Water project aids farmers
Fund aims to preserve precious resource
THE latest World Wide Fund for Nature SA (WWF) Nedbank Green Trust Project will focus on securing and preserving water resources for small holder and emerging farmers based on the borders of the Kruger National Park.
Among the smallholder farmers is Reuben Leyane, who has farmed in the area since 1991.
“It was just bush back then and the local chief said he wanted to allocate land along the river to those of his subjects who wanted to farm. I took the opportunity because I am from a farming family. My mom, grandma and great-grandma all farmed. It was subsistence farming, but they knew how to farm and they taught me. So I was brought up by farming ladies.”
His vegetable farm is on the Sabie River, just 1km from the park’s fence and 12.5km from the closest town of Hazyview. He said smallholder farmers battled to farm due to the heat.
Together with three other farmer irrigation schemes – the Goromani, Hoxane and Saringwa – they comprise a group of about 160 smallholder vegetable farmers whose farms, ranging in size from 5 to 50 hectares, are situated along 40km of the park’s fence line and the Sabie River.
They are participating through a forum known as the Khomanani-Varimi in a new, three-year WWF Nedbank Green Trust water project that is bringing together the park and the smallholder farmers, both situated in the lower reaches of the Sabie River catchment, downstream from one of South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas, the Mpumalanga-Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area. Leyane is also the chairperson of the Sabie River Farmers Irrigation Scheme.
“I have 25ha and I sell my vegetables, mainly cabbages, butternut, tomatoes, spinach and beans, to the local hawkers in Hazyview and to the government’s school feeding scheme.”
He uses both flood and drip irrigation, and at this stage he has not been able to farm all his land because drip irrigation is expensive.
“Farming is not an easy life, but I do survive from it and I am very happy to be a farmer. It is outdoor work that I can do for my whole life. If you separated me from farming, you would be killing me.”
Programme manager of WWF-SA’s Water Source Areas Programme Samir Randera-Rees said the management of South Africa’s ecological reserve flows, as well as public irrigation schemes, was essential in the country’s integrated freshwater and catchment management. “South Africa’s handful of strategic water source areas are arguably our most important natural national assets; they are the crown jewels of our freshwater resources and they are absolutely critical for South Africa’s water security and water supply.”
Working with the farmers on the ground is the project manager for the WWF Nedbank Green Trust project, Mbali Mashele from the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, which bridges 2.5 million ha of conservation land (protected areas, catchments and privately and community-owned land) between Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
She is assisted by two field staffers who do the interviews with the farmers in Swati and Tsonga, and work with the farmers on new climate-smart innovations with support from the Virtual Irrigation Academy, which is developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – Australia’s national science research agency – in partnership with the University of Pretoria.