initiative uses hydroponics technology, which allows basil, lettuces, spring onions and other crops to be grown in special water solutions without requiring soil or large open spaces.
Here plants grow faster and use up to 80% less water than in traditional farming. The technique also eliminates problems such as soil erosion.
Another advantage is that crops are grown locally, cutting down on transportation time and costs, and delivering the freshest possible products. That is a big shift, given that as much as 80% of what is on offer at the Johannesburg fresh produce market, Africa’s largest, is imported from outside Gauteng, said Martens.
“We pull that value into the communities in the inner city that really need it,” he said.
The farm atop the Chamber of Mines, where neat rows of plants bloom under plastic, high above the buzzing traffic, began operating in September.
It is already generating a profit, said Nhlanhla Mpati, 29, the “agripreneur” (agricultural entrepreneur) in charge.
Skills learned here can be applied in other places too, he said, inspecting a small pot of lush green basil.
“With hydro-technology, you’re not just employing people, you’re giving them a specific trade and a specific skill. They take that and use it somewhere else,” he said.
In the next three years, about 100 more farms will be set up in the city besides the two now running, and the scheme is already attracting many applications from would-be young entrepreneurs.
Those shortlisted will receive business and technology training.
Ten of the best performers will each be allocated a rooftop farm of at least 100m² with about 3 600 plants. The farmer will pay back a percentage of the total turnover, which will be used to fund the next farm.