Gardens of Hope: Urban Micro-Farming

GARDENS OF HOPE
URBAN MICRO-FARMING AS A COMPLMENTARY STRATEGY FOR
MITIGATION OF THE HIV-AIDS PANDEMIC
Proceedings of the study visit to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa
17-25 August 2005
Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), ETC Urban
Agriculture, Leusden, the Netherlands
Abalimi Bezekhaya, Cape Town, South Africa
EU-ACP Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Ede,
the Netherlands

Proceedings of the study visit to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa (17-25 August 2005)
2
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
Introduction to backgrounds, aims, participants and programme of the study
visit and workshop.
2. Urban Micro-farming and HIV-Aids; A need for systematisation of
experiences and scaling up
An introduction to the key issues by the organisers of the study visit
3. Presentation of experiences
Short presentations of the experiences gained by the organisations
participating in the study visit (see the introduction to this paragraph for an
overview of the 20 cases presented during the study visit)
4. Conclusions and recommendations
A summary of the main conclusions and recommendations to local and
national policy makers and donor agencies
5. Follow up actions
An overview of the follow up actions planned by the participants.
ANNEXES
1. List of participants
2. Role and main sources of protein and micro-nutrients
3. Overview of nutritional characteristics of selected food products

3
List of abbreviations
CBO Community Based Organisation
CHW Community Health Worker
CSO Civil Society Organisation
IGA Income Generating Activity
NGO Non-Government Organisation
MOA Ministry of Agriculture
MOH Ministry of Health
PLWHA or PWA People Living With HIV-AIDS
TOT Training of Trainers

4
1. INTRODUCTION
The problematic
In countries of Southern Africa at least one of five adults is suffering from HIV-AIDS,
of which the main part in the urban areas. South Africa alone has a total of 4.2 million
HIV infected people. Over one third of 15-years olds may die of AIDS.
What strikes when visiting families affected by HIV-AIDS in low income
neighbourhoods, is that such families normally first and for all ask for food, rather
than medicines, counselling or care. However, strange enough, food is rarely made
the focus of HIV-AIDS mitigation programmes and many HIV-affected households
find it difficult to follow the nutrition recommendations provided to them due to lack of
cash and access to fresh nutritious food
Research results1
clearly indicate that adequate nutrition –although it cannot cure
HIV-infection- can enhance life expectancy and the quality of life of HIV-infected
persons substantially. Balanced diets are essential to maintain body weight and
muscle tissue, replace lost vitamins and minerals, strengthen the immune system
and thereby reduce the susceptibility to co-infections and enhance the ability to fight
such infections (e.g. diarrhoea, TB, respiratory infections), improve the response to
treatment and delay the onset of full blown AIDS.
On the other hand we observe in cities in Southern Africa that poor urban people are
increasingly seeking to survive by gardening and raising of animals in their back yard
gardens and on vacant public land (e.g. along rivers, roads, below power lines, in
flood zones, on ex dump sites, etcetera). Also an increasing number of community
centres, schools, hospitals and clinics allow community groups to use part of their
land for food production by poor and vulnerable people, often involving families
affected by HIV-Aids or caring for orphans.
Urban farming is emerging strongly in Sub-Saharan Africa as a survival strategy of
the urban poor and families affected by HIV-AIDS with lack of purchasing power and
low access to nutritious food and as a response to the growing food needs of the
rapidly growing cities (especially perishable products like green vegetables, milk,
poultry meat, etc.).
Several Churches, NGOs and Municipalities actively supporting community based
food production projects in resource poor neighbourhoods because they recognised
food and nutrition needs of the urban poor and vulnerable.
The study visit and workshop on Urban Micro-Farming and HIV-AIDS
Against the background sketched above, it is understandable why the Resource
Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), operated by ETC Urban
Agriculture, Leusden the Netherlands2
took the initiative to organise a study visit and
workshop on Urban-micro farming and HIV-Aids, in cooperation with Abalimi
Bezekhaya and other South African Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) that are
1
See the presentation by H. de Zeeuw below
2
See www.ruaf.org for more information on RUAF and the Cities Farming for the Future programme that ETC and
regional RUAF partners are implementing.

5
promoting small scale urban farming activities in Cape Town, Johannesburg and
other cities in South Africa.
The EU-ACP Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
provided the financial support.
The Conference Company (TCTC, Cape Town) provided the logistical support
needed to realise the study visit and workshop3
.
The organizers brought together a variety of stakeholders including senior staff of
Municipal Health and/or Agriculture departments, NGO’s and CBO’s from various
countries in Southern Africa. Part of them is involved in urban gardening and
livestock programmes, while others are implementing HIV-AIDS programmes with a
strong nutrition component (and some do already both)4
.
The study facilitated the exchange and analysis of experiences among these
stakeholders regarding the potentials and limitations of urban food production as an
additional strategy for mitigating the effects of the HIV-AIDS epidemic.
This with the following aims:
• To identify successful approaches and critical factors in the design and
implementation of urban micro-farming activities
• To enhance the impacts and sustainability of existing urban micro-farming
activities and their relevance for HIV-AIDS infected persons and their families
• To facilitate the inclusion of urban micro-farming in HIV-AIDS programmes
implemented by NGO’s and local and national government
• To establish a platform for information exchange and mutual support in the
field of Urban Food Production and HIV/AIDS
The key questions that were looked into during this study visit and workshop
included the following:
• Which factors determine the success or failure of micro-farming projects that seek
to improve nutrition and income of households affected by HIV-AIDS?
• How to select the right project locations and participants?
• How to enhance their access to land and water for urban micro-farming projects
close to their homes? How to enhance security of land use for urban micro
farming?
• How to overcome the labour constraints that are experienced by HIV affected
families?
• What are recommended nutritious crops, animals and technologies?
• What is optimal plot size for one family, taking into account nutritional needs and
available labour?
• What risks associated with urban farming have to be taken into account?
• How does the way these projects are organised influence their social impacts
(positive and negative)?
• What lessons have been learned regarding the organisational and institutional
aspects of (various types of) micro-farming?
• How to reduce the risks associated with farming activities in densely populated
areas?
• How to finance urban micro farming projects?
3
Thanks Michele, Wendy, Ndashe !!
4
See Annex 1 for the list of participants.

6
• How to monitor the impacts of these projects on nutrition, health, livelihood and
life expectancy of HIV-AIDS infected persons and their families?
• How to scale up from local successful initiatives?
• How to ensure the sustainability of micro farming projects?
The programme for the study visit and workshop was as follows:
August 17 and 18 Participants present their experiences
August 19 and 20 Visits to urban micro-farming projects in/around
Johannesburg
August 21 Travel to Cape Town; rest
August 22 and 23 Visits to Urban micro-farming projects in/around Cape Town
August 24 and 25 Analysis of experiences gained;
Formulation of conclusions and recommendations;
Planning of follow up actions
The following micro-farming projects were visited:
• Nomvano Food Garden in Mamelodi Pretoria, supported by Food and Trees for
Africa. Contact Jeunesse Park (011-803 9750)
• Leumo Le Botse letswa Tshemong project at the Pimville Clinic, Soweto,
supported by Food and Trees for Africa. Contact: Jeunesse Park (011-803 9750)
• Kathlehong Home Food gardens project, East Rand, Johannesburg, supported by
Food Gardens Foundation. Contact Hilda Pheto (011- 880 5956)
• Sparrow Rainbow Village HIV Hospice, Maraisburg, Johannesburg. Contact
Corrine Mclintock (011-472 6628)
• Urban Farmers Cooperative in Diepsloot, Johannesburg supported by Cooperative
and Alternative Policy Centre. Contact: Constance Pendula (083-7401584)
• False Bay Hospital Community Garden in Cape Town. Contact: Wendy Crawford
(082- 8261333)
• Sezeni Support Group for HIV/Aids Garden in Cape Town, supported by Art of
Living. Contact: Nyameka Ndashe (021- 7892494)
• Masizame Womans Group in Driftsands, supported by Soil for Life. Contact Pat
Featherstone (021- 794 4982)
• Women for Peace Project in Mfuleni, Cape Town supported by Soil for Life.
Contact: Pat Featherstone (021-794 4982)
• Thando Community Centre in Touws River supported by Soil for Life. Contact: Pat
Featherstone (021-794 4982)
• Ntwasahlobo School and Community Garden Project in Cape Town supported by
Abalimi Bezekhaya. Contact: Rob Small (021- 3711653).
• Siyazama Community Allotment Garden Association (SCAGA) in Macassar,
Cape Town, supported by Abalimi Bezekhaya. Contact: Rob Small (021- 371 1653).

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2. URBAN MICRO-FARMING AND HIV-AIDS; A NEED FOR SYSTEMATISATION
OF EXPERIENCES AND SCALING UP
Ir. Henk de Zeeuw
Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF)
ETC Urban Agriculture
Leusden, The Netherlands
INTRODUCTION
The participants to the study visit cum workshop on urban micro-farming and HIV-
AIDS come from a variety of backgrounds: practitioners from the health sectors and
their colleagues in agriculture, people from NGO’s as well as from local government
and research.
With this presentation I seek to establish a common ground and a starting point for
the exchange of experiences during this study visit, by:
a. Summarizing some facts on the relation between poverty, nutrition and HIV-Aids
b. Defining urban micro-farming and its potential for enhancing food security and
nutrition
c. Listing some key questions that we want to explore during this study visit (and
thereafter)
d. Formulating some working hypothesis regarding the design of effective urban
micro-farming projects that aim at enhancing food security and nutrition of HIV-
AIDS infected and affected persons.
POVERTY, NUTRITION AND HIV-AIDS: SOME FACTS
A vicious circle exists between poverty and inequalities and HIV-Aids with
malnutrition as the key link. Poor households are more exposed to HIV Aids and are
more severally impacted by HIV Aids. Women, who are key actors in household food
security and care giving, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the disease and
its impacts.
The vicious circle is as follows:
• Poverty and inequalities lead to nutrition deficits and higher exposure to HIV-
infection.
• A person who is malnourished and acquires HIV is more likely to progress
faster to AIDS because the body is already weak, is more susceptible for co-
infections (like tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhoea), reduces the body’s ability
to absorb nutrients, and leads so to weight loss, muscle wasting and nutrient
deficiencies (A,C,E, Selenium, Zinc). The parasitic infestations and
malnutrition may result in increased oxidative stress and immune
suppression, which leads to increased HIV replication in the body (higher viral
loads) and hastens the transition from HIV to full Aids and finally to death.
• Families affected by HIV-AIDS tend to have higher expenses due to costs
related to treatment, while income tends to go down. As a consequence,
these families tend to save on food expenditures by reducing food quality and
quantity (food constitutes 50-70% of expenditures of poor families), although
the presence of HIV-infected persons requires more food and better diets.

8
• In their effort to try to cope to this situation, these families often also apply
other survival strategies that on the long run work out negatively on family
livelihood: taking children out of school, young women becoming sex worker,
reallocation or splitting up the family, taking loans to fill the gaps, etcetera). As
a consequence: deepening poverty and malnutrition. Remaining family
members are more at risk now to become HIV infected. Especially young
women are much more susceptible for contracting HIV-Aids; in South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Zambia young women are three to six times more infected by
HIV-Aids than young men, a/o due to their sub-servient status in the
household/community and becoming a sex worker as a survival strategy. Also
orphans are particularly susceptible since they are likely to be more
malnourished and more exposed to unsafe sexual behaviours.
Enhancing food security and nutrition of vulnerable households should receive much
more attention in programmes seeking to mitigate the effects of the HIV-AIDS
pandemic.
Research results5
clearly indicate that:
• Adequate nutrition cannot cure HIV-infection, but can enhance life expectancy
and the quality of life of HIV-infected persons substantially. Balanced diets are
essential to maintain body weight and muscle tissue, replace lost vitamins and
minerals, strengthen the immune system and thereby reduce the susceptibility to
co-infections and enhance the ability to fight such infections (e.g. diarrhoea, TB,
respiratory infections), improve the response to treatment and delay the onset of
full blown AIDS.
• HIV-infected adults and children have increased energy (10-30 %) and protein
needs (up to 15 %)6
and need sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals to
compensate for losses and increasing inefficiency of the body. However, in
practice the food intake and food quality of HIV infected and affected persons is
often declining rather than improving amongst others due to loss of income and
loss of appetite due to depression, painful sores in the mouth, side effect of
medicines, etcetera.
• HIV infected pregnant and lactating women need special attention, since they
already need extra energy, proteins and micro-nutrients for their pregnancy and
lactancy, next to the extra requirements due to HIV-infection. Their situation can
be compounded by existing socio-cultural habits and gender relations that restrict
their food intake and food quality. Mother to child transfer of HIV-infection is
highly affected by nutrition (of mother and infant).
• Adequate nutrition is also essential to optimize the benefits of ARV-treatment: the
ARV’s are more effective if the treated persons are well nourished which is
normally not the case in low income neighbourhoods. “It is like building a house.
If you have a roof but there are no walls and no foundation, the house is not very
useful. If you include drug therapy but you do not have adequate nutritious food,
you will not be able to fight the infection”7
. Hence, food and nutrition programmes
are becoming all the more important with the increasing access to ARV-treatment
in developing countries.
5
See literature references at the end of this paper
6
WHO concludes that data regarding increase in protein requirements due to HIV-infection are
insufficient and hence states that HIV-infected persons do not require more protein than the level
recommended for healthy persons. However, HIV-infected persons often have pre-infection malnutrition
and protein deficiencies need proper attention, especially by increasing food intake to required levels
and improving nutritional quality of the food (FANTA-AED, 2004).
7
UN-AIDS, 2001, Nutrition Policy Paper, Volume 20

9
Many HIV-Aids mitigation programs include a nutrition education component for the
HIV-affected people and their families. However, the impact of such nutrition
education is generally low since the recommended foodstuffs are not locally available
or cannot be afforded by the poor families. Access to food is one of the main
problems of HIV impacted communities. Accordingly, enhancing access to food of
good quality forms a crucial entry point for programmes assisting such communities.
Such food security and nutrition programmes have there largest impacts at the early
stages of HIV-infection before developing into stages requiring antiretroviral drugs
(ARV’s) treatment (that is however the stage that most people do not know yet that
they are infected with HIV).
Often food aid is used to supplement the diets of HIV-infected persons through
specific programmes providing food handouts (e.g. through clinics and community
centres) to families affected by HIV-Aids or caring for orphans. However, the
organisations involved in such programmes rapidly recognise that this is not a
sustainable solution and that a more structural solution is needed to ensure access of
HIV-infected families to nutritious food and income.
Local food production projects can possibly fulfil such a role in a sustainable way.
URBAN AGRICULTURE
Urban micro-farming can be defined as the growing of plants and raising of animals,
and related activities like water harvesting, composting, food processing and
marketing, by urban people (especially poor and unemployed people) for food,
income, medicinal herbs, shade/micro-climate on small tracts of land in home yards
and in vacant public or semi-open spaces in the built up city (along and in rivers,
roads, below power lines, in flood zones, on ex dump sites, etcetera) and in the peri-
urban area.
For the purpose of this study visit, the following types of micro-farming may be
distinguished:
a. home gardens (attached to the private house; includes cellars, barns,
balconies, rooftops, window sills, green walls).
b. community gardens (garden area split up in small family plots; often on
public or semi-public grounds)
c. institutional gardens run by schools, hospitals, prisons, factories
d. open field plots (small holders, especially peri-urban, owned or rented)
Urban food production in the South is in many cases a response of urban dwellers to:
inadequate, unreliable and irregular access to food supplies, partly due to either a
lack of availability of food or a lack of purchasing power and inadequate access to
formal employment opportunities.
Urban farming is emerging strongly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the fastest urban
growth is occurring in countries least equipped to feed their cities, but recently a
strong increase was also observed in other regions with acute economic crisis (e.g.
Zimbabwe).
Urban agriculture may contribute to:
Increased urban food security and reduced malnutrition through
enhancing access to fresh nutrient-rich foods of urban populations suffering
from food insecurity and malnutrition.
Increased income opportunities for the urban poor through agricultural
activities: a. self-provisioning reduces family expenditures on food. As the

10
urban poor are found to be spending 60-80% of their income on food, any of
these actions can have a major impact on household well-being.
b. sales of surpluses or exchange for other products the family needs
Social inclusion: urban agriculture projects help to restore the self esteem
and hopes of disadvantaged and stigmatised people and their acceptance in
the wider community
An improved living urban environment by cleaning up and greening the
neighbourhoods, improving the micro climate (shade, less dust) and recycling
of solid and liquid wastes.
An increasing number of cities (e.g. Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Dakar, Addis Ababa,
a/o) and national governments (e.g. Botswana) in Sub Saharan Africa are
recognising the importance of urban agriculture and adapting their policies and
programmes regarding urban farming.
New approaches are currently underway to reinforce the formal establishment of
allotment garden schemes and other forms of urban agriculture in cities in Sub
Saharan Africa.
URBAN MICRO-FARMING AND HIV-AIDS: CREATING GARDENS OF HOPE
Urban micro-farming has good potential to enhance food security and nutrition of
HIV-infected persons and their families. However, urban micro-farming projects have
received little attention of central and local government and research institutes and
few attempts have been made to systematise the existing experiences. Before the
potential of urban micro-farming can be fully realised, many questions have to be
dealt with.
Some of these questions are:
• Which factors determine success or failure of micro-farming - projects that
seek to improve nutrition and income of households affected by HIV-Aids?
• How to select the right project locations and participants?
• How to enhance their access to land and water for urban micro-farming
projects close to their homes? How to enhance security of land use for urban
micro farming?
• How to overcome the labour constraints that are experienced by HIV affected
families?
• What are recommended nutritious crops, animals and technologies?
• What is optimal plot size for one family, taking into account nutritional needs
and available labour?
• What risks associated with urban farming have to be taken into account?
• How does the way these projects are organised influence their social impacts
(positive and negative)?
• What lessons have been learned regarding the organisational and institutional
aspects of (various types of) micro-farming?
• How to finance urban micro farming projects?
• How to monitor the impacts of these projects on HIV-Aids infected and
affected persons?
• How to scale up from local successful initiatives?
• How to ensure the sustainability of micro farming projects?
We will use the opportunity of this study visit to compare a number of experiences
gained in Southern Africa and jointly draw some lessons for future programmes.
From review of recent literature and discussions with some local experts indicate
some lessons are emerging regarding factors to take into account when designing

11
urban micro-farming projects aiming at enhancing food security and nutrition of HIV-
AIDS affected families. I present them here as working hypothesis, open to
discussion:
In order to maximize the effect of urban micro-farming projects for HIV-AIDS
affected families:
a. Micro-farming projects should target on whole communities with a high
number of poor and food insecure households (rather than on people living with
HIV-Aids directly). This because:
° Stigmatisation should be prevented;
° Greatest overall impacts of nutritional support is to be expected in the
early stages of the disease (but when most people even don’t know that
they are effected, due to lack of testing facilities and stigma) when
improving the quantity and quality of nutrition is most effective to
prolonged period of relative health by preventing /stabilizing loss of
weight, preserving/gaining physical strength, preventing diarrhoea and
speeding up recuperation from infectious diseases; This for their own
benefit and for the benefit of those who depend on their income and care
(children, elderly). Also mother-child transfer of HIV-Aids will be reduced.
In this way vulnerability to the impacts of the disease of the whole
household is reduced;
° A second stage targeting might be used to young under-employed adults,
especially young women (high risk group);
° By focussing on the community the project may also contribute to
breaking the vicious circle between malnutrition and HIV-Aids.
b. Urban micro farming projects should be based in community based
organisations and social networks and bottom up participatory planning and
“learning in action” approach
c. Urban micro-farming projects should also involve institutional actors at
higher levels in order to ensure:
o provision of required support to local initiatives (e.g. access to land and
water);
o coordination among local initiatives and between these and city or
national programmes;
o upscaling of locally successful community supported initiatives;
o creation of a supportive policy environment (e.g. legalization of urban
agriculture and inclusion in urban land use planning).
d. Urban micro-farming projects should be strongly linked with the services
provided by conventional HIV-AIDS programmes, including:
° Awareness raising and education on HIV-AIDS (special eating needs for
people living with HIV-Aids, mother to child transfer facts and infant
feeding choices; importance of testing, local remedies for frequent health
problems;
° Nutrition education: promotion of key foods and nutrients, changing
dietary and food preparation habits, promotion of water and food hygiene,
additional feeding after infection to compensate food loss, herbal
treatments and remedies (See FAO manual);
° Early treatment of opportunistic infections like TB and pneumonia;
° Provision of anti-retroviral drugs.

12
e. When designing Urban micro-farming projects one should give special
attention to the following issues:
° Securing access to land of acceptable quality (community gardening);
° Securing availability of irrigation water and choice of low cost and labour
saving irrigation techniques; water harvesting; reuse of household
wastewater;
° Training and guidance regarding the management of community gardens
and how to deal with most frequent problems when working with HIV-Aids
affected families;
° Training of participants in adequate selection of adequate species
(nutritious food see table 1 for nutritional values of a large number of
crops; attention for indigenous foods), easy to grow, labour and capital
extensive, pest and drought resistant) and production technologies for
space confined and low input but high output agriculture. E.g. through
farmer field schools and farmer- to- farmer extension. Organic production
methods, soil fertility maintenance (composted wastes, animal fertilizer)
and IPM are among the priorities;
° Provision of equipment and inputs (especially compost, seeds and young
stock). These inputs initially have to be provided at a subsidised price but
should preferably be provided in such way that sustainability is enhanced
(provision of equipment and tools and inputs as a revolving fund,
establishment of community seed production units, establishment of
saving schemes and rotating micro-credit, etcetera). At later stages of the
project/groups self financing has to be increased and subsidy to be
lowered;
° Measures against theft (fencing or guards);
° Mechanisms for processing and/or marketing of surpluses.
f. Food for work or food for training can play a role in the urban farming project:
° during the initial stages of the project (land preparation, composting,
etcetera). This especially if the participating families are undernourished
and lack sufficient strength;
° as a form of payment to participating volunteers.
The food should be supplied through the community based organisations that
run the local programme (and which should have the required logistical and
management capacities of storing, transporting and distribution of food)
g. Financing of urban micro-farming projects
In most cases “shared financing” will be needed with contributions (in kind, in
staff time, in cash) from various sources: national government (e.g. funding,
food for work, drugs, technical advice), local government (e.g. legal support,
access to land, access to water, technical advice, fencing), hospitals and
schools (access to land, bio medical support), NGO’s (project management,
group development and management support, training, etcetera), CBO’s
(ensuring community participation, individual care for HIV-infected persons,
etcetera).
The main arguments for government support to local micro-farming initiatives
have been found in the first chapter of this paper:
° by improving food security and nutrition the effect of ART-programmes
will be greatly enhanced;
° by enhancing local food production capacity, longer term food security
and nutrition can be realised, breaking the vicious circle between poverty,
nutrition and HIV-AIDS.

13
Information sources
The following information sources have been consulted when preparing the paragraph in this paper
regarding HIV-AIDS, food security and nutrition:
WHO (2005) Consultation on Nutrition and HIV-Aids in Africa, Durban South Africa, 10-13 April,
2005
STUART GILLESPIE AND SUNEETHA KADIYALA (2005) HIV/Aids and Food and Nutrition
Security, From evidence to action. Food Policy Review 7, IFPRI, Washington DC
FANTA-AED (2004) HIV-AIDS a guide for nutritional support, Washington DC
WHO/FAO (2002) Living well with Aids. A manual on nutritional care and support for people living
with HIV/AIDS, FAO, Rome
UN-ACC Sub-Committee on Nutrition (2001) Nutrition and HIV/Aids Nutrition Policy Paper # 20,
ACC-SCN, Geneva
PIWOZ E.G. AND PREBBLE E.A. (2000) HIV/Aids and Nutrition. A review of literature and
recommendations for nutritional care and support in Sub-Saharan Africa. Academy for Educational
Development, Washington DC, 2000
HADDAD L. AND GILLESPIE S. (2001) effective food and nutrition policy responses to HIV/Aids:
what we know and what we need to know. Food Consumption and Discussion Paper IFPRI,
Washington DC 2001
UN-AIDS. Nutrition Policy Paper, Volume 20

14
3. PRESENTATION OF EXPERIENCES GAINED BY THE PARTICIPANTS
In this paragraph you will encounter the following cases:
3.1 Momo Masoka. The Urban Food Security Programme of Action Aids
International, Zimbabwe
3.2 Rob Small, Christina Kaba and Sindi Mahusa-Mhlana. The Urban Agriculture
Programme of Abalimi Bezekhaya, Cape Town, South Africa
3.3 Pat Featherstone. The Food Gardens Programme of Soil for Life, Cape Town,
South Africa
3.4 James Onyango. The Nutrition and Food Security Programme of Kenya Aids
Intervention Prevention Project Group (KAIPPG), Kakamega, Kenya
3.5 Jeunesse Park. The Permaculture Food Gardens Programme of Food &
Trees for Africa, Gauteng, South Africa
3.6 Ssemwanga Margaret Azuba and Richard Kabuuka, Urban Farming and HIV-
AIDS initiatives supported by Kampala City Council, Kampala, Uganda
3.7 Innocent Balagizi Karhagomba. The Urban Agriculture Programme of the
Diobass Platform, Bakuvu, DR Congo
3.8 Simon Chanda Fikansa. The Integrated AIDS Programme of Catholic Diocese
Ndola, Zambia
3.9 Américo Cassamo. The Urban Agriculture Programme of Maputo City
Council, Maputo, Mozambique
3.10 Bonginkosi Njokwe and Jon McCosh. The African Roots Project, Institute of
Natural Resources, Scottsville, South Africa
3.11 Noah Sigauke. The Improving urban livelihoods project of ITDG - Southern
Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe
3.12 Godwin Chisenga. The HIV-AIDS Programme of Catholic Aids Action,
Windhoek, Namibia
3.13 Joseph Tembo. The Community School Based Urban Agriculture Project of
Project Concern International, Lusaka, Zambia
3.14 John O. Onyatta. Urban agriculture surveys by National Council for Science
and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya
3.15 Abedaye Ogunmokun. Urban agriculture studies and pilot projects by
University of Namibia, Oshakati, Namibia
3.16 D.L. Keboneilwe and M.E. Madisa. Policy development and implementation
on Urban Agriculture by Ministry of Agriculture Botswana, Gabarone,
Botswana
3.17 Nyameka Ndashe. Sezeni Food Garden Project, Art of Living Foundation,

15
Cape Town, South Africa
3.18 Wendy Crawford and Karen Jordi. False Bay Hospital Garden Project, Cape
Town, South Africa
3.19 Ann September. The Emerging Farmers Projects of Wes-Kaap Ubuntu
Farmers’ Union, Cape Town, South Africa
3.20 Sebenzile Nxumalo. The urban gardening pilot project of AMICAALL-
Swaziland, Mbabane, Swaziland

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3.1 URBAN FOOD SECURITY PROGRAMME OF ACTION AIDS INTERNATIONAL
Momo Masoka
ACTION AIDS INTERNATIONAL
Harare, Zimbabwe
INTRODUCTION TO AAI AND ITS FOOD SECURITY PROGRAMME
ACTION AIDS INTERNATIONAL (AAI) was founded in 1972 to help children living in
poverty. Since then the organization has moved from providing short term relief
assistance to long term development assistance and finally to the rights based
organization the organization now is. Today AAI is operational in more than 42
countries globally, with more than 20 of them in Africa. The country offices are
coordinated by four regional offices in Nairobi (Africa), Brussels (Europe), Bangkok
(Asia) and Rio de Janeiro (Americas)
Our vision is a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys
his/her right to a life with dignity. Our mission is to work with organizations, alliances
and movements at all levels to foster approaches rooted in a global identity and
consciousness and formulate alternatives that will eradicate poverty and injustice in
Africa
Since 2003 Action Aid International (Zimbabwe program) has been supporting nine
local NGOs in Harare and Bulawayo on a food security program targeting poor and
vulnerable households affected by HIV/AIDS. The overall goal of this project is to
improve the livelihood security of poor, marginalized and vulnerable households
affected and/or infected by HIV and AIDS, especially women and children. More
specifically the project has aimed to improve household food security through food
aid and own food production in low input gardens. This project has been part of the
protracted relief program that DFID has been supporting in Zimbabwe since 2003.
In supporting urban agriculture this project is seeking to augment the food aid
component by assisting households to produce a wide variety of foods to improve the
quality of their diet through consumption of a greater quantity of nutritious foods and
sale of surpluses. The project has also sought to use these gardens to produce
medicinal and nutritional herbs, particularly important for people living with HIV/AIDS
(PLWHA).
Urban agriculture8
is not a new phenomenon n Zimbabwe’s urban landscape and
dates back many years. However, its prevalence and significance has grown in line
with worsening urban poverty, particularly after Zimbabwe adopted the structural
adjustment in 1990. With the continued macroeconomic decline, rising
unemployment and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, urban agriculture has become key
source of livelihood for many urban households in Zimbabwe in recent times.
8 In this paper urban agriculture is viewed as the production of crops and/or livestock in areas
designated as urban. It may occur within residential properties or in open public land.
Depending on prevailing land use regulations such urban agriculture may be a legal or illegal
(Masoka 1997).

17
At its inception this project sought to support individual household gardens within
their residential areas or other open spaces that these households had access to9
.
The project also introduced the concept of low input gardening (LIG) that uses locally
available resources to help beneficiaries plan and manage their crops without
expensive chemicals to achieve healthy, productive gardens. LIG uses ideas from
other approaches such as permaculture, integrated land-use design, and sustainable
agriculture. Specifically designed for urban areas, the LIG approach maximises the
diversity of food that can be grown in small plots. This sustainable approach to
livelihoods is tailored to meet the specific needs of people affected by HIV and AIDS
(e.g. crop diversity for nutritional needs and gardening approaches that require
minimal financial and physical resources).
Beneficiary training has encompassed land use design, seasonality, water access,
pests, use of compost/mulches, soil structure, seed collection, nurseries, and food
handling, preparation and preservation. The project trains local volunteers who then
train beneficiaries.
As a strategy to minimise the risk of loosing public land areas (given the fluid policy
environment in Zimbabwe and the current ‘clean up’ operation) the project has
partnered with local schools in both Harare and Bulawayo. These schools have
offered land for LIG within their premises.
To improve sustainability of this partnership, the schools have become active
participants, not just providers of land. The schools have made LIG a part of their
curriculum and so their gardens will likely be secure from possible policy change
restricting land use in future. In these school gardens the heads of schools, teachers
and students are all involved and participate.
The project beneficiaries also take part in maintaining these gardens. This gives the
project collective ownership. Vegetables from these gardens are consumed by the
children from vulnerable families jointly identified by the school and the local IP.
School teachers have been trained on LIG and they in turn, train their students. So
far a total of 33 school gardens have been established and another 49 more are
planned.
In both the household and community garden beneficiaries grow leafy vegetables
(Cabbage, rape and other traditional vegetables), root or tubers, and herbs.
9 Since 1980 local authorities had tolerated open space cultivation in urban areas but the
legislation governing urban land use prohibited this and this legislation has not been amended
(Mbiba 1994).

18
RESULTS OBTAINED
An assessment of the project results so far has found that the benefits of the LIG
approach include economic returns, increased food security and nutrition as well as
psychosocial benefits, such as increased self-esteem, improved group cohesion,
decreased stigma, and increased community support. Furthermore the herbs being
produced in these gardens have been used for medicinal purposes, improving the
health of HIV affected beneficiaries.
Urban gardens are an essential part of urban livelihood systems particularly of the
poor and vulnerable.
LESSONS LEARNT
Access to Land and Water
Access to land for cultivation by poor households has always been a big challenge in
Zimbabwe’s urban areas. Most poor households do not have houses of their own and
often live as tenants in backyard cottages (before the ‘clean up’ exercise). Most such
tenants often do not have access to land to cultivate their crops. But with creativity
even under those conditions agricultural activities are taking place.
Production Issues
In this project beneficiaries grow a wide variety of crops including vegetables, herbs
and trees. Although the projects gives beneficiaries a start up seed kit, they are
usually free to grow crops of their choice including indigenous and wild plans. Our
emphasis has been to ensure that beneficiaries grow crops that are nutritious, have
medicinal value, help with soil fertility improvement and also offer insecticidal value to
protect the garden from pests.
Due to space limitations in the urban areas the project has not used micro irrigation
although there is drip kit technology on the Zimbabwean market.
To ensure sustainable availability of seeds and tools, the project has provided start
up tools and seeds to all beneficiary households. Furthermore the project also
cooperates with agents that provide training in permaculture and LIG. These
institutions are also key sources of seeds and seedlings, particularly of herbs and
other trees.
Labour has been one major problem for households affected by HIV/AIDS as some
of them are ill or have large numbers of young and dependant orphans. To minimise
this problem, the project has targeted the household instead of the sick individuals in
the household. Where the affected households have more than one adult member
this strategy has worked well.
Security of produce is an important factor. Produce in open places is often vulnerable
to theft. The school gardens have tended to be safer as most schools have security
arrangements.
Organizational and institutional issues
Training and mobilisation of beneficiaries is a crucial factor. Beneficiaries need to be
trained in an ongoing process. Most of the growers are poor with limited agricultural
or horticultural skills. Mobilising the communities motivates them to continue working.
It is important to de-stigmatise the project. Although our project targeted households
affected by HIV/AIDS, it would not have survived if it had been viewed as an

19
HIV/AIDS project. For instance, when this project was first introduced in schools, only
children from HIV/AIDS affected households were targeted to work in school garden.
Immediately it became apparent that the other children viewed the project as an
HI/AIDS project and nobody wanted to be associated with it; not even the
beneficiaries. The strategy had to be changed to involve all the children to remove
the stigma.
For the success of household gardens:
• a large pool of volunteers is needed to work with a small number of households,
providing training and monitor progress. Working with a small number of
beneficiaries gives the volunteer more time to support the beneficiaries and to
attend to their own (the volunteer’s) needs and to restrict transport needs
• The beneficiaries need to be organised into groups of say 20 to 30 households to
make mobilisation and training easier. Even if gardening activities will be
organised at household level, bringing the participants together provides
opportunities for peer influencing, training, support and motivation.
In school gardens:
• The whole school needs to be actively involved in the project: the head of the
school, the teachers and all students.
• There needs to be a strong cooperation between the households participating in
the school garden and the school authorities.
In order for urban agriculture to succeed in Zimbabwe, there is a need to develop an
enabling policy and regulatory environment that guaranties access to and
security of tenure for the poor. In Zimbabwe, following the ‘clean up operation’ many
poor household were displaced following the destruction of their homes. Many
households being supported by the project lost their gardens in this process. Even
where the owners were not displaced some of these gardens destroyed. However, in
uluwayo recently a process of multi-stakeholder policy formulation and action
planning has started.

20
3.2 URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME OF ABALIMI BEZEKHAYA
Rob Small, Christina Kaba and Sindi Mahusa-Mhlana
ABALIMI BEZEKAHAYA
INTRODUCTION TO ABALIMI BEZEKHAYA AND ITS ACTIVITIES.
ABALIMI BEZEKHAYA (“Planters of the Home”) is a registered civil society
organisation founded in 1982. Abilimi has a core of 12 permanent staff and an
additional group of about 14 contract staff and volunteers, who work on the Board
and on associated Special Projects that directly enhance core delivery
effectiveness10
.
ABALIMI is based at the Agri-Business Place in Phillipi, Cape Town and in two non-
profit People’s Garden Centre’s (supply and training) in Nyanga and Khayelitsha.
ABALIMI runs two core programmes:
a. the Urban Agriculture Programme (UAP)
b. the Cape Flats Greening Programme (CFGP).
The UAP and CFGP currently support about 200 community agriculture and
environmental projects and approximately 3000 home gardens (vegetable and
recreational) throughout the townships in Cape Town.
The most important associated special projects currently underway are
• The Schools Environmental Education & Development project (SEED, since
2000), which capacitates teachers to develop and utilise school gardens as
outdoor classrooms.
• The Agri-Business Place Phillipi, a new partnership project (since June 2005)
which aims to provide all round services to emerging agricultural entrepreneurs.
ABALIMI supports approximately 100 urban agriculture projects and 2000 home
vegetable gardens every year. The majority of the urban agriculture projects are
Community Allotment and/or Communal Gardens run mainly by women (average
age: 35 yrs plus) based in school yards and in a few servitude (commonage) areas.
Another type of urban gardens supported by ABILIMI are the Institutional gardens:
gardens initiated by institutions in support of their own core programmes (e.g.
outpatients gardens at clinics or educational gardens at schools).
The majority of the ABALIMI-supported gardens have been initiated by community
groups or individuals as part of a survival and/or subsistence strategy to cope with
poverty.
In Cape Town and surrounding there is a growing movement for Urban Agriculture
and Urban Greening, represented by the Vukuzenzela Urban Farmers Association
(VUFA), the School Environmental Teachers Association (SETA) and an emerging
Green Streets Association.
ABALIMI provides support to this movement, through the ABALIMI Core
10
See the ABALIMI Friends Newsletter and Website for more info on Abalimi’s activities and a list of
donors and funders.

21
Programmes and associated Special Projects, including the following activities (or
Key Result Areas):
• Project Implementation: delivery of actual projects on the ground, with
infrastructure.
• Resource Supply: subsidised and free start-up agricultural and horticultural
inputs to gardens
• Training: basic training in gardening , with long term on-site follow-up
(intermediate and advanced training is now being developed)
• Organisation Building: facilitation of Savings Mobilisation and Horizontal Action
Learning
• Networking: facilitation of partnerships in order to add value to all movement
initiatives (agricultural or non-agricultural) and linkage to lobbying organisations
and networks. ABALIMI itself is not a lobbyist, but only inputs into lobbying
formations.
• Research, Monitoring & Evaluation: facilitation of RME in the movement and
development of RME tools for the movement and for internal evaluation and
Action Learning.
• Financial & Organisational sustainability for ABALIMI: HRD, Resource
Mobilisation, Accounting and Management of ABALIMI to ensure that ABALIMI
remains effective as service provider to the movement.
RESULTS OBTAINED
Important results obtained by the core programmes include:
• Relative nutritional security at household level: most of the gardeners are
producing seasonal organic vegetables which impact on nutritional security and
health at household level. People may still be hungry, but are less at risk of
disabling nutrition-related disease11
.
• HIV-AIDS support: This is growing naturally out of the impulse for nutritional
security. Neither ABALIMI, nor the movement it supports, have a developed
programme or policy for HIV-AIDS support. However, there is a programme
emerging out of the movement itself, which begins simply with a regular and free
seasonal supply of fresh vegetables by the community gardeners themselves to
families and organisations in their communities which are struggling to feed
people with HIV-AIDS. Furthermore, institutional gardens (at clinics and at NGO
11
Empirical studies on the nutritional impact of seasonal organic vegetables at household level have not
been done. Only anecdotal evidence and personal testimony from hundreds of gardeners exists to
prove this fact.

22
care centres) are beginning to emerge which could become permanent supply
sources of fresh organic vegetable to patients.
• Income from sales of surplus vegetables: the community gardens (who are
mostly at early-mid subsistence level) have been known to save between R1000-
R20 000 per year in their bank accounts. These savings are irregular and often
under-declared. Most of the savings are used for essential cash-based items like
fuel, school fees, transport etc. Group savings are normally kept until year-end
and distributed among the members as a sort of “Christmas Bonus”. There is also
a trend within the community garden associations to use the group savings for
setting up internal micro-loan schemes to members or for bulk buying of inputs or
equipment. Much more needs to be done to facilitate Savings Mobilisation in the
movement, whereby the community projects can collaborate to pool savings and
thus obtain leverage in the cash economy.
• Job creation: ABALIMI has established through empirical field studies and
action-research that one job can be created for every 250-500m2 of wasteland
converted into gardens, selling organic vegetables to the local community at
street prices (worth 1300-R1500/month after costs) or to the Cape Town retail
market at premium prices (worth up to R 3000/month). These facts have been
communicated to the movement and are being taken seriously, although few
people are yet willing/or able to put in the 7 days per week/365 day per year effort
needed to achieve own job creation and job security. There is still a broad-based
feeling that “there must be an easier way”.
• Social benefits: group organic gardening generates important outcomes among
the urban poor12
. Among these benefits are the individual and group
empowerment among women (and also men if they are awake enough to their
feminine side) whereby women have entirely assumed leadership of the
movement, with good men in support roles. Because of this empowerment,
women are able to hold their family and community culture together, while the
men go off looking for the mythical “job”.
LESSONS LEARNT
Taking the development continuum into account
Interventions with regard to setting up urban agriculture projects should be clear
about their objectives and the development level of the groups they will be working
with.
In this regard ABALIMI has now developed, from field experience, a draft
Sustainability Index (SI)13
which tracks the development continuum of community
farming projects, with measurements, from survival level into subsistence level, into
livelihood level and finally into commercial level.. Linked to the SI is a field worker
career path and a gardener/farmer career path, capable of taking even illiterate
people through a continuum to gain accredited capacities at trade certificate level.
Programme designers should design interventions which are “level appropriate”:
each level in the development continuum has its own requirements and sustainability
criteria. This will avoid the mistake being made here in South Africa where agencies
are still trying to create commercial growers in quick-time, out of people who are not
yet competent at Subsistence or Livelihood level, and who are often unclear if they
even want to be farmers at all.
12
Also on this subject -other than one or two studies done some years ago- little field research has been
implemented due to lack of funding. However, anecdotal evidence and personal testimony from
members in the movement make it crystal clear that the social impacts are substantial
13
The SI will be made available freely once it is finalised (by Mid July 2006)

23
The most important kind of gardens to start with are the survival and subsistence
gardens, which enable nutritional security. These gardens can only be sustainable if
land, water and fertility inputs are functionally free or extremely cheap, as there is
little or no cash available in families at survival or early subsistence level for
purchasing inputs. Accordingly, technologies should by low cost and simple although
high fertility, energy and water efficiencies must be achieved.
ABALIMI targets to bring all community farming groups to the Livelihood stage,
characterized by a mix of self provisioning and commercial activities at the garden
centre as well as other value-adding initiatives (e.g. restaurant, compost production,
vegetable shop, etcetera).
Access to land and water; subsidized inputs
It is an absolute fact that agriculture anywhere in the world cannot survive without
being subsidised (via price controls, special loans, cross-subsidies or grants).
Agriculture is not a normal straight-line business that merely adds value to cheap raw
material. Thus survival and subsistence gardens and farms must also be subsidised-
especially by provision of free land and very cheap or free water and organic
fertiliser. The poor, for their part, are usually happy to work hard physically, together.
People are often also prepared to pay for their seed, which can be cheaply supplied
from decanted bulk stock.
Permanent non-profit and wholesale supply centres are critical as a first step: without
supply of cheap or free resources, there will be no gardening or farming of any sort,
ever. There is no farmer on this planet that pays the full cost of their inputs.
There is absolutely no need for large areas of land to achieve nutritional and relative
food security at household level. One square meter of sprouts or fresh quick growing
greens can make the essential difference to one person as far as nutritional security
is concerned. Even 10-20 m2 of intensive organic garden can supply base-line
nutritional security to one family of 5-6
souls and 100 m2 can provide all fresh
greens a family needs year-round.
Water can be recycled, harvested,
conserved in the soil and deployed
through drip lines or equivalent. Only 3-
4 litres per square meter per day is
needed during dry periods. If there is no
rain and no surface water, invest in
wells or boreholes. If there is no water at
all, get a job elsewhere or invest in a
coffin.
Production aspects
Free access to bio-mass/organic municipal waste (we are not talking about human
faeces) is essential and relationship with stock owners -particularly cattle owners- is
vital. ABALIMI is about to start a campaign for “one cow-one garden”. One cow
produces 10 tons of manure per annum, if kraaled overnight. This is enough to
supply up to 1ha of community garden with all annual fertility requirements. Of
course, small livestock should also be included, but small livestock, like fruit, is
something that has a tendency to vanish if not kept under armed guard. But
vegetables and cows (and goats) are less vulnerable to “vanishment”.

24
It is easy to begin organic gardening at a basic level, but to progress takes study and
time and commitment to develop the required skills.
Organizational and institutional aspects
The “consumer culture mindset”, where people perceive land-based lifestyles to be
backwards, and group dynamics, leading to disruption of production, are probably the
two most important limiting factors to the development and continuity of agricultural
projects and growth in the movement.
However, we are learning to facilitate the inevitable organisational crises in such a
way that they are learning and growth opportunities, not failures. The main tool used
is Horizontal Action Learning Exchange, where the gardeners analyse problems and
decide on solutions themselves. Group wisdom usually finds the right way, if
everyone can be properly “heard” and group process is not diverted by dominant
individuals.
There has to be a number of service providers who supply what the gardeners and
associations do not have, with a good understanding of the requirements of each
level in the development continuum.
As far as nutritional security/HIV-Aids is concerned, there has to be a nutrition
education component to ensure that the quality of the food is not destroyed in the
(over)cooking process. ABALIMI still has to find a permanent partner in the nutrition
education sphere, but in the mean time we work with a few different organisations.
Once micro & meso models have been developed and tested by civil society
organisations (social entrepreneurs), the State should adapt and test the models on a
macro scale. The State is functionally no good at innovation, but once an innovation
has been trialed and tested the State has the capacity to apply it.
As an alternative to the State, the movement itself can “take to scale” provided it is
well organised and sufficient funding can be obtained. The movement can enable
itself through Horizontal Action Learning, Savings Mobilisation and cheap Micro-
Loans between members and Local Economic Trading Systems (LETS)14
Community Investment Programmes (CIP’s) use all the above tactics, to incentivise
communities to design and execute own development programmes which address
the full range of community needs, including food security through urban
agriculture15
.
Ongoing grant finance from enlightened funding agencies is vital to keep the
development process in the movement rolling, by investing at all levels in the
development continuum, and using the tools and approaches mentioned above to
finalise in detail a sustainable model for food, nutritional and cash security16
for
permanent local livelihoods and jobs (with urban agriculture as a key component!!),
which the State could then take to scale.
14
For more info on LETS, see: www.ces.org.za
15
For more information on CIP’s, contact Dr Norman Reynolds at marketnr@iafrica.com
16
Food security does not necessarily lead to cash security – e.g. a farmer can eat very well and have no
cash- and cash security does not automatically lead to food security – e.g. a rich man may starve his
family. Food security and cash security do not always equal nutrition security – e.g. there are millions of
fat people who live on starch and meat. At survival or early subsistence level the focus is on nutritional
and food security. When moving to Livelihood and Commercial levels, reaching cash security too gets
more emphasis.

25
3.3 FOOD GARDENS PROGRAMME OF SOIL FOR LIFE
Pat Featherstone
SOIL FOR LIFE
INTRODUCTION TO SOIL FOR LIFE AND ITS PROGRAMME
SOIL FOR LIFE is a registered not-for-profit NGO that was established in March
2003, formerly operating as the Western Cape branch of Food Gardens Foundation,
a national NGO based in Gauteng. There are four full-time staff and seven part-time
staff. The organisation has a Resource and Training Centre based at a school in
Constantia and all operations are carried out from here.
Our vision is to make a significant and positive contribution to the health, self-
confidence and family finance of indigent people in the Western Cape. Our aims include
improving the nutritional and economic status of individuals and communities in
urban and rural areas, to develop human potential and to balance human needs with
nature’s capacity to sustain life now and in the future.
SOIL FOR LIFE is implementing the following activities:
• We run hands-on practical education and training courses in: small-scale organic
food and herb production, soil improvement methods, waste recycling, health and
nutrition, including medicinal and culinary herbs, nursery skills and plant
propagation, food processing and preserving. The latter courses have been given
to equip groups with the skills necessary to start a home business to boost
household income. Part of these trainings are implemented for the City of Cape
Town and there are many gardens have been started as a result.
• Initial supply of compost, seed and basic tools
• We provide ongoing support and advice to gardening groups that have been
trained by SOIL FOR LIFE. However, many of the groups that have been trained
do not have any follow support, since SOIL FOR LIFE does not have the financial
resources to support all these projects.
• We encourage the development of local networks and support groups.
• We form partnerships with related NGO’s and Community-Based Organisations.
RESULTS OBTAINED
SOIL FOR LIFE’s work in indigent communities is important because:
• People are enabled to put safe, fresh, nutritious food on the table every night.
• Exercise, fresh air, good food, and the reduction of stress (all spin- offs of the
food-growing culture) build strong immune systems and help in the fight against
AIDS, TB, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and poor mental health.
• A food-growing initiative within any community removes social, cultural and
economic barriers.
• Raising living standards and generating local trade circulates income within
communities and pays for education and social services.
• People create jobs for themselves and others.
• The re-use of waste by community gardeners reduces the burden on local
authorities and landfill sites.

26
Food gardens make a significant difference to the lives of many people. The food
gardeners are obviously eating better. Many people are eating large quantities of
green vegetables (particularly important because of significant Vitamin A content)
from these gardens (and this includes thieves!)
The food gardeners have some money to spend on things which they could not
previously afford and they are getting all the advantages of healthy, outdoor exercise,
companionship, new skills, a marginally improved life, and learning to work with other
people as a group
Many people also have gardens at home – the transfer of skills and appropriate
technology is what SOIL FOR LIFE wants to happen.
It has also been noticed that well-managed and productive community and home
food gardens catch the attention of locals who, in turn, are inspired and encouraged
to attempt the same for themselves using SOIL FOR LIFE methods.
Lastly, with massive land degradation in South Africa, and alarming losses of topsoil,
and the consequent loss of good agricultural land, how are we going to feed our
burgeoning population? Consider what it would mean in terms of increasing the
amount of cultivated land and reducing hunger if people could be encouraged to
establish food gardens at their homes, community centres, clinics, churches,
wherever there is vacant land; if everyone in South Africa had a food garden, no
matter how small.
In 2004 a survey was implemented on the impacts of six food gardening projects that
SOIL FOR LIFE implemented for the Department of Social Services and Poverty
Alleviation, with the following outcomes:
• Between the six groups over four hundred people are being fed, as well as
some of the food finding its way into the larger community. If more attention
would be paid to replanting, (i.e.: just over one-half of the beds was planted at
the time of the survey), there could be even more food available for
community consumption.
• Sales of surpluses generate an average of R14.42 per week per seller, which
in these communities is a significant amount and makes an enormous

27
difference between a poor diet and shortage of food and an adequate diet, so
contributing to improved nutrition in the community as a whole. With greater
attention to better replanting and production methods, and more home
gardens, the surplus for sale would undoubtedly increase.
• The people themselves are very aware of the difference these gardens have
made to their lives. Nearly fifty percent of the gardeners no longer buy
vegetables elsewhere, and must therefore save money in this way, as well as
eating more nutritious food. Also nearly half of the gardeners indicate that the
gardens made life easier, presumably because finding food, or money for
food, is now less problematic. Well over one third have found a great
improvement in health, either their own, or their families. One tenth remark on
how making money from vegetable sales has improved their livelihood. The
impact appears to have been considerable, out of all proportion to the input.
• The areas in which these projects are located are often areas of transition,
with a movement of many people into and out of the area, so stability of the
garden projects is a problem. Additionally some, like Mfuleni, have aging
populations and death and disease have taken a toll of a number of the
gardeners. A typical example is Driftsands, where the original twenty-eight
members were later joined by eight TB+ patients. Of the latter, four have died
and only one remains in the project. Of the original twenty-eight, only twelve
remain in the project, and there has only been one new member
subsequently.
• Often there are also other internal problems. For example, Nolungile is a
large garden located on a school property, and the school administration is
not happy with the inability of the group to contribute to water costs. In some
cases it has been difficult for SOIL FOR LIFE to operate without interference,
from other groups or interested parties, in its methods and the administration
of the projects. Yet despite these setbacks, there are some very positive
results are evident.
• A disappointing aspect is the small number of food garden beds being made
at gardeners’ homes. This may be due in part to the absence of space and
lack of security of tenure in the informal settlements. It is always considered
best when the gardens are at the home of the producer.
• The range of vegetables being grown (twenty-seven different vegetables) is
impressive and a good indication of the growth in the attitude to eating
vegetables. It is also a good sign that these communities are eating a more
varied and, probably, a more balanced diet. However, with the exception of
green peppers, they are still eating the well-known vegetables.
LESSONS LEARNT
Factors influencing the success or failure of the urban agriculture projects
Lead by example. Whether it be home or community gardeners, nothing works as
well as seeing other inspiring examples of productive gardens. By encouraging
networks and support groups, standards are set and people are excited to emulate
what they have seen.
It is important to have a well-trained and motivated community person co-ordinating
the project and to have a train-the-trainer programme in place.
Working with groups of women, rather than men. If you want something said, ask a
man. If you want something done, ask a woman (Margaret Thatcher). Older women
tend to have better staying power and motivation.

28
Working with people who have a rural background, and who are not too
sophisticated. In other words, people who are not aspiring to white- or blue-collar
jobs.
It is important to take into account that many participants in these projects are
characterized by:
- Poor nutrition levels – low energy and interest
- Low energy levels – either of infected people, or those who are affected by
infected family members because they act as carers.
- Apathy and ignorance. Low self-esteem/lack of self confidence. No vision.
- Dependency syndrome and the mindset ‘no money, no work’.
A mentorship programme (subsequent to the initial training course) which lasts for at
least two to three years, during which time farming groups undergo an extension of
the training, problems are sorted out, techniques are checked for correct
implementation and people are motivated and supported. The importance of a follow
up programme cannot be expressed strongly enough. It not only ensures correct
implementation, but also provides opportunities for further training and motivation
and the solving of problems, either with crop production, or with people.
Service providers need to stay with projects for five, six or seven years. This is not
generally possible with the way funding occurs. And therefore few groups reach the
status of true self-sufficiency or sustainability. There is, however, the problem of
changes within the group over this period.
It is no good teaching people how to grow food without teaching them about good
health and nutrition. People also need to learn other skills associated with

29
sustainability: food processing and preserving, food storage, seed-saving with a
capital S.
Access to resources
• Small is beautiful, and bountiful. Large pieces of land are not necessary to make
a difference to a family’s (or a community’s) nutritional status. Use production
methods which are high yielding in limited spaces. Reduce soil compaction, and
increase levels of organic material. Even simple mulching improves the harvest.
• To increase the area of land under cultivation, food gardens must be established
in individual homes, community centres, clinics, schools – wherever there is a
small bit of earth capable of producing food.
• South Africa is a semi-arid country and water is a problem. Water harvesting off
roofs and other flat surfaces – can be achieved with minimal effort and simple
technology using urban waste. Grey water usage, drip irrigation and water-
conserving methods of production (e.g. mulching) should be encouraged.
• Use of labour saving and easy to manage technologies: mulching, no till, raised
beds, crop rotation, vermiculture, drip irrigation
In order to reduce external resources needed:
° Optimal use of locally available resources i.e. reuse of urban wastes and
° Sourcing of second hand tools and equipment
° Local production of own seedlings in seed beds and simple nurseries and
seed collection from crops and trees.
° Exchange of tools/services/products among community gardening groups
and households: Trade vegetables for labour, manure, compost with
community members and join the Community Exchange System (CES)
and trade with a local currency (not money).

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Production aspects
Food gardening, the SOIL FOR LIFE way, produces high yields of top quality, much-
needed food in small spaces quickly, easily, cheaply. Within eight to ten weeks of
planting, a household can be eating.
SOIL FOR LIFE methods work along the maxim – healthy soil, healthy plants,
healthy people; and people are taught how to first feed the soil. South Africa loses
about 500 million toms of topsoil every year and, along with it, go about six million
tons of plant nutrients which are not replaced. It has been estimated that fertiliser use
accounts for the addition of 1kg of nutrients for every 19kg lost forever. No wonder
there is widespread malnutrition and depressed immune systems.
Mulching is strongly advocated since it solves a myriad of problems.
Liquid fertilisers – from seaweed, manure, compost, weeds and so on – boost plant
growth and production.
The production of leafy green vegetables are encouraged: NZ spinach, morog, CM
Kale, walking stick cabbage, sou sou marrows, etcetera. All high in Vitamin A to
boost immune systems.
Especially the production of “cut and come again” crops is promoted (e.g. New
Zealand spinach, CM kale and red Chinese mustard) since these are not only hardy,
highly productive and nutritious but also important labour savers.
The main (technical) problems we face are:
• Upgrading the soil. Getting sufficient supplies of organic waste to fill trenches,
mulch and make compost is a time-consuming and frustrating exercise.
Partnerships with local councils, businesses etc help.
• Installing and maintaining drip irrigation systems.
Keep it simple. The attempts to increase food production through intensification and
increasingly complex technology will only lead to increasing degradation of soils and
soil erosion, and an increasing need of materials and resources. Apart from climate
problems, lack of assured water supplies, poor fertility and difficult topography there
are other problems such as poor communications, long distances from markets, lack
of transport, high input costs, lack of credit. We need a type of ‘survival agriculture’
where illiteracy, lack of infrastructure and other such problems do not limit food
production by every kind of community at every stage of development. There are
methods to turn things around.
Organisational and institutional aspects
Things happen slowly. No major changes happen overnight.
Partnerships with other NGO’s and community-based organisations strengthen our
efforts in the field. Partnerships with Local councils and provincial government are
important to get access to land and for the provision of organic waste, infrastructure
etc.
A productive and cost effective strategy to multiply our efforts are train-the-trainer
type of programmes for staff of other NGO’s, clinics, church groups and other
organisations that work specifically with HIV-AIDS patients and other vulnerable
groups. This training allows these organisations to implemented urban agriculture
projects with their own people.

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There is a scarcity of funds to get projects well off the ground and on their way to
self-sufficiency. Sustainability does not occur overnight. It takes a long time and
therefore requires funding for a quite lengthy period.
Our main sources of funding for these projects are the Department of Social Services
and Poverty Alleviation. The Department of Agriculture has supplied some
infrastructure. Other potential sources include the Department of Health, the City of
Cape Town and private corporations.
Sustainability comes faster if all available resources in communities are used
maximally.

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3.4 NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM OF KENYA AIDS
INTERVENTION PREVENTION PROJECT GROUP
James Onyango
KENYA AIDS INTERVENTION PREVENTION PROJECT GROUP (KAIPPG)
Kakamega, Kenya
INTRODUCTION TO KAIPPG AND ITS PROGRAMME
KAIPPG is a grassroots service NGO working with marginalized communities in the
rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya, founded in 1996. Its mission is to addresses
HIV-AIDS problems holistically through linkages with various aspects of community
welfare. It attempts to build the capacity of communities to realize their full potentials
and bring about positive change. It focuses its work on improving the status of
women, children and youth living in the rural and peri-urban areas, through direct
support and increased access to knowledge and information about the links between
HIV/AIDS and other social concerns such as poverty, agriculture, nutrition, gender
and general health. KAIPPG fosters an approach of self-empowering activism, which
in turn helps in the development of programs to address the identified community
needs. KAIPPG trains people to help themselves and encourages communities to
collect, preserve and disseminate indigenous health and agricultural knowledge and
techniques.
Currently KAIPPG has 12 paid staff, 2 program volunteers and a large team of
community-based volunteers. The paid staff include, 4 Nutritional Field Workers
attached to the Nutrition and Food Security Project, 2 nurses attached to the
community care and support program, 1 Projects Coordinator, 1 Administrator, 1
Accountant, the Chief Executive and 2 support staff.
KAIPPG addresses the holistic needs of the HIV/AIDS affected households in rural,
urban and peri-urban areas of Kakamega, Kenya through its Nutrition and Food
Security Program. This Program was initiated in 2000; initially targeting 240
HIV/AIDS affected rural households. In 2003, the project was scaled up to reach 720
households, including 180 urban and peri-urban communities, particularly slum
dwellers.
The primary objective of this program is to improve nutritional and economic status
and overall food security of rural and peri-urban communities and households made
vulnerable due to HIV/AIDS in Kenya. The strategy is to build an innovative and
integrated program that holistically addresses the food, nutritional and economic
needs of HIV/AIDS affected communities and other vulnerable households in a
sustainable way. The project attempts to holistically improve the status of the entire
household where the children live; links families with each other, with local and
national agencies, healthcare workers, and other "helping" entities so that a web of
support and well-being can be established. The current program is serving 720
households enrolled on 24 NFS of 30 beneficiaries each, of which 6 NFS comprising
180 participants have been developed in urban centres.
The success of this program is based on proper development of participatory
processes that allow involvement of project beneficiaries plus other strategic partners
from the time of project conception, planning, implementation and evaluation. To
achieve this, the project went through a series of activities as briefly outlined below:

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Community Mobilization and Nutritional Needs Assessment Activities
The project started by stakeholder mapping and mobilization of communities. This
was done through field visits and community sensitization workshops. This process
helped in identification and sensitization of the community and other stakeholders on
the proposed project and define the roles of the various stakeholders The
stakeholders identified included community health workers (CHWs), trainer of
trainers (TOTs), provincial administration (PA), Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry
of Agriculture (MOA), NGOs and other Community based organizations (CBOs)
within the project area.
KAIPPG conducted 3-day non-residential community sensitization workshops in each
targeted project sites. First workshop day focused on making the project known to
the community and identifying and familiarizing with possible stakeholders and
partners in each project area. Community leaders, MOA extension officers, MOH
personnel and the PA were invited to attend. This enabled all stakeholders to identify
their roles and assist in the identification of project beneficiaries. Approximately 60
people participated in each of the workshops. Day two focused on conducting the
nutritional needs-assessment. The needs assessment helped to determine the
common crops grown in the particular areas, the farming resources already available
within the groups, the seasonal calendars, establish the community action plans,
determine respective roles of each stakeholder and develop the participatory
monitoring and evaluation tools. Day three focused on developing criteria for
selection of project beneficiaries.
Establishment of Nutritional Field Schools (NFS)
KAIPPG established 24 community-based non-formal learning centres, called
Nutritional Field Schools (NFS) in 24 sites. Of these, 6 project sites comprising 180
participants were developed in urban centres of Busia, Mumias and Kakamega, while
18 sites comprising 540 participants were in rural areas in Bungoma, Teso and
Malava/Lugari districts in Western Kenya.
Using participatory methodologies, 30 people per site were selected from vulnerable
households. The 30 people were organized to comprise one NFS. Priority was given
to older orphans; widows, low-income women and older vulnerable children who are
PLWHA or HIV/AIDS affected household members. KAIPPG worked closely with its
already existing community groups to identify group members from their home-based
care beneficiary clients and those already enrolled on our other projects.

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Establishment of beneficiary plots and demonstration sites
Each member of the NFS donated a small plot (about half acre), from the family land,
on which to grow crops. KAIPPG rented small farms for the participants who did not
own or have access to the family land, while the multi-storey gardens (sack gardens)
were developed for the urban-based clients. The crops to be grown were selected
on the basis of their nutritional components, with priority being given to indigenous
crops and vegetables. NFS members were then supplied with farm inputs and
supplies, and equipment. Certified maize and sorghum seeds, vegetables, and
fertilizers were purchased from authorized dealers and supplied to the beneficiaries.
One farm demonstration plot was centrally established on each field school where
NFS members met once a week to receive training and share issues of concern and
successes. Community members donated the land for the demo plots. Where this
was not possible KAIPPG rented the farm from the municipal land. Formal classes
were held during the NFS meetings, facilitated by Nutritional Field School facilitators,
Ministry of Agriculture Extension Officers and Nutritionists. The facilitators used the
demonstration plots to show how to effectively prepare the soil, proper plant spacing,
cultivation techniques, pest control, harvesting techniques and dietary intake for
OVCs and PLWHA.
Training of Vulnerable Households in Nutrition and Food production
The participants were taught relevant skills and techniques to enable them acquire
the needed nutrition and patient care skills, maximize crop harvest and have the
potential to become more economically and socially empowered.
The NFS participants who completed the above training and who were able to apply
new skills of food/crop production and utilization were linked up to our Information,
Communication and Technology project, which trains communities in integration of
Information and Communication Technologies in HIV/AIDS prevention, gender and
agricultural development. This in turn empowered the project beneficiaries to serve
as facilitators in dissemination of information to the new field schools in their
catchment areas, as the project further expands.
Apart from the weekly meetings, small inter-care group meetings were held to share
experiences on counselling, team strengthening and motivation and as a means of
relieving stress. When the group members harvested their crops, they donated 5% of
their total produce to new groups earmarked for subsequent growing seasons, in
order to replicate and expand the project with minimal external inputs. During the
weekly formal classes at the demonstration plots, community members were given a
chance to ask questions on cross cutting issues, which were then addressed by the
NFS facilitators. Condom distribution was also done on demand after every weekly
session at the demonstration plots.
Stigma reduction
Reduction of stigma and raising the status of PLWHA was among the key
anticipations of the project. KAIPPG achieved this through:
• Trainings on the NFS
• Organization of post-test clubs (PTC) and other community self supporting
initiatives. PTC members are NFS participants that have undergone an HIV test
and have knowledge of their current status. Its primary aim was to link
beneficiaries and provide opportunities for them to share their burdens and
experiences. By the close of 2004, 11 PTCs had been formed. Through the
PTCs, clients were able to know each other, form strong webs of support and
access ARV treatments. KAIPPG developed proposals for the PTCs to seek

35
funding for initiation of their own Income generating projects directly from the
National AIDS Control Council (NACC).
• Facilitation of joint meals with PLWHAS. KAIPPG provided the beneficiaries with
food during the NFS classes. This ensured that the process of food preparation,
feeding and teamwork was more practical, with the food being bought from the
community, prepared as part of the learning process and eaten by all those
participating on the NFS classes. Since all beneficiaries were eating together as a
group, this reduced stigma. Since food was prepared on the spot and eaten
jointly, beneficiaries could not divert the money meant for their food into spending
it on other pressing needs at the expense of the food.
Collaboration and Linkage of Clients to health facilities and other support
networks
In order to ensure that a comprehensive package of care and support services are
provided to PLWHA and affected family members, KAIPPG worked with its home-
based care volunteers and those trained by other institutions to encourage and
motivate NFS participants and reinforce the nutritional training component of the
project. CHWs are uniquely positioned to promote compliance with revision of diets
geared for the client with opportunistic infections, eating disorders, and certain food
intolerance related to HIV/AIDS. NFS members were provided with the opportunity to
visit with previously trained NFS members to get a first hand view of the changes
made in household dietary regimes as well as the impact the program made on food
production and marketing.
Apart from linking beneficiaries with each other into a sort of web, KAIPPG created
strong linkages with several governmental and non-governmental agencies. CHWs
strengthen the linkage of project clients with health facilities for early diagnosis and
treatment of infections, such MSF Spain, for ARV access by the clients, hospitals and
clinics in the districts of operation for the purpose of facilitating referral of the patients
and provision of VCT and ARTs, among other services.
KAIPPG also linked up NFS members with K-REP and SMEP-micro-financing
organizations, so that members could access resources to start up small businesses
and expand crop production. The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in Busia and
Kakamega provide some researched varieties of root crops (such as potatoes and
cassava) to our project clients; MOA and MOH provide technical expertise to the
whole project.
The provincial administration assists with the security of the farm plots and safety of
widows and orphan headed plots. These networks facilitated the provision of a
complete care continuum to our targeted communities. It is hoped that these
networks will further be strengthened as the project progresses in the subsequent
phases so that they will survive and be sustained even after the end of the project.
RESULTS OBTAINED
Improvement of household food security and nutritional status of PLWHAS
The project helped the most stigmatised groups (HIV/AIDS-infected and affected) to
be self-sufficient in long-term food supply, and to improve the nutritional status of
children. This in turn provided them with greater psychosocial empowerment and
adaptability. Monitoring information shows that the households are maintaining their
improved gardening practices, nutritional habits and methods of caring for PLWHA.
In addition longevity of life and a delay in progression from HIV to full blown AIDS,
has been observed in 65% of HIV infected individuals who were enrolled on this
program.

36
Improvement of household economic sustainability
In addition to linkages with micro-financing institutions, households sold other
products of their agricultural activities such as animal cakes and margarines, thus
generating extra income. This helped to improve both the livelihood of families and
their general long-term economic and social standing.
Skills development:
The project trained communities in caring for the PLWHA in the home, good
nutritional habits, proper knowledge on the importance of VCT and ARV treatments
and also in reliable, innovative, and simple methods of food production and
processing, record keeping and farm planning.
This skill development ensured that the communities were adequately equipped to
implement the project on long term basis using their own resource people
The organization was successful to prove to the community that through proper
farming practices food security can be attained. The plots produced yields, which
were approximately 65% to 70% higher than the previous productions.
Stigma Reduction and Empowerment of orphan-headed households
The project activities made that the urban and peri-urban communities’ negative
attitude towards farming and stigma towards PLWHA began changing.
Other benefits and beneficiaries
The project had benefited many people, either directly or indirectly. Each of the 720
beneficiaries was from a household of 8 persons on average, totalling to
approximately 5,760 beneficiaries. Apart from this, all NFS were open to attendance
by other members of the neighbourhoods. An additional 1350 persons not initially
registered on the program participated in NFS classes. Local business communities
also benefited due to sale of farm equipment and supplies to the project, as were the
micro-financing institutions to which the groups were linked.
Several local NGOs and Farmers’ Groups have adopted the nutritional field school
model.
LESSONS LEARNT
The success or failure of urban agriculture projects that aim to positively influence
nutrition and income situation of households affected by HIV-AIDS is dependent on a
number of factors, which are presented below.

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Creating access to Land and water
Urban families normally have very restricted access to land and water for food
production. In many urban centres open space for agriculture is limited and the faster
the urbanisation, the more limited that space becomes. For this reason, the efficient
protection of open spaces in inner cities is an important issue. Farming can be done
on strips of land at the sides of roads, railways and power lines, as well as along
riverbanks and on seasonally flooded land. In most countries, power lines are
situated in non-residential areas and so, in the same way as river banks, the land
over which they pass is often used as illegal dumping sites. These strips may be
converted for agricultural use. Experiences in Kenya have shown that by creating
community gardens in such areas, illegal dumping and squatting on such land can be
prevented. Sack gardens can be developed within the inner cities where there is
limited space and water. Hand drip irrigation can be used in resource constrained
agricultural areas.
Overcoming labour constraints: group and livelihood approach
HIV-Aids affected households encounter severe restrictions in labour availability for
farming (or other productive activities). It is for this reason that organizing people into
groups is important. Groups assist in tending each other’s farms, as it is understood
that the failure of one individual within the group would be seen as failure of the
whole group. Group activities such as merry-go-rounds can be used to raise funds
that can help in meeting the labour and other productive needs of PLWHA. Where
the program has trained family and community care givers, these can be used to
assist the PLWHA with day to day social chores including tending of the farms.
Urban farmers to a large extent have other urban jobs too. This limited their
availability and focus on training on the field schools. It is in this context that the
program did not restrict itself to agricultural activities but took the whole of the
people’s livelihood strategies into account.
Most people, who get infected with HIV while residing in urban areas, immigrate to
their rural homes during their final time of illness. It is important that during the
planning of the program methods that are sensitive to these dynamic processes
should be considered.
Dealing with rapid change
Change is a dominant feature of the urban context for many people, either real or
anticipated. The rapid changes in the urban settings can be a major impediment to
project sustainability. Housing insecurity, land insecurity, rapid changes in land use,
immigration, shifting work opportunities, soaring land prices and an increasing
interference of urban political and economical power groups will all have varying
implications on the sustainability and long term impacts of the micro-farming
program.
Availability of high quality but affordable gardening Inputs
Access to the necessary inputs for gardening from a local, sustainable source is an
important element for successful gardening. Such inputs include seeds, seedlings
and saplings, a regular water supply, environmentally friendly soil improvement
techniques and pest control, fencing, proper farming tools and capital where needed.
Community Participation
Involvement and participation of the community in project initiation, design,
implementation and evaluation will ensure active participation and ultimate ownership
of the project by the beneficiaries. Having two-way channels for information

38
exchange is instrumental for achieving sustainable, improved gardening practices.
Self- created local community groups are necessary for creating a voice through
which the marginalized can be heard.
Technical assistance, demonstration and training
Technical support is especially important when new gardening techniques are being
promoted such as growing new or increased number of varieties or year-round
vegetable production, and when all these have to be linked up with HIV/AIDS care,
support and mitigation. Training and other group activities around a central
demonstration garden can serve to demonstrate different varieties, hybrids or other
important garden techniques such as composting, use of natural pesticides, year
round production, sack gardening and other topics relevant to community needs.
Nutrition and HIV/AIDS education within the gardening activity
Counselling to change feeding/eating behaviours and adopt positive attitudes for
PLWHA is generally an important component of food-based strategies. Similar to
understanding the indigenous approach to gardening, an understanding of the
cultural context, feeding practices and interaction of drugs with food will guide
nutrition education to achieve good health and sustainable behavioural changes.
The garden or nursery can also be utilized as a focal point for nutrition education and
social marketing to promote increased consumption of micronutrient rich foods. In
addition, messages about a variety of other issues that influence nutrient absorption
and overall health such as prevention of childhood illness, timing of meals/foods,
intake of tea and other factors that inhibit nutrient absorption can be presented to
households, HIV/AIDS care givers, orphan guardians, mothers and household
members.
Broadening from gardening to animal husbandry
KAIPPG has begun integrating animal husbandry, fish, bee and mushroom farming,
with its home gardening program. This is because of the important success of related
pilot activities, as well as the fact that animal foods are a very good source of
micronutrients, and that their bioavailability is better than that of micronutrients of
cereals and vegetables.
Implementing Integrated and multi-stakeholder programs
Since agriculture is not a job of choice for most urban dwellers, it is strongly
recommended that the program integrates other activities, such as the arts and
communication, non-agricultural economic activities, into the program. Involvement of
other stakeholders in program implementation will facilitate comprehensive support
across a wide spectrum of community needs. Funding for support of the post-test
clubs (PTC) should be provided within that of the nutritional activities in order to
facilitate effective community mobilization for VCT and ARTs. The PTCs are very
effective fora, not only for stigma reduction and PLWHA’s economic empowerment,
but also for educating people on the importance of VCT and ARTs, including where
and how to access these services. This approach will make the program more
attractive to all cadres of people - youth, women, men and the elderly- and lead to
greater program impact and sustainability.
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring facilitates the identification of problems and the development of solutions
based on sharing between the beneficiaries and the program managers. Indicators
are dependent on the program objectives and should include some that can be
monitored locally. Continued integration of lessons learned from implementation and
evaluation efforts is one of the key aspects to the successful scale up of this
program. Evaluation and planning should be conducted at key intervals during the

39
program period to improve the program. Follow-up of program clients and
involvement of other partners in the monitoring and evaluation framework will ensure
that problems are identified and tackled before they get out of hand.
Semi-annual Participatory Project Review workshops were held with strategically
selected beneficiaries, CHWs and partners, in order to assess the impact of the
project. Achievements made during the implementation, challenges and lessons
were shared, and action plans for subsequent phases developed. These workshops
are normally broad-based so as to share the lessons from other projects of the
KAIPPG program as this not only helps in creating synergies, but also to establish
ways and linkages for the communities’ project sustainability in case of the
unavailability of future donor support.
Combination of funding sources
A project of this nature requires both external sources of finance and reasonable
contributions from both the beneficiaries and other local stakeholders. For instance,
the overall institutional, administrative and logistical support to this project was
provided by KAIPPG, using funding from USAID through Pathfinder International.
The farm tools and equipment were donated by WORKAID -a British charity- while
the ICTs component of the program was funded through CTA/IICD/IDRC/HIVOS
GenARDIS Small Grants Program. On the other hand, the project beneficiaries
provided labour and where possible, land. The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
(KARI) provided some certified seeds while MOA and MOH provided technical
support.
Technology development
There is still limitation of local technical knowledge in urban agriculture with no or
minimal research having been conducted. More research is needed as well as
capacity development for institutions undertaking urban micro farming in the context
of HIV/AIDS.

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3.5 PERMACULTURE FOOD GARDENS PROGRAMME OF FOOD & TREES FOR
AFRICA
Jeunesse Park
FOOD & TREES FOR AFRICA (FTFA)
Gauteng, South Africa
INTRODUCTION TO FOOD & TREES FOR AFRICA AND ITS ACTIVITIES
FOOD & TREES FOR AFRICA (FTFA), is a non profit non government public benefit
organisation established in 1990. Currently there are 15 full time employees and a
varying number of sub contractors and volunteers.
FTFA develops, manages and promotes greening, sustainable natural resource
management and food security programmes. FTFAs programmes contribute to
poverty alleviation, improved environments, capacity building and skills development,
increasingly for People affected by Aids (PWAs).
FTFAs mission is to work in partnership with government, the private and public
sectors and civil society to improve the quality of life and environments for all
communities of South Africa. In the past 14 years FTFA has distributed over 2 million
trees and helped to set up over 500 organic gardens for the poorest in South Africa.
With the support of funders and the endorsement and cooperation of government
FTFA implements four programmes, each with many projects. All FTFAs
programmes are aimed at under resourced and underserved communities across
South Africa.
FTFA is implementing the following programmes: Trees for Homes, The Urban
Greening Fund, EduPlant and Permaculture Food Gardens.
The Urban Greening Fund (UGF) is a basket fund that supports partnerships for
sustainable development through tree planting, parks and food gardening projects,
as well as environmental awareness and education.
The UGF aims to:
• Respond to NGOs and local government willing to implement Urban Greening
projects that will improve quality of life and
• Alleviate socio economic and environmental poverty
• Build capacity, including business plan development
• Facilitate partnerships between various tiers of government, NGOs and CBOs to
expedite delivery and ensure sustainability of projects
EduPlant is the national school gardening and greening program motivating schools
and their communities to address poverty alleviation, greening, food security,
capacity building and skills development.
Benefits for schools:
• Better nutrition and less dependence on feeding schemes
• Unemployed parents and community members benefit from garden produce
• Community outreach projects that provide food, trees and Permaculture
assistance for hospices, HIV/AIDS patients, unemployed and indigent
communities
• Vastly increase their understanding of sustainable natural resource use and
management and their environment.

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The Permaculture Food Gardens programme integrates ecology, landscape,
organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry to provide healthy food for all
anywhere. The word permaculture comes from PERMAnent and AGRIculture.
Permaculture creates sustainable food rich environments by following nature's
patterns. Fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs build immune systems and help AIDS
patients.
FTFA’s Permaculture projects:
• Teach schools and residents in low-income neighbourhoods how growing food
improves diet and health, supplements income and saves on grocery bills
• Address HIV / AIDS, health and nutrition
Communities wanting assistance to develop urban agriculture projects approach
FTFA, who then seek funding from government, aid agencies or the private sector to
respond to these requests.
LESSONS LEARNT
The interest in urban agriculture is growing in South Africa especially with the high
rate of unemployment, the high incidence of HIV/Aids and illness and the lack of food
security. To date no national government department has championed urban
agriculture.
Main challenges encountered
The greatest challenges FTFA experiences in the urban agriculture projects are:
a. Limited access to basic resources such as land and water, seed and plant
materials.
b. Lack of sufficient funding and support from government and the short term
nature of funding which does not allow for full development of projects
c. Apathy and lack of commitment of beneficiaries and their urgent need for
cash income which makes that (especially men) loose interest once they
realize that are not being paid for food gardening
d. Lack of awareness, education and training in urban agriculture, sustainable
resource management and use and business skills to name a few
e. Illness of participants
f. Community politics
Access to resources
FTFAs criteria for providing assistance to new groups include that access to land and
water have been secured. Since schools in South Africa have land, many community
projects take place at schools. In some instances FTFA has intervened with

42
government to facilitate land access through 99 year leasing agreements or other
agreements. Where possible boreholes are sunk and water tanks installed. Drip
irrigation has been piloted at several projects but was not found to be effective as
communities tend not to maintain it well so pipes and sprinklers (not overhead as
these waste more water) are used instead.
Access to organic seeds and planting materials (non GMO and non hybridized) is
often a problem.
Production aspects
FTFA provides appropriate planting materials for projects it funds, dependent on
climate and beneficiary requests and needs. It is a challenge introducing new
vegetables, herbs and natural medicines to communities whose diets are extremely
limited but this is overcome through training, education and awareness.
FTFA attempts to introduce as much diversity as possible and provides projects with
organic seed where possible.
Medicinal gardens are cultivated including an intensive workshop on the uses and
cultivation of medicinal plants. Through research it has been found that many
medicinal plants have aided in alleviating some of the ailments related to HIV/Aids.
FTFA provides all tools to project beneficiaries. Gardeners are taught to make
compost, liquid fertilizers and natural pesticides.
Gardeners must volunteer their labour in exchange for access to resources and
training. In instances where beneficiaries are ill or too old to work in the gardens the
beneficiary group are encouraged to conscript more members.
Production needs to be intensive and food and medicinal plants should be available
through out the year.
It is of importance to include a nutritional education and feeding scheme in the
project to ensure people receive a balanced meal on a daily basis. The consumption
of fresh organic vegetables defiantly aids and builds up the immune system of people
living with HIV/Aids. People have the opportunity to heal mentally, physiological and
physically as they engage in activities that have a positive impact on their lives.
Organizational and institutional aspects
Community gardens have been the main focus for FTFA in its developmental
implementation process. The organization has focused largely on developing
gardens where HIV/Aids infected and affected people are directly involved. Nutrition
has been the main objective and driving factor in these particular projects. Organic
gardening being the main methodology is a very important aspect to improve the
immune system of the people that are involved.
Community development is made or broken by the community themselves.
Successful projects all have in common a dynamic, motivated community member or
members to lead the project. It is usually an individual. Often strong leadership itself
can lead to a project’s demise as other members become jealous and destructive.
Extensive interdisciplinary training to these leading members and other group
members is crucial: training in urban agriculture and sustainable resource
management, business skills, group management, nutrition, to name a few.
Total commitment has been an ongoing problem area in project development. Some
of this stems from members needing alternative ways of earning income whilst being

43
part of a project. Additional courses such as entrepreneur, business, and craft
workshops has aided in altering the desperate need to find alternative income.
The health sector within the community needs to be directly involved. Programs
involving health issues are of great importance wherein people living with HIV/Aids
can have easy access to health care including nutrition and sex education. The
health sector should set up organic food gardening projects at all clinics and provide
information on urban agriculture, health and nutrition.
Local council and social services play an important role in mobilizing the community
to actively participate in theses type of project where the work force is week due to
physical set backs.
The main funding for our projects has come from the Urban Greening Fund,
mentioned above. Funding support from government is still limited and a serious
problem is the short term nature of funding which does not allow for full development
of the projects.

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3.6 HIV-AIDS AND URBAN FARMING INITIATIVES SUUPORTED BY KAMPALA
CITY COUNCIL
Ssemwanga Margaret Azuba and Kabuuka Richard
KAMPALA CITY COUNCIL
Kampala, Uganda
INTRODUCTION
Kampala is the capital city of Uganda, and the only urban District among the 67
Districts. It is located on the Northern shores of Lake Victoria and Covers an area of
197 Sq.km. The District is endowed with an equatorial type of climate. It has a night
population of 1.2 million people (49% males, 51% women, and a growth rate of
4.13% p.a) and a day population of about 2.5 million people.
Kampala is typical of many cities in developing countries. A small segment of the
city’s population lives an affluent life with modern housing and accompanying
amenities. A big number of Kampala dwellers, however, live in slums with very poor
infrastructure and social services. 39% of the Kampala population live in absolute
poverty, 5.4% comprise the real poor, mainly living in informal settlements (one-
roomed houses). Using the anthropometrics indicators, 19.4% of the children are
stunted, 11.6% underweight and 3.6% wasted
The scourge of HIV/AIDS, continues to impact negatively to the productivity and
development of the District. About 11% of the Kampala population is infected
(approx. 132,000 people). There are numerous risks / exposing factors that facilitate
HIV transmission at a high rate in Kampala District.
About 30% of the Kampala population is engaged in farming (75% of whom are
women).
Several programmes on HIV-AIDS and Urban Farming are being implemented in
Kampala at the moment:
UACP- HIV-AIDS programme for Kampala
The HIV/AIDS programme for Kampala District is mainly funded through the Uganda
HIV/AIDS Control Project (UACP) which is a World Bank funded project in operation
since 1998. In recognition of the fact that HIV/AIDS has causes and consequences
far beyond the health sector, the UACP in Kampala District applies a multi-sectoral
approach in line with the Uganda decentralization policy.
The following activities have been implemented:
• Development and distribution of IEC messages in a bid to prevent
transmission. Such IEC messages include Posters, Brochures, Video tapes
T-Shirts which are distributed to organized community groups, some of which
are farmer groups.
• Provision of VCT services at both static and outreach sites
• Sensitisation and training of health workers, Councillors, Community leaders
and Community Contact Persons in the promotion of PMTCT.
• Provision of funds to capable Civil Society Organizations, to provide effective
Home Based care serves to the PLWAS and affected families

45
• Supports activities on community condom promotion, condom distribution and
training of condom distributors. Some of the beneficiaries of condom
distribution exercises, are farmers. The use of condoms enhances positive
living and maintains a labour force for food production
Achievements:
• Tremendous rise in condom use (>76%)
• High-level awareness about HIV-AIDS (>90%)
• High level in involvement of Civil Society Organization
• Clients seeking VCT services have increased by 30% since last year
• 50 NGOs involved in HIV-AIDs activities have been funded, and support has
been extended to 8 Big Home Care Units Last FY, reaching over 100,000
people living with HIV/AIDS.
• 97 Community led HIV-AIDs initiatives (CHAI) have received funding to the
tune of 200,000 last FY. Out of these, five initiatives are involved in urban
agriculture activities in the fields of small scale vegetable production, local
poultry production, mushroom production and dairy production. Through the
CHAI initiatives, over 7,500 orphans have been supported with scholastic
materials.
An important constraint has been the loss of confidence in the use of condoms due to
reported defects of some types of condoms (Ngabu) and the negative messages
from some sections of the communities. This also has negatively impacted on the
adoption and acceptance of other government initiatives e.g. ARVs, food hand outs
and vitamin supplements etc.
Alliance of Mayors Initiative for Community Action on AIDS at the Local Level
(AMICAALL)
AMICAALL Uganda, is part of the Global Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders
on HIV/AIDS in Africa, formed under the auspices of UNAIDS and UNDP. The overall
goal of the alliance is to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDs and to mitigate a social and
economic impact of the Epidemic on the Urban and Peri-urban communities in Africa.
AMICAALL Uganda chapter is currently operating in 12 urban centres of Kampala
and implementing a number of activities aimed at strengthening the institutional
capacity of urban Local Governments to effectively respond to HIV/AIDs at the local
level:

46
• Community Based HIV/AIDS initiatives.
AMICAALL is currently supporting 12 urban authorities to implement
community based HIV/AIDS Sub-projects. These include; Goat rearing project
in Fort Portal for the OVCs, Cattle keeping in Soroti Municipality, Piggery
production in Busia Town Council and Fort Portal Municipality, Irish Potato
growing OVC community Project in Kisoro Municipality, Food Vending OVC
Project in Iganga Town Council, Sale of agricultural produce in Soroti Town
Council, Vegetable production and Fish farming in Kampala city
• Capacity building activities
Community mobilisation and sensitization; Establishment of local level
management and co-ordination systems through Municipal and Town Council
AIDS task forces; Skills based training for municipal and town council
HIV/AIDs task forces in various aspects of HIV/AIDs
• Apprentice ship training and technical and financial support to OVCs to
establish Income generating activities including Urban Farming and retail
shops.
• Information Documentation and dissemination through periodic reports,
newsletters, guidelines and audio visual materials.
• Partnership development and networking for HIV/AIDs response through City
to City and Community to Community partnership programmes.
• Resource mobilisation using project proposals, Mayor’s Charity fund, Local
Budget Lines and Alliance memberships.
• Monitoring and Evaluation of National, Local Government and Community
HIV/AIDs Initiatives in urban areas.
Promotion of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP) through Schools in
Urban and Peri-Urban Communities in Kampala.
Vitamin A Deficiency is one of the most widespread deficiencies in Uganda. In 2001,
30% of the children and 50% of the women in Uganda had Vitamin A deficiency. The
food consumed in most urban centres lacks adequate amounts of essential micro-
nutrients, such as vitamin A. Because of this, most children and mothers are
malnourished, reducing the potential for proper growth, good health, increasing the
burden of disease, and shortening people’s lives.
Orange fleshed varieties have been recommended because they have high beta-
carotene, the precursor for - Vitamin A, a major micronutrient reported deficient
among Ugandan children (CIP, 2002, International Potato Annual Report). Despite
their acceptance and yielding potential, dissemination and utilization of the orange
types of sweet potato remains limited particularly among urban and peri-urban
farmers. There also lack of planting materials and an untapped local and export
market for roots, which can also be processed into a highly nutritive porridge e.g.
baby food (Opio, personal communications, 2003).
Sweet potato is an important food security crop in Kampala city, and there is a high
demand for improved varieties, such as the orange-fleshed.
With the objective to disseminate orange-fleshed varieties and to promote a rapid
multiplication system of planting materials, a partnership involving Kampala City
Council (Agricultural Section), Makerere University (Dept. of Agricultural Extension),
International Potato Centre (CIP), NARO-sweet potato programme and Civil Society
Organisations undertook a project using a participatory school based approach.
This with the aim to contribute to urban food security, reduce vitamin A deficiency,
ensure rapid spread of the OFSP technologies, and enhance income from sales of
storage roots- and vines in urban and peri-urban agriculture areas of Kampala.

47
In the project participate ten primary schools and 500 farm families with at least 0,1
acre each for growing potatoes, of which two farmer groups consisting of PLWA and
PAWA.
The following activities were implemented:
• Sensitisation and training of School children, teachers, community resource
persons, farmers and agricultural extension workers in Seed bed preparation,
Selection of healthy planting materials, Planting, Soil care, Pest and disease
management, Appropriate harvesting and storage of the food produce,
Provision of planting materials to the target beneficiaries,
• Support activities on setting up communal and centrally placed Rapid Vine
Multiplication plots
• Production of IEC materials such as a training manual, calendars and
posters
Kampala District Cow Bank (KADICOBA)
In 1998, His Excellence the President of Uganda, through the Woman MP for
Kampala, donated 20 in-calf heifers to Women in Kampala City interested in rearing
dairy cattle. The donation arose out of the desire expressed by women, especially
widowed and single mothers, to utilise the domestic waste and overgrowing bushes
around the city, as livestock feed, knowing that garbage collection and bush clearing
seemed to be a problem of the city council to collect and slash respectively.
The project operates as a revolving Cow Bank, with every recipient returning the first
two female calves to the pool for other women beneficiaries to take on.
The major objective of the project is to alleviate urban poverty and improve
household food security and nutrition, as well as offer employment to the redundant
youths.
KADICOBA is currently operating in all the 5 Divisions of Kampala City, and is being
implemented on a Community Based Approach, where by the women formed a task
committee of 10 people, who oversee the operations of the programme.
Participants are trained in appropriate housing, alternative Livestock feeds and feed
regimes, pests and disease management, forage preservation, milk handling and
collective marketing.
So far, 124 women (households) have benefited from the KADICOBA programme, 45
of whom are households affected with HIV/AIDs. The average yield per cow is 12
litres / day. Gross income per month from the benefiting households is Ug.Shs.
150,000/= .Household nutrition improved since it is condition that 2 – 3 litters of milk
have to be consumed per day.
LESSONS LEARNT
Creation of a favourable policy environment for urban agriculture
In Kampala until recently the existing legal frameworks was not in favour of urban
farming. Lobbying and advocating for recognition and promotion of urban farming
activities in the urban centres, based on the results of research showing that urban
farming is a cost effective activity whose benefits can be realized after a short time
and that associated risks (health, environment) can be adequately managed,
gradually made an impact, resulting in high level of political support and commitment,
especially at the District level and review of existing legislation. Kampala City Council

48
now has recognised the existence and benefits urban farming and integrated urban
agriculture in the Kampala City Structural Plan.
The presence of this new policy gives an opportunity for urban agriculture to be
integrated in the HIV/AIDS agenda. Until recently the restrictive policy framework on
urban agriculture, greatly influenced other sectors to disregard urban farming
activities, the Health sector inclusive. Thus most of the HIV/AIDS related
programmes in urban centres are only just now bringing urban farming on board.
Its legal acceptability is still new and therefore the need for massive sensitization
about the new Kampala City Urban Farming Laws, and the importance of urban
farming for the mitigation of the effects and impacts of HIV/AIDS. This can be done
among others by developing IEC messages in the form of documentaries,
highlighting the direct and indirect linkage between HIV/AIDS and Urban farming.
The development of an HIV/AIDS workplace policy for Kampala City, that recognizes
urban farming as one of the sources of employment and food supply and promotes
inclusion of HIV Aids and food security and nutrition issues in all Sectoral
Development Plans, proved to be an important instrument.
Multi-sectoral approach and participation of Civil Society Organisations
Urban local governments have a weak institutional capacity and limited technical
capacity to effectively address HIV/AIDS. Therefore, adequate cooperation with Civil
Society Organisations is crucial. Especially the Community Based Groups and
Community contact persons have been found instrumental in transfer of HIV/AIDS
messages to the target groups. These could also be used as link persons in
mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS through urban farming. Home Based Care Service
providers could be used as an entry point to promote urban farming as a source of
food and nutrition to PLWA or PAWA.
Overcoming labour constraints and stigmatization
Households affected by HIV/AIDS often encounter a labour constraint, given the type
of urban farming activities. Therefore, labour saving technologies should be
promoted, such as
• Use of locally made planters
• Rearing of local poultry using locally available materials
• Production of climbing beans and OFSP
Especially men seem to avoid participation in Community led HIV-AIDs Initiatives
(CHAI), urban farming inclusive, for fear of being identified as HIV-AIDS victims and
at times, males in the community discourage their spouses to actively participate in
such programmes.
Stigmatization of some of HIV/AIDs victims caused by unfavourable statements
made by some community leaders, e.g. one leader said, “All PLWA should be left to
die so as to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in future.” With such statements some of
the PLWA who are also carrying out urban farming, got discouraged from continuing
with the practice, leave alone the fear of failing to sell their fresh produce to the
markets.
Stigmatization of participants might be reduced and male participation might be
enhanced by focusing on resource poor communities and income generation rather
than on HIV-AIDS and people affected by HIV-AIDS directly.
Addressing funding constraints

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An important challenge that needs to be properly addressed is the frequent lack of
adequate funds for:
• Supporting Community led HIV/AIDs Initiatives inclusive urban farming
activities
• Late disbursement of funds from the various sources leading to delayed
implementation of planned farming activities and HIV/AIDS Initiatives.
• Supporting HIV/AIDS task teams at the District , Municipal and Sub-county
levels to oversee the implementation of HIV/AIDS activities

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3.7 URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME OF THE DIOBASS PLATFORM
Innocent Balagizi Karhagomba
DIOBASS PLATFORM
Bakuvu, DR Congo
INTRODUCTION TO DIOBASS PLATFORM AND ITS PROGRAMME
The Diobass Platform is a local NGO operating since 1992 in the rural and peri-urban
areas of the Kivu province in the eastern part of DR Congo. The Diobass Platform
was established by local resource persons for the survival of the community since the
local government is still unable to provide adequate support to the zens.
The Diobass Platform brings farmers and scientists together for sustainable
development research and action, with the aims:
• To develop a permanent linkage among peasant researchers and other
development workers through free and mutual sharing of information and
experiences
• To collect local farmers knowledge and to create a databank of indigenous
practices and knowledge available in the Kivu;
• To develop participatory research and experimentation involving professional and
peasant researchers on indigenous knowledge as a basis for local innovation and
sustainable development
The Diobass Platform intends to develop research and innovation into a social and
community process through which knowledge is generated for action. The Diobass
Platform creates spaces for exchange of experiences and training where researchers
farmers and development workers (of both genders) meet to share and learn from
each other. This, in order to learn from and to encourage local farmers’ innovations
and community development.
Most farmers are searching solutions, both on individual and community level, to their
multiple problems to which official or professional institutions have, up to now, simply
failed to respond. The Diobass Platform emphasizes the “logical” thoughts of the
farmers towards adequate response to the different problems affecting livestock’s
and fields’ productivity and the management of the soil and other resources.
Diobass Platform receives support from donor organisations in Switzerland and
Belgium.
Since 1996, the number of people affected by HIV-AIDS in the Eastern DR.Congo is
rapidly growing and AIDS is becoming a serious public health problem, amongst
others due to:
° Poverty (leading to prostitution)
° Armed conflicts that lead to diverse sex abuses mostly in women.
° Polygamous life style and lack of information concerning HIV-AIDS
As a result of HIV-AIDS infection of the socially active family members, the families
loose income earning capacity leading to
° Reduction of food availability in the families and increase of malnutrition

51
° When payment for health care and medicines is required, often an animal or
other asset has to be sold, reducing family’s economic resources
Premature deaths linked to HIV-AIDS are almost due to
° Malnutrition
° Lack of effective medicines against the multiple opportunistic ailments
° Stress linked to negative social attitudes in their community
Organisations participating in the DIOBASS PLATFORM are; committed to find better
and immediate solutions to the problems of HIV-AIDS affected families in the rural
and peri-urban areas of the Kivu province.
Therefore, since 2002, the Diobass Platform, in cooperation with the Centre de
Recherche en Sciences Naturelles (CRSN) are implementing the project titled
‘Promotion of Best Farming Practices in Peri-Urban and Urban areas within the Kivu
province, Eastern D.R.Congo’’.
The project aims at promoting food security and nutrition of marginalized people and
families affected by HIV-AIDS and creation a better living environment for the
PLWHA. The project is based on the principle: « Let your Food be Medicine and let
your Medicine be Food »
The project involves 130 People living with HIV-AIDS (PLHWA) through the
cultivation of community gardens that are located Katwa hospital (peri-urban) Goma
(urban) and Buvaku (urban) as well in Lwiro research station (this garden is just to
multiply and provide seeds to other gardens).
PLWHAs are organized into active working groups operating their own garden plots
as a way to solve nutritional problems and medicines supplies.
Participants receive training in positive living with AIDS, organic farming methods,
production and use of medicinal plants and nutrition
The project stimulates local farmers’ innovations through exchange of experiences,
local experimentation and diffusion of results to the wider community. A participatory
research-in-action approach is applied involving urban farmers, scientists and
community development workers (who need to acquire some new skills (e.g. for
participatory analysis and communication).
In our gardens we grow three categories of plants (see also table 1):

52
° Plants which are exclusively medicines: Aloe, Artemisia annua, Vernonia
amygdalina
° Plants which are food and medicines: Moringa, Chinese spinach, capucin,
cabbage, okra, onion, garlic, lemongrass, hibiscus, rosmarin, amaranth
° Plants which bear edible fruits : Lemon, avocado and grapefruit
Table 1. List of plants are grown in the gardens and highly used by PLWHA
Plant species Characteristic For What purpose Rhythm of
uses
Cost on local
market
Aloe vera medicinal Immune system stimulation Often 3 $ /plant
Amaranth Food Some times 1 $ / kg
Artemisia annua Medicinal Immune system stimulation, loss of
appetite
Often 40 $/ kg
Basella alba Food & medicinal Immune system stimulation,
prevent gastric ulcers
Thrice a 15-
days period
10 $/kg
Cabbage Food & medicinal Prevent gastric ulcers Some times 0,4 $/ 2 plants
Capsicum
frutescens
Food & medicinal Prevent candidosis Often in food 10 $ / kg
Garlic Food & medicinal Prevent candidosis, Immune
system stimulation, prevent
stress effects
Often 10 $/kg
Harungana
madagascariensis
Medicinal Immune system stimulation Twice a week 15 $/kg
Honey bees
(+ Propolis)
Food & medicinal Prevent candidosis Twice a week 4 $/kg
Moringa oleifera Food & medicinal Immune system stimulation Often 25 $/kg
Okra Food & medicinal Prevent gastric ulcers Some times 5 $/kg
Tropaeolum majus
(capucin)
Food & medicinal Immune system stimulation Together with
Moringa
10 $/ kg
Vernonia
amygdalina
Medicinal Immune system stimulation, Loss
of appetite
Often 15 $/kg
Mushrooms Food & medicinal Immune system stimulation Twice a week 10 $/kg
Lemon tree Food & medicinal Improve health ( pectin) Thrice a week 1 $ / 10 fruits
Grapefruit tree Food & medicinal Improve health and
stimulate Immune system
Thrice a 15-
days
1 $ / 20 fruits
Avocado tree Food Vitamins and grease Twice a week 1 $ / 15 fruits
Since many PLHWA do not have sufficient space for food production, ones who have
no space for food production, use “movable gardens” in containers and bags. From
the garden, families get their organic food. Seeds and part of the harvests are sold to
local agricultural organizations and the income raised is used to pay needed modern
drugs for the HIV-AIDS patients and to assist families in need.
The project seeks to developing a honeybee project just for producing honey
containing propolis that is helpful in case of HIV-AIDS.
RESULTS OBTAINED
The impacts of the project are as follows:
° People living with HIV/AIDS are economically and socially re-integrated in their
community; The PLWHA develop permanent linkages among themselves and
with healthy community members and development workers through free and
mutual share of information and experiences. Regularly new members join the
groups who can benefit from the experiences from others
° PLWHA are becoming socio-economically active again and continue to maintain
their family as in past.

53
° Since people are organized into groups, they can share their problems and find
immediate solutions within the group from experiences. This improves their
quality of life and reduces illness and mortality
° Through the gardens the PLHWA have access to valuable food and alternative
medicines. The combination of food with medicinal plants together helps to
enhance the immune systems and PLWHA remain physically unrecognizable as
HIV affected. Table 2 shows the effects of the combination of organic agriculture
and medicinal plants in micro-farming system on 9 PLHWA that we have been
observing since September 2004 until June 2005.
Nº Sex-
Age
Clinical signs before joining
the team group
Clinical signs after harvest
(10 months later)
Received treatment
01 F 27 Sedimentation: 78 mm/h
WBC: 2300 /mm
3
Weight: 48 kgs
Loss of appetite, fatigue,
vaginal candidosis
Sedimentation: 12 mm/h
WBC: 7200/ mm
3
Weight: 68 kgs
No sign
*Art/ Vern/ Phyllant
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic / Ginger
* Capucin/ moringa as food supplement
* Lebrunia oil/ Garlic
02 F - 35 Sedimentation: 78 mm/h
WBC: 3300 /mm3
Weight: 51 kgs
Vaginal candidosis
WBC: 6200/ mm3
Weight: 65 kgs
No sign
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
* capucin/ moringa as food supplement
GB: 4500 /mm
3
Poids: 60 kgs
Skin eruptions
GB: 8100/ mm
3
Poids: 67 kgs
Clean skin
*Art/ Vern/ Phyllant/
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
05 M- 26 Sedimentation: 79 mm/h
WBC: 3700 /mm
3
Weight: 45 kgs
Skin eruptions
WBC: 5700/ mm
3
Weight: 58 kgs
Clean skin
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
WBC: 4900 /mm3
Weight: 37 kgs
Chronic diarrhoea, cough,
zona, dysphagia, loss of
appetite
WBC: 7400/ mm3
Weight: 58 kgs
No sign
*Art/ Vern/ Phyllant/
* Aloe vera + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
* capucin/ moringa as food supplement
07 M -32 Sedimentation: 102 mm/h
WBC: 2400 /mm
3
Weight: 45 kgs
Fever, cough, chronic
diarrhoea,
WBC: 8200/ mm
3
Weight: 61 kgs
No sign
* Art/ Vern/ Phyllant
* Aloe vera + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
08 F -45 V.S: 72 mm/h
GB: 1900 /mm3
Poids: 45 kgs
Cough, zona, vaginal
candidosis
WBC: 4800/ mm3
Weight: 65 kgs
No sign
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
* Lebrunia oil/garlic
WBC: 2200 / mm3
Weight: 36 Kgs
Fatigue, Fever
WBC: 5500 mm
Weight: 65 kgs
No sign
* Aloes + Honey
* Garlic/ Ginger
In future, we are planning to organize the mushroom breeding at a large scale. Such
project should not only generate money for PLHWA but also it is of great help for
health in PLWHA. Also a pond with Spirullina (algae) is planned.
References
BALAGIZI K, 2001. La culture du Moringa oleifera peut-elle aider la population d’Afrique à se prendre en
charge pour la nutrition? Recheches africaines. CERDAF. Bukavu
DHARMANANDA S, 1996. Garlic as the central herb therapy for AIDS., Institut for
Traditional medicine, Portland, Oregon.

54
FLUGLIE L, 1999. Moringa oleifera: Natural nutrition for the tropics. CWS, Dakar, Sénégal
FLUGLIE L, 2002. L’arbre de la vie: les multiples usages du Moringa. CWS, Dakar, Sénégal
FOIDL N., MAKKAR H.P.S., & BECKER K., 2001. The potential of Moringa oleifera for Agricultural and
industrial uses. Symposium. What development potential for Moringa Products? October 20 –
November 2, Dar-es Saalam.
HIRT H.M, LINDSEY K & BALAGIZI I.K, 2003. AIDS and natural Medicine. A resource book for carers of
AIDS patients. Anamed.
LEONARDO Co, 1989. Common medicinal plants of the Cordillera Region. CHESTCORE, Banguio City.
LUANNE EPSTEIN, 1995. Food for people living with HIV/AIDs. NAP, Hope productions, Cape Town.
MUELLER M. & MECHLER E., 2003. Medicinal Plants in Tropical Countries. Traditional: uses,
Experience, Facts. DIFÄM, Tübingen.
PAMPLONA R., 1999. Guide des plantes médicinales. Encyclopédie Vie et Santé. Volume 1.
POUSSET J.L., 1989. Plantes médicinales africaines. Usages pratiques. Ellipses, ACCT, Paris.
SCHNEIDER E., 1973. Des plantes pour votre santé, Ed. SdT, Dammarie les Lys, France.
STAMETS P. & YAO C.D.W., 1999. Mycomedicinals. An information Booklet on Medicinal Mushrooms.
MycoMedia. Olympia. www.gaiaresearch.co.za/garlic.html

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3.8 INTEGRATED AIDS PROGRAME, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF NDOLA
Simon Chanda Fikansa
IAP, CATHOLIC DIOCESE NDOLA
Ndola, Zambia
INTRODUCTION TO IAP
The Integrated AIDS Programme (IAP) is a Non Governmental Organisation under
the Catholic Diocese of Ndola that was created in 1993, with help of Cordaid (then
Memisa) after it operated informally in Luangwa – Kitwe and Nkwazi in Ndola from
1991. From its inception, it operates on a non discrimination basis and on
interdenominational approach as can be seen from the clients it serves and the staff
it recruits.
The overall objective of the Integrated Aids Programme is to address the AIDS
epidemic in its widest context for the most vulnerable people in society through the
provision -by community based organisations and volunteers- of home and orphan
care, prevention and community development activities in an integrated manner to
people with symptomatic infection and their families and to advocate respect of their
rights.
The IAP operates in 32 shanty compounds of five main towns (Ndola, Kitwe,
Luanshya, Mufulira & Chingola) in the Copperbelt which is the most urbanised
province of Zambia due to the copper mines and industries. As such it high densely
populated with a population of 1,600,000.
The target group of people with symptomatic HIV infection and their families is large
and has increased over the years. With a population of 350,000 to 400,000 residing
in the compounds where IAP operates, the coverage is estimated at 77% of all
chronically ill people.
Eleven different managing agencies – of which most are church-related – coordinate
the provision of home care -integrating medical and nursing care, psycho-social
support and pastoral care- to patients with chronic illnesses, especially AIDS by
about 750 community volunteers and 38 professional nurses. All patients with
symptomatic HIV infection (95% of those chronically ill) are eligible for counselling
services.
About 70% of them require immediate medical/nursing care by a trained professional.
The latter figure is so high mainly because the majority of the patients join the home
care programmes at an advanced stage of their disease. In addition, many of the
patients have tuberculosis and they require special medical attention. The number of
people receiving home care currently stands at about 9,000 (June, 2005). 80% of
these households involved are eligible for welfare support in the form of food or non-
food items.
The number of orphans that have been identified through the home care
programmes is about 15,500. These are all orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Once a
chronically ill patient has died, the programme is obliged to continue supporting the
orphans. The emphasis is on supporting children (as far as they are of school-going
age) to remain in school; providing their households with welfare support; and
assisting orphan guardians and teenage orphans who are no longer in school in
setting up income generating activities. Eighty percent of the orphans and their

56
households are eligible for such types of support. Cognisance should be taken,
though, of the fact that the needs of some of the orphans will be addressed through
the ongoing care of chronically ill component of the home care programmes, which
provides for holistic care including welfare support, where appropriate, to the
households in their entirety.
People living positively with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) form the third target group of the
programme. Some of them may already have developed clinical symptoms of AIDS,
but what they have in common is that they all know that they are HIV positive, that
they acknowledge this in public and they participate in IAP activities that aim at
preventing the further spread of HIV. These are about 1,000 spread among 11 home
care programmes. Some groups engage in income generating activities, that the IAP
tries to promote in order to strengthen people’s income base. In principle, all people
living positively with HIV/AIDS are eligible to join groups that engage in income
generating activities, but for practical reasons the number of beneficiaries at any
point in time has so far been limited.
Volunteers form the cornerstone of the IAP programme. They engage in caring for
other patients and those affected by the AIDS epidemic, as well as in activities aimed
at preventing HIV transmission in their respective communities. The number of
volunteers currently stands at 750 (June 2005). The minimum standards put in place
by the integrated AIDS Programme to ensure quality home care requires that one
volunteer to look after 10 –15 patients, one coordinator for 150 patients and one
nurse for every 200 patients.
The general public is being targeted through the involvement of volunteers and
groups of people living positively with AIDS in a wide variety of activities, in which
some of the initial programme beneficiaries have become actors themselves.
Counselling and testing services are being offered to the general public at no
financial charge by community-based drop-in centres and VCT centres.
Multifunctional centres
These are centres that are owned by local communities and which draw some limited
sponsorship from the IAP. Each centre is run by a coordinator, who receives part of
her salary from the IAP programme, in close conjunction with people with HIV/AIDS
who have been identified through the home care programmes. There are four such
centres, all situated in compounds at the premises of the respective home care
programme from which they originated. The participants engage in group meetings to
discuss their own situation and what they can do about it, and they organise training
in life skills development. They also engage in income generating activities, which,
because of their success, have become the mainstay of the MFCs. Further the MFCs
serve as a drop-in centre for people who are in search of information about
HIV/AIDS, or HIV testing. Iseni MFC in Chingola includes an established centre for
Voluntary Counselling and Testing.
Chisilano MFC at Nkwazi compound of the Ndola home care programme is the
oldest centre, where several groups of people living with HIV/AIDS have participated
in various activities. Some of the income generating activities of he centre are highly
successful, such as the production and sale of greeting cards, doormats, school
uniforms and gardening. While there is a steady attrition from the groups of people
living positively with HIV/AIDS (PLHA), due to death, it is a deliberate policy of the
centre to renew the membership of the groups every 6-12 months so as to make
room for new members.

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The Clinical and Pastoral Care Centre (CPCC) located at Kitwe Central Hospital, is
an interdenominational centre that provides information, counselling and testing
services and pastoral care. The centre plays an important role in ensuring continuity
of care between the various home care programmes in Kitwe and the hospital. It
receives both patients that are referred from home care programmes to the hospital,
as well as patients that are referred by the hospital back to the home care
programmes. The Centre is run in partnership between the Counselling and Testing
Unit of Kitwe Central Hospital, the Hospital Chaplain Office (with a Catholic priest and
a revered of the United Church of Zambia) and the Integrated AIDS Programme. The
IAP has a coordinator, Counsellor/nurse and a Secretary/Receptionist based at the
CPCC, who provide VCT services to patients referred by the home care
programmes. The coordinator is also involved in training activities, especially for
home care volunteers and counsellors from the community and for nurse counsellors.
The CPCC has in phase iv taken up a new role of a training centre/resource centre.
AIDS department of Ndola Diocese
The AIDS department provides technical support to the above implementing
agencies – the agencies implementing home care, the multifunctional centres and
the CPCC – and ensures proper coordination and exchange of experiences between
them. The department has no implementing role and always works through the
above implementing agencies, or through other organisations and programmes that
have similar objectives. The AIDS Department is responsible for planning of the
activities conducted under the IAP, monitoring, reporting (on a half-yearly basis) and
accounting towards the donor agencies that provide financial assistance to the IAP.
Income generating activities
Through the four Multi-functional Centres, IAP has some bit of experience in Income
Generating Activities (IGAs) including urban agriculture. The People Living with
HIV/AIDS have been involved in IAGs such as knitting, weaving, gardening, poultry,
production of high energy protein supplements (HEPS) and running of grinding mills.
All these activities are meant to provide an income to the PLWHA who have lost their
jobs due to their poor health and are not strong enough to engage in labour intensive
activities to earn a living.
LESSONS LEARNT
Access to resources
Small scale farming is very difficult on the Copperbelt because access to land is very
difficulty since most of the land is owned by the Copper mines, industries and the
state. The people are confined to lands around the big cities where they live in
‘shanty compounds’ or slums. Some compounds have over 45,000 people while the
smallest are those with over 10,000 people. Unfortunately, these are the areas which
are highly affected by HIV/AIDS. Some Positive Living groups have small communal
gardens near the centres where they have access to water and a bit of space. Those
who grow their crops around the compounds usually fail to harvest as the crops are
stolen before it is even ready.
However, since the privatisation wave and the massive job loses due to the closure
of the mines and most supporting industries, the government is seriously considering
to degazet part of the state own land and give it to jobless people in the form of small
farming blocks. This may offer a chance to the PLWHA who may want to engage in
micro-farming in the near future.

58
The Integrated AIDS Programme intends to lobby with the government through the
bishop to get a large piece of Land where some of the beneficiaries may access the
land for micro-farming.
Other challenges
The development of the gardening, poultry and other production activities has
encountered many difficulties. Some being:
a. Lack of technical competence in the staff at IAP level to enhance the technical
capacity of the various support groups involved in IGAs as almost all the IAP staff are
health biased and lack production or marketing skills.
b. Limited access to finance: Most donors refuse to fund farming as a way of
supporting and empowering PLWHA. Most partners advise IAP to leave farming to
those involved in agriculture as IAP’s expertise is health and social work.
c. Access to water for irrigation is very difficult and simple irrigation technology is
absent.
Increasing need for urban agriculture
With a lot of PLWHA accessing ARVs in Zambia, the challenge of socio-economic
rehabilitation becomes even more relevant if the quality of life for PLWHA has to
improve. As experienced so far, the 270 PLWHA who were put on the ARVs five
months ago are now up and running. Five months ago they were bed ridden; today
they are strong and engaged in gardening to sustain themselves. The demand for
economical empowerment from the PLWHA on ARVs is increasing every day. If
PLWHA are rehabilitated with ARVs, without economic empowerment, prevention of
the further spread of HIV in Zambia and on the Copperbelt in particular, is a pipe
dream. It is time donors funded initiatives such as urban micro-farming as tools for
economic empowerment for the PLWHA after they access ARVs.
Integrated AIDS Programme is therefore interested to learn from all those
organisations already involved in the economic empowerment of the PLWHA through
Urban Micro-farming.

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3.9. URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME OF MAPUTO CITY COUNCIL
Américo Cassamo
MAPUTO CITY COUNCIL
Maputo, Mozambique
INTRODUCTION TO MAPUTO’S URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME
In Mozambique, about 60% of the population live below the threshold of absolute
poverty. The situation is getting even worse for citizens infected and affected by the
HIV/AIDS epidemic since this disease brings with itself the increase of family
responsibilities (care for the diseased), reduction of income and the depletion of the
scanty economical resources of those families.
The Municipal Council of Maputo (CMM) has tried to find new tools and solutions to
support the citizens infected and affected by HIV Aids in their struggle to survive.
As part of its efforts to reduce poverty and mitigate the effects of the HIV-Aids
pandemic, CMM has identified the problems encountered by the urban farmers.
Among a large variety of problems mentioned, three main ones were identified: 1.
lack of work force; 2. lack of abilities to cultivate food and 3. lack of employment.
As the main strategy to improve the situation of those citizens confronted with these
problems was to sensitize them to establish farmers associations.
As a means to encourage this process Agriculture Houses were established in the
Municipal Districts where the affected citizens are located, which offer services to the
urban farmers that are well adapted to their real needs.
The short term objectives of the Agrarian Houses are: to promote the establishment
and strengthening of the farmer’s associations, to enhance literacy and technical
training of urban farmers and to provide agricultural support services.
Under the paradigm of “a support house for the urban farmers” the Municipality of
Maputo, through the Council for Local Economic Development and Professional
Training, tries to bring together all local farmers in the agrarian house. The Agrarian
Houses seek to establish partnerships between urban farmers and hospitals, hotels,

60
restaurants, etc, with a view to strengthen the farmers economical resources, as well
as to ensure that the farmer associations have more resources to help the families
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS to cover expenses for medical care and/or in
education (school taxes and materials) among others.
Under the slogan “an agrarian house for the sensitization and the farmer’s literacy,”
Municipal Council promotes partnerships with agricultural schools and colleges in
order to allow the graduate students to train poor urban farmers in literacy as well as
to provide free technical information and support to HIV/AIDS affected and infected
farm families. The literacy helps the families in that they can read prescriptions on
medicines (less accidents), read or write legal papers (less loss of land), understand
technical information leaflets, etcetera
Through these activities the Municipality of Maputo expects to improve the basic
conditions for enhance the production of horticultural products, enhance alimentary
safety of the urban poor and HIV affected families and increase their job
opportunities and income.
In the longer term, the objectives of the Agriculture Houses are:
- To realise larger competitiveness of the urban green areas
- Strengthen the capacity of the producers to participate in the dynamism of the
agricultural market for local production, to link up with distributors, negotiate good
contracts, and persuade different types of consumers.
- To enhance added value of the products grown and to meet the needs of modern
distribution;
- To enhance the quality of the horticultural products grown and to accomplish the
quality standards of the World Trade Organization
In June 2004, CMM started a project named Rapid Generation of Incomes (IRR),
with view to generate income and improvement of the alimentary diet for 100 families
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Catembe (an Urban District of Maputo City)
through agricultural activities (horticulture and raising of small animals) in cooperation
with the National Council of Combat to the HIV/AIDS (CNCS) and financial support of
the World Bank.
Many families affected by HIV-Aids have lost (part of) their lands to others since
many adults died from AIDS without leaving behind proper inheritance testimony or
property documents. This project focussed on families that experienced such
problems in an effort to strengthen the economic capacity and quality of diets of
families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.
The project contained the following components:
1. Publicity: Announcement of the project through the Agriculture House;
2. Selection of families (horticulture: 70 families) and fattening of chickens (30
families)
3. Training: all team members and beneficiaries were trained in horticultural
management and fattening chickens;
4. Horticulture: the Municipality granted lands to the affected families for
horticulture production; provision of agricultural inputs (hoes, rakes, shovels,
boots, seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides);
5. Aviculture: Acquisition of material for the construction of hen houses for the
fattening of chickens; provision of agricultural inputs: chicks, heaters,
illumination lamps, vaccines against new castle, etc;
6. Monitoring and technical assistance: To monitor the management of the
chickens and the horticultural production as well as the commercial and
nutritional aspects (consumption and sales).

61
The project does not only benefit the selected families, but also the wider community
in the district since it guaranteed that the agricultural extension reached all people in
this area that, in certain measure, are discriminated and stigmatized, due to poverty
and living with HIV/AIDS, and the project promoted that these families are included
again in the community organizations.
LESSONS LEARNT
This experience demonstrates that this kind of projects (IRR, Agricultural House)
help communities to strengthen their agricultural practices as a way to solve the
reduced income earning capacity due to HIV-AIDS and to guarantee food for their
alimentary diet.
This can be done both through promotion of horticulture activities as well as through
the distribution of chickens, goats and pigs to the families that are infected by HIV-
Aids and assisting them in their agricultural activities, by providing loans for
equipment as well as technical and other advice.
It is very important to carefully plan the agricultural activities in order to ensure that
the cultivation can take place in the most proper periods of the year and do not meet
adverse conditions due to wrong timing. Also the protection of the agricultural areas
against the action of domestic animals turned out to be very important.
Also very important is that the urban farming areas are formally zoned for agricultural
cultivation in Maputo City and thereby under the protection of the Municipal Council.
Where urban poor are penalized for cultivating in areas zoned for construction, the
Municipal Council will offer them help to find alternative income sources or other
farming area.

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3.10. AFRICAN ROOTS PROJECT
Bonginkosi Njokwe and Jon McCosh
INSTITUTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Scottsville, South Africa
INTRODUCTION TO THE AFRICAN ROOTS PROJECT
The African Roots Project is a partnership between the Children in Distress Network
(CINDI), the Institute of Natural Resources (INR) and the Msunduzi Municipality.
African Roots also brings together CINDI partners, Academics (Dr Albert Modi in
particular) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Local and Provincial
Government Departments, noticeably Agriculture, Health and Education.
The African Roots Project is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The African Roots initiative aims to address the nutritional needs of poor
communities affected by HIV/AIDS (with special attention given to female and child
headed households) through the co-ordination of food garden initiatives in the
Msunduzi municipal area and the propagation of traditional/indigenous plants.
The African Roots Project was born out of the recognition that good nutrition is the
foundation for good health, particularly for people affected by HIV/AIDS. Poor health
affects food security as it limits peoples’ ability to effectively engage in subsistence or
income generating activities. Wild edible plants (imifino and traditional crops are
other names and are used interchangeably in this document) were identified as crops
that can assist in addressing food security, nutrition and ultimately health. They are
hardy and fast growing, require less care than conventional crops, can be grown
organically. They also provide many of the essential micronutrients required for good
health – often at concentrations far greater than conventional crops (see table 1).
Source: Hendriks, S.L, Modi, M and Modi, A.T. 2005. Preliminary Findings: The Availability and Dietary
Contribution of Wild Leafy Vegetables in the Pre-Cropping Season, KwaZulu-Natal. Unpublished Paper.
The African Roots project is therefore developing a strategy (in collaboration with
strategic partners) which will ensure an increase in the variety of plants, with a
Table 1 : Nutritional contribution of wild leafy vegetables from one 180g portion to the RDA for adult females from
cropland, October 2004
% of RDA
0
per 180g portion for adult females
Ene
rgy
Protein
Calciu
m
Iron Zinc
Sele
niu
m
Vit.A Vit. C Vit. E
Ribofla
vin Niacin Vitamin B6
Propor
tion (g)
of a
total
portion
* Percent of RDA
Black jack
1
48 4.32 12.24 31.50 72.00 13.65 5.89 221.18 69.00 56.70 24.92 8.40 39.38
Wild lettuce
2
2 3.19 10.08 42.66 178.80 12.00 - - - - 22.15 7.68 -
Water navel
2
44 4.64 10.80 43.02 236.40 45.15 - 119.03 69.90 - 31.85 9.60 -
Gallant soldier
2
10 3.04 11.52 51.12 63.60 19.50 - 170.10 20.10 - 29.08 14.52 -
Wild mustard
2
2 2.77 13.32 51.30 114.12 20.40 - 76.50 33.00 - 19.38 7.44 -
Red pigweed
1
** 73 3.02 10.44 46.80 57.60 22.65 1.64 73.35 138.00 3.83 13.85 12.00 20.25
Total per portion* 180 3.76 11.10 42.05 107.97 25.48 2.23 128.69 93.16 16.63 22.27 10.48 18.68
Cabbage
1
180 4.64 9.45 9.77 6.30 3.94 5.15 2.76 157.50 9.84 4.85 6.30 15.75
Swiss chard
1
180 4.43 17.01 36.86 92.40 19.16 6.87 184.28 126.00 11.81 24.23 12.60 15.75

63
nutritional and medicinal value, that are locally available and an increase in the
number of affected household cultivating these plants
During the first phase of the project the following activities were implemented:
• a stakeholders survey including various government departments (Health,
Agriculture, Social Welfare, Education, Msunduzi and uMgungundlovu
Municipalities), various NGOs, community based organizations, individual
farmers and University of KwaZulu-Natal.
• a situation analysis within community gardens in Msunduzi municipality: This
was to establish attitudes towards the cultivation and consumption of traditional
crops and understanding their importance for nutrition and HIV-AIDS. 28 groups
were surveyed, representing clinics, CBOs, NGOs, youth groups, PLWHA, OVC
and community gardens.
• a Strategic Planning Workshop: Identified stakeholder groups, partners and
community gardeners were invited to a workshop to develop a strategy for the
implementation of the African Roots project. It was here that the aims objectives
and activities of the project were confirmed and project activities defined.
During the second phase of the project the following activities are implemented:
• Identification of crops for promotion. The following crops were chosen:
Blackjack (Bidens pilosa), Amaranth (Amaranth spp.), Spiderweed (Gynandropsis
gynandra), Cowpeas (Vigna spp.), Orange Sweet Potato (Ipomomea batatus),
Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album), Calabash (Lagenaria spp), Wild Mustard,
Quickweed (Galinsoga parviflora). These crops were chosen because these are
common in the Msunduzi area, grow easily in cultivation and have a high nutritive
value, particularly in micronutrients which are important in boosting the immune
system (see Table 1). The crops chosen are also well known by the older
generation and therefore one is not introducing a concept that is completely new.
While these plants in particular are promoted, participants are encouraged to use
other wild edible plants. It is important to point out here that traditional crops were
never promoted as an alternative to conventional crops, but rather as a
supplement to these crops in order to deliver improved nutrition, particularly
micronutrients.
• Establishment of demonstration sites. Project sites were chosen that
represented as wide a range of stakeholder groups as possible were selected.

64
This included community gardens, schools, clinics, crèches, CINDI partner
organisations and individual farmers. To eight demonstration sites intensive
support was supplied, while numerous other sites having been provided with
training, mentoring and encouragement. All sites engaged included discussions
on HIV/AIDS, nutrition and agronomic practices.
• Training on Bio-Intensive gardening At all sites demonstrations on Bio-
Intensive gardening techniques such as trench beds, container gardens, raised
beds and no-till systems are undertaken. Organic production of traditional crops
is always encouraged. This is because agrochemicals can impact negatively on
the nutritional value of crops, there is potential for trace amounts of poisons to
cause problems for people with compromised immune systems and importantly,
cost money which many of the target groups do not have.
• Dissemination through engagement with government and non-government
extension/technical services. The project linked up with appropriate
government departments, (e.g. Agriculture, Education and Health) as well as
NGOs and CBOs (among others by incorporating these organisations in the
project steering committee) in order to raise awareness of the benefits of wild
edible plants within extension/technical services in an effort to gear up the project
and expand the use of traditional crops.
• Seed Collection and Propagation. Apart from the Amaranths and Sweet
Potatoes, seed of wild edible plants is not available commercially. It was therefore
important that participants learn to collect their own seed for propagation. In order
to promote this, participants were trained to collect seed and then a seed
collection competition was held, culminating in a seed collection workshop, where
prizes were awarded for seed collection, according to variety, quantity and quality
of seed collected. The workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to
share experiences in seed collection and thereby enhance the knowledge of all
participants.
Linked with seed collection is demonstration on the propagation of wild seeds.
Four propagation nursery sites have been established. Again the nurseries reflect
a range of stakeholders, being a youth group (home based care volunteers), a
community garden, a clinic and a school for handicapped children. The nurseries
have already successfully grown wild edible plants and conventional seedlings for
sale to community members.
• Nutrition Training Officer. A nutrition training officer, employed by CINDI, works
closely with the agricultural coordinator, employed by NRI. This allows for a more
holistic approach to nutrition where project participants are given support in the
agronomic aspects of both conventional and traditional food production as well as
being trained on the importance of nutrition, the food groups and demonstrations
of appropriate methods of food preparation to ensure that maximum nutrients are
retained in the food.
• Promotional Activities In order to gear up and spread the concept of wild edible
plant cultivation, a variety of promotional activities have been undertaken during
the course of the African Roots Project, including articles on the use and benefits
of traditional crops in various periodicals in Zulu language (which turned out to be
really effective in raising the profile of these plants), the organisation of
workshops and provision of presentations on nutrition, health and wild edible
plants, and the production of a series of posters related to the nutrition, health
and HIV/AIDS (by CINDI): the first poster highlights the use of indigenous
medicinal plants to help the sick e.g. to treat skin disorders associated with
HIV/AIDS; the second poster outlines the importance of vegetables and the
micronutrients they provide and the third poster tells about the African Roots
Project and is called “Imifino” (wild plants).

65
LESSONS LEARNT
Access to land and water
In Pietermaritzburg the land constraint is much less than in other large urban centres
in South Africa. Individual households in most cases have some land around their
houses available for cultivation. Security of tenure in some places does, however,
limit longer term investment in agricultural production. Where there are land and
fencing problems, schools, clinic and community hall sites can be used to produce
crops since almost all of them have unused land that is well fenced.
South Africa is a water scarce country. Every effort should be made to make the
most efficient use of water possible. Rain water harvesting is encouraged at all
project sites through mulching, swales and rainwater tanks. Rainwater harvesting
tanks are underutilised in the Msunduzi Municipality, particularly in the context of low
cost housing. While it is recognised that there are limited budgets in such
developments, the provision of tanks provide available water with no overhead costs,
the only cost being the capital costs of the infrastructure. In addition, storage of
rainwater can mitigate flood peaks, and the associated damage, than can result from
high density residential areas. A cost-benefit analysis of implementing rainwater
harvesting in tanks would, in the authors’ opinion, probably demonstrate benefits that
outweigh the capital costs associated with installing the tanks.
Also the use of household grey water has to be stimulated.
Production aspects
The approach of the African Roots Project is to engage with groups that are already
producing crops. This criterion ensures that there is an existing interest in agriculture
and support can then build on existing skills and focus on imparting new knowledge
and ideas.

66
Wild edible plants grow easily in most soil conditions. Many of them are considered
agricultural weeds and are removed from crop lands when in fact they make use of
soil nutrients more efficiently and provide more nutrition in many cases. They can
also be harvested regularly while the conventional crops are growing. Take cabbage,
for example. For three months or more, weeds are removed from the garden and
discarded so that the cabbage can be harvested once and eaten in one or more
days, depending on the size of the family or group. Traditional wild plants (Imifino)
can be harvested daily from 3 weeks after germination and eaten while the other
crops are growing. This represents a significant labour saving as the “weeds” are put
to productive use.
During the course of the project, a significant increase in the number of home based
care volunteers, assisting with the production of vegetables, has been noted which is
encouraging. While this does assist with labour required, innovative use of machinery
needs to be encouraged. Land preparation is always problematic with illness
affecting productivity. However, private tractors are expensive to hire and those
provided by local government and agriculture never seem to be available. This is
often compounded by the small size of many of the gardens. A possible solution to
this is to establish community contractors with hand held machine driven rotovators
who could service small gardens. These would have to be subsidised.
Trench beds are hard work initially, but pay dividends in the long term.
Collection of traditional seeds is very easy if local people are encouraged to do it
themselves. Propagation of traditional crops in the nurseries is essential. Few are
available in the commercial nurseries. This can be done easily provided it is the right
planting season. Planting traditional crops in winter causes plants to flower quickly
before leaf growth.
Organic fertilization is suitable for the production of traditional vegetables. Actually
most of traditional crops grow on their own where kraal manure is as animals graze
these plants. One technique to grow traditional crops is to simply prepare your plot,
broadcast kraal manure and wait for about a week for germination of different types
of traditional plant seedlings (e.g. amaranths, lamb-quarters, blackjack etc.)
Most traditional crops do well in spring, summer and autumn when there is sufficient
rain and high temperatures.
Companion planting of exotic and indigenous crops works very well. Traditional crops
are harvested from 2-3 weeks after germination for about 6 months unlike most
exotic crops that take longer time before they are harvested and most of them are
harvested once.
People know how to harvest traditional crops. They do not pull out the whole plant
but they harvest the lower leaves of the different crops. They mix them when cooking
to improve their taste, volume and range of nutrients. Very few of the traditional
crops can be eaten raw.
The use of traditional crops can very easily be made into a self sustaining system;
the seeds are easily harvested, and can easily be germinated (many of them grow
like weeds). They can be grown in poor soils and do not require fertiliser or
pesticides.
There are income generation opportunities from the sales of traditional crops such as
wild mustard and amaranths.

67
The following aspects are important for success in urban agriculture projects:
• Good leadership of the group
• An existing interest in growing/agriculture
• A healthy mix of young and mature people
• Good representation by women in the group
• Support and encouragement on the ground from a support agency (Provincial
Government, Local Government, Councillors, Traditional Leaders, CBOs or
NGOs)
• Training re. appropriate crop selection and crop production techniques
The Agricultural Coordinator and the Nutrition Training Officer working together has
yielded many benefits and the whole value chain from propagation to cooking is
addressed to promote enhanced nutrition of project participants.
Peri urban and rural project sites have been more successful and productive than
intra urban project sites. This seems related to the experience that in more urban
locations people are less inclined to engage in crop production with enthusiasm but
see it more as a temporal activity until “something better comes along”, such as
formal employment. We also encountered limited interest from the youth and youth
groups. There are exceptions here committed youth organisations do demonstrate
success in crop production.
The involvement of youth groups, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), school
children, clinic volunteers, traditional and elected leaders in the promotion and the
production of traditional crops is critical and should be supported by all stakeholder
groups. Every school, clinic, church and community centre should have food gardens
as site from which community members can learn, be encouraged and mentored.
It is important to develop partnerships with local and provincial government, NGOs
and CBOs to ensure upscaling and long term success of projects and to disseminate
the results. Provincial and Local Government have an important role to play:
Department of Health can offer clinic sites to be used for traditional crop production,
can educate their staff about the importance of traditional crops and involve
Community Health Workers and home based care volunteers to educate
beneficiaries about the benefits of traditional crops and encourage their clients to
produce and eat traditional crops. The Department of Agriculture can train its
technicians on the value of traditional crops and their production techniques and
provide extension support services and assist in up scaling the project. The
Department of Education can include urban agriculture and the importance of
traditional crops in relation to HIV/AIDS in its syllabus as part of outcomes based
education (OBE) and motivate schools to educate children about the importance of
traditional crops. The Municipality and Traditional Leaders can allocate land for urban
agriculture projects, encourage the communities -especially OVC and PLWHA- to
produce and consume traditional crops; NGO’s can assist and empower farming
groups to lobby for land and favourable policy and provide them with training and
inputs
The following factors will enhance sustainability of the urban agriculture projects
promoting the use of traditional plants:
• Land use planning which views agriculture as an integral component of the
urban natural resources system.
• Appropriate and wise use of agricultural inputs
• Access to adequate supplies of land and water

68
• Access to locally propagated seeds and seedlings
• Proper UA health hazard mitigation programmes
• Good and accessible markets for agricultural produce
• Processing of traditional crops to add value
• Good training programs designed to build capacity and empower women,
youth, PLWHA by government organisations, CBOs and NGOs
• The presence of a positive and supportive urban agriculture policy

3.11 IMPROVING URBAN LIVELIHOODS PROJECT, ITDG - SOUTHERN AFRICA
Noah Sigauke
ITDG Southern Africa
Harare, Zimbabwe
INTRODUCTION TO ITDG AND THE IUL-PROJECT
Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) is an international NGO
headquartered in UK with other offices in Peru, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Sudan, Kenya and Zimbabwe. ITDG was founded in 1966 by EF Schumacher, author
of Small is Beautiful.
ITDG’s international strategy, named “Knowledge, Impact, Influence”, has four aims:
1. Reducing Vulnerability: to strengthen the ability of poor women and men to use
technology to cope with threats to their livelihoods from natural disasters,
environmental degradation and civil conflict.
2. Making markets work for poor people: to enable poor women and men to use
technologies effectively in systems of production, processing and marketing to build
secure livelihoods.
3. Improving access to infrastructure services: to improve the access of poor women
and men to locally managed infrastructure services.
4. Responding to new technologies: to enable poor women and men to assess and
respond to the challenges of new technologies and to develop and adopt applications
that improve their livelihoods.
ITDG works with small-scale producer communities to demonstrate practical answers
to poverty. We see technology as a vital contributor to people’s livelihoods.
In Zimbabwe, ITDG Southern Africa is currently implementing a project entitled
Improving Urban Livelihoods (IUL). The overall objective of the project is to improve
the livelihoods of poor men and women. The project commenced in April 2002 and is
scheduled to end in March 2006.
The project site is Epworth (an informal settlement located 12km south east of
Harare). At present, the project is giving support to 5 market gardening groups with in
total 50 participants (of which 32 females) in addition to activities with other
community organisations in the areas of shelter, enterprise development and
revolving fund management.
With the gardening projects, the IUL project is focusing on income generation,
nutrition and health improvement with the intention:
• To provide herbal medicine and promoting the use of medicinal herbs in HIV-
AIDS mitigation as an alternative therapy to treatment of HIV-related
opportunistic infections.
• To reduce the impact of malnutrition on children and lactating mothers
• To supplement and improve household nutrition
• To provide an alternative source of income for participating groups
A number of activities have been carried out as part of capacity building of these
groups, including:

70
• Training for transformation: all new groups were first motivated to viewing
themselves as the key agents in changing and improving their livelihoods.
The training also equipped group members with key leadership skills to
resolve conflicts and other group dynamics
• Training and advisory support in relevant technical skills in urban agriculture
and seedling production.
• Gender awareness: Group members were exposed to gender awareness
trainings with a view to sensitise them on their new roles (especially given
that most of them had both men and women).
• Basic business planning: To ensure that the groups had adequate business
skills all groups were trained in record keeping (sales and production), loss
and profit calculation and marketing strategy. It is important to note that
business trainings remain ongoing throughout the course of the project
through refresher courses
• Specialised Technical training in HIV/AIDS and Herbal treatment was
organised for 10 members of Just Youth at Fambidzanayi Permaculture
Training Centre in Harare. Training focused on some of the key HIV related
illnesses and the corresponding herbal treatment. Some of the key identified
diseases afflicting the community include diarrhoea, skin rush, headaches, TB
and STDs. The training included the processing and administering of
medicinal herbs.
photo’s: fresh (left) and dried (right) herbal medicines
The IUL Project also introduced ecological sanitation in Epworth (where there are few
sanitation facilities) to improve sanitation and promote the use of eco-fert and
humanure in urban and peri-urban agriculture. In this regard, 37 community members
were trained in ecological sanitation technology and its use. This culminated in the
construction of four ecological sanitation toilet blocks, which are already in use at
Epworth Polyclinic and Makomo primary school. The trainings were preceded by an
exposure visit to Marondera where the ecological sanitation technology was already
in use.
RESULTS OBTAINED
Economic Empowerment
The projects are providing a crucial source of livelihood for the groups who previously
had no source of income. The project is also providing employment to the more than

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30 members of JUST YOUTH group, and their immediate families. The herbal
garden has more than 60 species of fully-grown herbs, which the group is currently
harvesting and processing. Once processed the herbs are sold to HIV, AIDS and TB
patients including malnourished lactating mothers and children at the local Polyclinic.
The group is generating between USD500-USD600 from processing and selling of
herbs.
The other groups Kubatana and Kubatsirana who are producing vegetables are
currently realising incomes of between USD400-USD500 per month. With this
income they are able to meet their basic needs such as food and school fees for
children.
Improved nutrition for the disadvantaged groups
The cooperatives engaged in gardening have set aside fields where they are growing
vegetables specifically for orphaned households in the community. In addition garden
projects are working closely with the school feeding programmes where they are
providing vegetables as supplementary food for malnourished pupils. The pupils
under the programme include those in grade 1 to 7. At present there are three
schools under the programme, which include Batanai, Chizungu and Makomo. On
average each school has about 150 pupils under the feeding programme. The
feeding programme is currently being coordinated under the District Aids Committee
(DAC) with funding from the University of Zimbabwe Collaborative Health Council
and University of California.
Through the implementation of Permaculture work the majority of the marginalized
people in Epworth are benefiting from access to low cost effective herbal medicine. In
addition communities are cutting down on medical expenses through the use of
herbs. Many people are now having herbal corners in their vegetable gardens. The
herbs have proved useful in Epworth where access to ARV drugs remains
unaffordable given that for a patient to get drugs they need to under go a CD4 count
which costs around USD571 (a cost beyond the reach of the poor peri-urban settlers
in Epworth)
LESSONS LEARNT
Lobbying to enhance access to Land and Water
An crucial activity of the IUL project are the efforts that were undertaken to get
access to land tenure for both productive and/or residential purposes for the 5 project
groups. ITDG secured temporary plot titles for three of the groups while two other
groups had been assisted by PLAN International another NGO which use to work in
Epworth. It is important to note that the temporary tenure rights have remained in
place even after the recent “Clean Up Operation” implemented by the Government of
Zimbabwe
In addition to plot titles the project successfully lobbied the Epworth Local Board to
provide a location for the herbal processing centre of the Just Youth Group. The local
Epworth Clinic allowed this permaculture group to operate from the clinic, where they
are carrying out health awareness programmes on herbal medicine in terms of its
use and medicinal value (in addition to HIV-AIDS awareness raising campaigns).
Lack of sustainable water sources and bylaws restricting water use for urban
agriculture and high water charges are often hindering the implementation of urban
agriculture projects. Therefore, it would be prudent for organisations that seek to
practice urban agriculture to have a borehole or protected well and drip kits to ensure
viability. In the groups ITDG has been working funding has been mainly restricted to

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installation of irrigation infrastructure (purchasing of pumps, pipes and materials for
water tank) and capacity building programmes (see below).
Continuous capacity development
Sharing and strengthening of technical skills continue to be a priority for the CBOs
under the project. To this end the project facilitated capacity building of the market
gardening groups in Epworth through exchange visits to CBOs carrying out herbal
and market gardening projects in other informal settlements like Mabvuku and
Dziwarasekwa. In addition 37 community members were taken on an exposure visit
to Marondera where they were introduced to ecological sanitation technology.
Detail of herbal garden Youth Group
Production aspects
Residues of agro-chemicals stress the body and usually lead to many infections such
as diarrhoea and intestinal problems (hence the reason for this project not to use
them in a project involving HIV-AIDS infected people with malfunctioning immune
systems).
Therefore, the IUL project promotes Permaculture, which involves the use of natural
methods to improve soil fertility and crop production. It is an approach to agricultural
production that stresses improvement and preservation of land while increasing
productivity and decreasing dependency on external inputs. Under this concept crops
are grown without using fertilisers and chemical pesticides, which go into crops and
remain there after harvesting. The Permaculture concept does not require big pieces
of land to implement, which makes it suitable in urban areas where land is scarce.
Through this method you can grow a variety of different vegetables, herbs and trees
in the same garden (Agro-forestry).
Stakeholder partnership is critical for the success of micro-farming and fight against
HIV-AIDS and volunteer groups play a pivotal role in the fight against HIV-AIDS.
The following stakeholders are critical and should be part of the programme: Local
leadership, Local Authority, Community clinic and Local NGOs working on
awareness raising in the area of HIV-AIDS.

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Volunteers through community based organisations have demonstrated their
capacity to manage viable and sustainable small enterprises that generate new
income streams and contribute to household food security
The best methodology for the transfer of appropriate technologies in peri-urban
communities is through vehicles such as community-based organisations. These act
as the catalysts for the implementation of successful interventions. The dissemination
of appropriate technologies to communities is best applied using practical and
participatory approaches.
Herbal medicine is crucial in alleviating HIV related illness especially in peri-urban
settlements where access to ARVs still remains a challenge
The community groups recommend that these efforts should be scaled-up.

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3.12 HIV-AIDS PROGRAMME OF CATHOLIC AIDS ACTION
Godwin Chisenga
CATHOLIC AIDS ACTION (CAA)
Windhoek, Namibia
INTRODUCTION TO CATHOLIC AIDS ACTION AND ITS PROGRAMME
Catholic AIDS Action (CAA) was founded in 1998 as Namibia’s first church-based
response to the country’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. Its Mission statement reads as
follows: “Acting in the Spirit of Christ CAA challenges the AIDS pandemic in Namibia
with the courage to fight and the strength to care for the benefit of all”.
CAA is one of the largest NGOs in Namibia. It has fourteen field offices throughout
the country and one national central office in Windhoek. There are five members of
the Board of Trustees, presided over by the Most Reverend Liborius Nashenda,
Archbishop of Windhoek. There are five senior management staff at national office,
and five senior managers in the field for a total of 74 paid staff members. CAA
provides services to all people without discrimination of any sort.
In pursuing justice and empowerment through holistic spirituality CAA builds on
Roman Catholic affiliated groups, other institutions and local communities to inspire
and support programs of HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support to adults and
children affected by and infected with HIV or AIDS.
Within the arena of home based care and community mobilization and support, CAA
has over 1,500 active volunteers nation-wide in 9 of the country’s political regions.
During 2004, these volunteers gave care to over 4,600 clients living with AIDS or
HIV. At the same time, 198 peer educators completed 278 courses reaching 6,011
youth. CAA’s registry of orphans currently contains over 17,700 children. Three New
Start VCT centres, operated by Catholic AIDS Action provided 3,274 tests during
2004.
CAA has used a publication known as ‘Health Eating’ in a number of local languages
as a way of promoting Home gardens, Community gardens and/or institutional
gardens. After the first publication Catholic AIDS Action is considering another
publication about growing indigenous vegetables in collaboration with the Ministry of
Agriculture specifically to help with kitchen/domestic gardens, and therefore will be
useful in urban areas.
CAA does not have agricultural expertise; however, it does have access to groups of
people for whom food security is a priority. Therefore Catholic AIDS Action tries to
focus on partnership work, whereby it links the community/volunteer/caregiver groups
to the agricultural experts and other specialised NGO’s in the filed.
In the last few months, CAA linked one of its volunteer groups with the Ministry of
Agriculture STEAR Project (Supporting the Transition of Extension and Research),
which has sustainable development as a primary focus and particular funding for
income generating projects linked to HIV. In 2004/5 the Ministry decided to simplify
the criteria for HIV based IGA proposals and took some of the emphasis away with
regard to profitability, business plans etc. They also very significantly allowed for
applications to be forwarded to them in local language and ensure that their
agricultural officers would assist community-based groups in preparing their

75
proposals. This allowed Catholic AIDS Action to confidently link CAA volunteer
groups with the Ministry of Agriculture. However, other barriers in the relationship
with STEAR persist:
• Many agricultural officers do not feel comfortable working in the area of HIV and
AIDS, as they did not feel that they were knowledgeable enough.
• Some community based groups in the area of HIV do not feel comfortable in their
links with Ministry of Agriculture as their technical knowledge of agricultural
issues was not always that evident.
The Catholic AIDS Action volunteer groups that have shown interest and initiative are
from the following regions: North West, North East and Caprivi Regions. The main
reasons for these regions to have a keen interest are probably because of the
availability of water, which is a very scarce resource in Namibia of which most part is
desert.
LESSONS LEARNT
CAA volunteer group vegetable garden projects, linked to the Roman Catholic
Church that in some cases provided land, have faced many problems, especially lack
of fencing (leading to damages by animals or theft) and poor access to water and
insufficient watering during hot seasons or other times when people are busy (e.g.
ploughing in December). Some vegetable gardens in Caprivi and North West ceased
because of water problems (which is an acute problem for whole country).
Groups would like to receive more support on how to manage themselves, how to
develop rules and procedures, how to develop proposals and business plans, as well
as technical guidance on agricultural/food growing issues. Defining group rules is
very important. Some groups had major conflicts about how to split profits (whether
that is food or money) as some members claimed that others were not putting in
adequate effort to the project. Catholic AIDS Action's role is to support the group in
its development as a group, assist them in preventing and managing conflict.
Regarding the technical issues like irrigation, where to get seed, etc. CAA can not do
much since its staff simply has had no training in urban micro-farming. Therefore,
Catholic AIDS Action’s seeks to link the interested CAA volunteer/community
groups with the Ministry of Agriculture and other NGO’s who specialise in this kind of
business and to support these groups in their development without taking over the
management of the farming side of the work.

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However, recognising the importance of food production in relation to HIV and AIDS
and the numerous clients that CAA serve, it is of utmost importance that CAA learns
new skills in order that in a few years it can report that groups are productive and
clear about how much food goes to: a. Children b. Adults living with HIV c.
Volunteers/caregivers.
We also hope that the volunteer groups by then would have ensured their own
sustainability in that grants will not be repeated, so that they may need a balance
between using profit to continue the project and using food grown to feed a, b and c
above.
It is for this reason that CAA is sending a representative to this important
workshop/tour to learn on how other organisations are dealing with this issue. In the
hope that CAA can implement some of the experiences learned at this workshop.

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3.13 COMMUNITY SCHOOL BASED URBAN AGRICULTURE PROJECT OF PCI
Joseph Tembo
PROJECT CONCERN INTERNATIONAL ZAMBIA (PCI)
Lusaka, Zambia
INTRODUCTION TO PCI-ZAMBIA AND ITS ACTIVITIES
Project Concern International (PCI) is an international not for profit organization
dedicated to saving the lives of children and families by preventing disease and
providing access to clean water and nutritious food.
PCI’s office in Zambia is one of 11 PCI offices around the world. Together, our
mission is to prevent disease, improve community health and promote sustainable
development.
PCI is involved in improving livelihoods of communities and their health status. Its
programme has the following components: HIV/AIDS prevention, (capacity building
for) Home Based Care, Positive Living With Aids-ART, OVC nutrition and education,
community school based nutrition and agriculture programme.
The community based agriculture programme is designed to expand number of
orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Zambia that have access to quality
services through sustainable, community-based programs that effectively reduce
their vulnerability. In 2003, PCI launched the first major school feeding program in
urban Lusaka, Zambia. The program has rapidly evolved from an emergency
response to the country’s food crisis into a long-term approach for meeting the most
critical needs of orphans and vulnerable children. PCI Zambia has been providing
support to urban vulnerable community schools and households with orphans and
vulnerable children through the Community School Feeding Project. There are
currently 122 sites (either community schools/drop in centres/residential centres)
providing education, food, recreation, life skills and HIV/AIDS education and
psychosocial support to 70,000 children every school day.
Currently, the project is being funded through the United Nations World Food
Programme and USAID as part of the urban intervention initiative which also includes
monitoring of behaviour change in community programmes.
As part of PCI’s exit strategy for this project it was proposed that a School Garden
Project is introduced in at least 60% of the beneficiary sites as a pilot phase.
Community schools do not have the capacity to mobilise resources to continue with
the feeding programme, which has seen improved nutrition status in children and
their households and those affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through this
initiative, extreme vulnerable community families have benefited in receiving food
rations as supplement just to improve on the household nutrition levels. Which
means that with the exit of the programme would have a knock-on effect to the
community as a whole.
The aim of the School Garden project is to empower site management (community
schools) with resources (from production to marketing of produce) to manage their
own school income earning projects (IGAs) and the feeding programmes
respectively.
The potential output benefits from the project will include:
Provision of agricultural knowledge to pupils for increased productivity.

78
Facilitation/formation of village level organizations (e.g. cooperatives).
Improving effectiveness and relevance of general education through
integration of practical skills in addition to theory.
Improving nutritional status of by providing supplementary enriched school
meals produced by the schools.
Facilitate spread of agricultural technology by using community school
production units as demonstration sites.
To establish the actual requirements for the school gardening project to commence a
needs assessment was conducted in October 2003. The following are the findings
from the survey:
• Access to extension services was three times higher in rural schools (75%)
than compared to urban schools (28.6%)
• There were different approaches to conducting agricultural activities in the
schools: a) Low level gardening b) Intensive agricultural production and skills
training, c) Integrated Community Schools and women’s group.
• Most popular crops identified by the community schools included Chinese
cabbage, rape, tomatoes and onions followed by carrots, fruits, sweet
potatoes, cucumbers, egg plant, green pepper, beans maize, okra and
mushrooms
• Schools also favoured animal keeping for both food and income generation,
especially poultry keeping and pig keeping followed by goats and rabbits.
• Community schools identified need for support in the following specific areas:
* Input support: seeds fertilizers, pesticides and another agro-chemicals-
* Technical back stopping (manpower to advise during production process-
* Information on production technology (in the form of pamphlets, information
packs and manuals to be used as guides).
The project provides the following support to the selected community schools that are
to benefit from the programme: group mobilisation, capacity building (management
skills, technical skills), technical assistance in crop production and animal husbandry
infrastructure support,
A total of 27 community schools have been identified for the project on the basis of a
participatory assessment -including community school teachers, leaders and
government officials from relevant sectors (such as the ministries of Agriculture and
Cooperatives, Health and Community development) of the following selection criteria:

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availability of adequate land and ownership, availability of water sources for irrigation,
availability of labour and Identified markets. A final role-out assessment is currently
under way in a few additional fields that were seen lacking in previous assessment
(psycho-social; gender; environment)
LESSONS LEARNT
Lessons learnt during the pilot phase to-date were as follows:
Organisational issues
The economic hardships, together with illnesses and death due to HIV-AIDS, have
brought poverty and misery in the communities which increasingly depend on a few
healthy members for its development. The community school children have similar
conditionality which has led them to be at these community schools. These children
are mostly orphans whose parents or guardians died from HIV/AIDS. The orphans
are usually traumatised with different experiences and hence the environment they
grow up in. Some children have both parents and guardians with HIV/AIDS.
And as we identify these households the project has set aside family rations to assist
in the food supplements at homesteads through the Home based care programme
support which also encourages the patients to administer ART and TB treatments.
The children are encouraged to continue education by placing them to the community
schools through the child school placement programme.
Most community organisations participating in the project are loosely organized
groups consisting for over 80 % of poor households with poor managerial skills
(leadership, record keeping).
Apart from the school student labour force -who are the main custodians of the
projects- it is the community contribution and participation to labour which will see the
success of the development programme. CBOs and other organisations are
considered as partners to the programme and therefore support in terms of labour is
part of the contribution. Other members of the community could contribute voluntarily.
The community is encouraged to be involved in the activities as they take up part
ownership of the community school projects.
The community groups still need continued sensitization on gender and the
behavioural changes needed in order to yield positive results, since men tend to be
more on the receiving side, whereas the women are expected to do all the production
work to earn the income for the household.
Access to land and Water
Most of the community schools own some land. Peri-urban and rural schools own
larger portions of communally owned land than community schools in urban areas.
The latter therefore are more restricted in the types of agriculture they can engage in.
Most of them focus on poultry and gardening activities.
About 70% out of the community schools assessed have available water sources,
such as boreholes, wells and streams. Water is very critical for agricultural production
both in crop production as well as poultry and livestock production. Rain fall in these
areas is erratic and unreliable. Crops as fresh vegetables require adequate water
supply to produce quality crops for markets that would give a good price (chain shops
or super markets). That is why availability of water resources at the community
schools was made one of the selection criteria. Through the partnership with UNICEF
about 11 schools had boreholes installed to remove the scaling water and sanitation

80
problems. The project intends to provide small scale irrigation facilities as part of the
community level infrastructure and provide technical and extension support on
irrigation and water utilisation.
Production issues - Integrated farming
The mix of crops grown and animals reared should be adequate for income
generating as well as for enhancing food security and proper nutrition.
Combining livestock with production of fresh vegetables savings can be realized on
the cost of production. The animal manure can replace costly chemical fertilizers;
poultry droppings act as supplement to livestock feed and are also good for soil
fertility. The excess and wastes from the fruit and vegetable production can be used
for livestock feeding.
Institutional Aspects
Urban agriculture projects that target good health and community development
require good cooperation and coordination between various organisations with a
mandate in food security and nutrition, home based care, ARTs and food
supplements to families with HIV/AIDS patients, etcetera.
With figures of 5 out of 10 pregnant women are positive with the HIV/AIDS virus. This
clearly shows that there is need for all players in the fight of HIV/AIDS and other
stakeholders to combine forces and overcome the pandemic.
However, all too often still Government and NGO interventions duplicate or distort
each others development efforts and their development approaches are often
conflicting (e.g. on this issue of subsidies, handouts and commercial services)
Many groups experienced problems with late delivery of inputs and therefore their
planting does not synchronize well with the agriculture calendar leading to lower
yields. Establishment of partnerships and good coordination with Cooperatives,
Government and NGOs may assure timely delivery of the inputs needed.
Marketing of surpluses is often hampered by gaps in technical and market
information, production of uneconomic quantities and lack of adequate marketing
channels.
Many groups encountered problems to increase production due to lack of access to
reliable sources of credit and/or high interest rates discouraging investment. The
programme seeks to attract more support from financial houses to provide the
required financial support or credit to the community initiatives.
HIV-AIDS
The community school programme has to spear head a number of forums that will
bring together stakeholders in order to identify their specific roles in awareness
creation and providing services to OVCs and those affected by HIV/AIDS including
the distribution of ARVs in the communities.
There is need to improve/increase the reach in disseminating of HIV/AIDS and other
IEC materials, if we are to succeed in reducing the spread of the pandemic and those
affected.
Sustainability and Upscaling
Schools realise that they have very little or no support to expect from organisations
that are designed to provide support. The community school agriculture based
programmes provide a shinning hope and encourage operating efficiently and
effectively. As the schools are empowered to generate income, the community as
whole shall be stimulated to equally engage in projects that will earn them a better
living.

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A process of mapping the community schools is vital as we need to track and monitor
progression and performance of these schools. This shall also assist in the
information dissemination to stakeholders and other international partners, clearly
showing the impact of the support; were more support is required; and those that
have graduated.
Schools that reflect potential in the project management of the IGAs will be given the
opportunity to increase their funding allocation as this will encourage a positive
impact on the income generation and also speed up the emulation process to other
community school, as model schools.
The initiative also shall attract other spheres of the economy to take up the challenge
of investing in the Community schools as they are a registered institution to do
business with. The possibilities are many as long as school management remains
consistent and focused on attaining economic sense out of the IGAs and ploughing
into the business.
PCI intends to bring this initiative to other areas which would be operating under
programmes with similar goals, with pilot school gardens in the first area providing a
model for the other schools in other districts.

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3.14 URBAN AGRICULTURE SURVEYS BY NCST IN KENYA
John O. Onyatta
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (NCST)
Nairobi, Kenya
INTRODUCTION
The National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) is a statutory institution of
the Government of Kenya, under the Ministry of Education Science and Technology,
established in July 1977.
NCST is the national focal point for Science and Technology policies and its mission
is to innovatively integrate science and technology into national development. In
addition to generation of policies, NCST promotes activities that facilitate
development of those aspects of S & T that, as yet, have not received adequate
attention. It appraises new or emerging scientific and technological issues and
advises the government accordingly.
The NCST recognized the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture in food security
and provision of nutrition.
In Kenya, farming in cities and towns is increasingly gaining significance. A large
amount of food is produced in and around urban areas but this is not properly
planned or regulated due to lack of policy on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA)
(Onyatta and Omoto, 2004). A study carried by Lee-Smith indicated that almost two
thirds of urban households grow part of their food, while 29% grew these crops within
the urban area in which they live (Lee-Smith et.al., 1987). Due to rapid urbanization
and increasing poverty, aggravated by the HIV-AIDS epidemic, urban households are
turning to urban and peri-urban agriculture as important means of providing food and
income. Farming is conducted in all kinds of open public places, namely; along
riverbanks, roads railway lines, under power lines and on reclaimed wetlands. Kales,
tomatoes, cabbages and spinach were widely grown crops by farmers in Nairobi
through irrigation. Urban livestock farmers in Nairobi preferred poultry followed by
goats and then cattle (Ishani et al., 2002).
The legal situation on urban agriculture is unclear with most urban dwellers assuming
it is illegal. However, a close look at the Local Government and Public Health Acts,
as well as the City by-laws, indicates that urban farming may be practiced under
certain restrictions. Government Policy documents have not included UPA, as a
means of addressing food security in urban areas (GoK, 2001; GoK, 2002; GoK,
2003). The recent Government Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (GoK, 2004)
which is a national policy, aimed at achieving a progressive reduction in
unemployment, poverty and addressing food security, UPA was not mentioned.
However, urban and peri-urban micro-farming has potential in providing food for the
urban areas, employment, income generation and environmental management.
The increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS in urban centres has resulted in loss of
productive agricultural personnel and manual labour force for substantial farming
knowledge and diversion of resources to the treatment of disease. The income of
HIV/AIDS affected households has been critically minimized and they are in need of
nutritious food. Urban agriculture could play a role in alleviating hunger and
malnutrition among HIV/AIDS affected persons in the urban areas. In Kenya, the
adult HIV prevalence stands at about 10.2% with an estimated 2.2 million people

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living with HIV/AIDS (ICASA meeting, 2003). The urban areas are the most affected
by HIV/AIDS scourge with a prevalence of 35% among pregnant women.
Against this background the NCST decided to conduct, in cooperation with the
Directorate of Research Development of the Ministry of Education Science and
Technology, baseline surveys in selected cities in Kenya.
The overall objective of the survey was to document the current status of urban
agriculture in the selected cities and to obtain information needed for policy
formulation in addressing food security in urban centres.
The major cities targeted were Kisumu and Mombassa. These cities were chosen
because most studies on urban agriculture that have been conducted so far were
implemented in Nairobi, while the situation in other main cities remained uncovered.
Kisumu city has recorded one of the highest levels of absolute poverty (63%)
compared to other cities (GoK 1997) and is also one of the urban areas that is
seriously affected by HIV/AIDS.
The level of absolute poverty in Mombassa was reported as 38% (GoK, 1997).
Kisumu City Council has integrated urban agriculture into City Development
Strategy. Urban agriculture is considered as an important means of providing cheap,
fresh and nutritious food for the urban consumers and also as a non-market access
to food for the urban poor.
With support of Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC) an
urban gardening and composting demonstration plot was established in the city,
where a variety of vegetables including traditional ones are grown on the
demonstration plot. The City Council is working with urban farmer groups in the
informal settlements to demonstrate to the residents in the area the technologies for
composting and safe methods for growing vegetables and other crops. This is one
way to disseminate safe ways of conducting urban agriculture. The urban farmers
have shown interest in the farming methods at the Kisumu City Council
demonstration site.
Kisumu City Council Departments are also working in collaboration with other
stakeholders including NGOs, and tree nurseries operators, traders of agro-forestry
products and the management of Kisumu’s open air market.
Mixed cropping (left) and varies crops in pot (right)

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The survey conducted in Mombasa revealed that urban agriculture is widely
practiced. Horticulture is widely carried out by the Asian communities in home
gardens and peri-urban open field plots for domestic consumption and generation of
income from market sales. Some of these vegetables are grown under irrigation.
Although use of sewage for farming is highly discouraged, some cases have been
reported. Balcony farming was also common especially among women in the island.
Groups in Mombassa and Kisumu preferred to have a mix of crops mainly vegetables
and tree fruits.
Livestock farming in Mombasa included poultry, ostrich, quails, dairy cattle and
crocodile. Poultry farming is widespread because it has a ready market in hotels and
restaurants. In case of dairy farmers, cases of pesticide residues in milk were
reported in 1997 indicating a possibility of pesticide use in the urban farming
systems.
There were cases of intensive use of available backyards where livestock (especially
diary cattle or goat) was kept and on one side of the backyard, vegetables were
grown. The animals were a source of manure for the crops. The raw milk market
witnessed in the urban areas provides a number of poor consumers with affordable
nutrition, which would decline if it were not available.
Apart from the local groups, urban farming was being practiced in schools and G.K.
prisons at Shimo la Tewa in Mobasa.
The organizations involved in urban agriculture that were surveyed included,
community groups, home gardens/kitchen gardens, and individuals. Our
observations indicated that individuals on the backyards and home gardens were
more organized and were using clean methods of urban farming. The community
groups using public land need more training on the use of appropriate technologies
and safe ways of urban farming. The groups using open spaces were also not sure of
the land availability. Restrictions in labour availability for farming or other
productivities were observed during the survey especially where the households
were involved in other income generating activities or if some of the family members
were ailing.
Some NGOs are targeting the urban farmer groups to provide seeds and tools,
training on improved production technologies and other services.
Despite the lack of policy on urban farming, the Ministry of Agriculture is providing e
extension services to some groups of urban micro farmers in Mombassa, including
the Tudor General Self Help Group that operates in the informal settlement along the
ocean on a land that belongs to the Kenya Ports Authority. The group consists of 18
members, of which 8 are females and 10 are males. Farming activities include
growing of vegetables, cowpeas and fruit trees for domestic consumption and to
generate income. They are also using sacks filled with soil and compost manure to
grow vegetables. Water from the underground springs is used to irrigate the land and
compost manure is used to improve the soil fertility. They are able to meet their
nutrition requirements from the farms.
The study revealed that land was a major constraint in urban farming in Mombassa.
The harsh weather conditions in the City are another constraint to urban farming.
Other problems encountered by the urban farming groups (like the Tudor Self Help
Group) include: lack of funding, pests, lack of farm tools, theft of the produce and
lack of training on appropriate methods for safe farming.

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Compost (left) and home plot irrigated with household wastewater
LESSONS LEARNT
Legalisation
The surveys indicate that a main constraint to urban farming is the absence,
inadequacy and/or inconsistency in policies and legislation framework regarding
urban agriculture, often leading to harassment of urban farmers from local officers.
The surveys conducted indicated that urban agriculture would gain success and
significance especially where adequate policies were developed, creating an
enabling environment for urban agriculture. It is therefore important that the legal
situation of urban agriculture is made clear and that urban agriculture is incorporated
into city land use planning.
The lack of land and water for food production is a major problem for the urban
farmers as revealed in the surveys conducted. Land grabbing by the rich is a
common feature. The urban farmers use any available open space along roads,
railway lines, under power lines etc. which exposes them to certain dangers.
In the cities, even where water is available, it is never enough for domestic use and
some parts of the city can be without water for weeks. Water use is therefore
restricted and in some parts water it is not accessible. This has resulted in the use of
untreated sewage water by farmers in some parts of Nairobi and Kisumu. Other
groups use water from springs to water their crops. Use of grey water from the
kitchen is common among those practicing home gardens. For organizations wishing
to set up urban agriculture projects, they should consider the issues of water and the
UPA policies on land use.
Health and nutrition aspects
Urban agriculture provides cheap, fresh and nutritious food. But especially among
community groups farming on public land there is often little regard to health risks
associated with urban agriculture due to lack of training on health issues and lack of
access to water. The use of untreated sewage leads to damages to the sewage
network and free flowing raw sewage that forms a risk for peoples’ health. Also the
products of sewage irrigated crops may be harmful if vegetables are not properly
washed and cooked.

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Technology development and extension
Service provision to urban farmers is still limited. NCST, in collaboration with other
institutions, is looking at ways of disseminating the available technologies that could
assist the urban farmers in boosting their production. Through data collection we will
quantify all the technical constraints facing urban micro-farmers in order to assist
them. We intend to collaborate with the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and
Fisheries Development, Urban harvest, Local Authorities and other stakeholders.
NCST and the Directorate of Research Development participate in the Nairobi and
Environs Food Security, Agriculture and Livestock Forum (NEFSALF). This is a
forum with actors from the community, government and market sectors, in order to
promote cooperation around city and environs food security, agriculture and livestock
keeping matters.
Institutional aspects
The surveys indicate that urban agriculture programmes require the participation of a
variety of institutions and adequate institutional arrangements to facilitate urban
agriculture. Further, the Surveys indicate that at present institutional arrangements
are inadequate which limits research, documentation and information sharing and
limits the provision of adequate services to urban farmers.
In the proposal that we have formulated for Nairobi City (titled “Strengthening urban
food security in Nairobi City through improved food supply and distribution systems”),
the following major institutions are involved: Directorate of Research Development,
Nairobi City Council, CGIAR-Urban Harvest, Provincial Agricultural Office, Provincial
Livestock and Fisheries Development, Department of Urban Development, Ministry
of Local Government, Family concern and Kenya Green Towns Partnership
Association
References
GoK (1997) Economic Survey. Central Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and National
Development.
GoK (2001) Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for the Period 2001 – 2004, Ministry of Finance and
Planning, Nairobi.
GoK (2002) National Development Plan for the Period 2002 – 2008, Ministry of Finance and Planning.
GoK (2003) Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation: 2003- Ministry of
Planning and National Development, Nairobi.
GoK (2004) Ministry of Agriculture 2004. Revitalizing Agriculture. 2004 – 2014.
ICASA (2003) International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted diseases in Africa, Nairobi,
Kenya.
ISHANI Z., P.K. GATHURU AND L. DAVINDER (2002). Scooping study of urban and per-urban poor
livestock keepers in Nairobi. Mazingira Institute.
LEE SMITH, D. M. MANUNDU, L. DAVINDER AND P.K. GATHURU (1987). Urban Food
Production and the cooking fuel situation in urban Kenya. Mazingira Institute.
NCST (2004) NCST Newsletter. Issue No.1 November 2004.
ONYATTA J.O. AND W.O. OMOTO (2004). Potential for urban and peri-urban agriculture
to create employment and reduce poverty. Proceedings of the stakeholder workshop on urban and peri-
urban agriculture policy. Organized by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Urban Harvest-CIP and
the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.

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3.15 STUDIES AND PILOT PROJECTS ON URBAN AGRICULTURE BY UNAM
Adedayo Ogunmokun
UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA NORTHERN CAMPUS
Oshakati, Namibia.
INTRODUCTION TO UNAM AND THE STUDIES AND PILOT PROJECTS
The University of Namibia (UNAM) was established in 1992 and is responsible for
conventional face-to-face undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as
distance education at the undergraduate level throughout the country. The
institution’s strategic objectives emphasise its commitment to expanding access to
higher education and lifelong learning opportunities. The University of Namibia fulfils
its mandate through 7 Faculties including The Faculty of Agriculture and Natural
resources, 4 Campuses including the Northern Campus and four Centres including
the Multidisciplinary Research and Consultancy Centre.
UNAM has recently conducted a number of case studies and pilot projects:
Study: Assessment of production possibilities and constraints in peri-urban
vegetable production
FAO funded a survey on peri-urban agriculture in Windhoek and Oshakati (two of the
principal towns in Namibia). The overall objective of the study was to assess the
potential contribution of peri-urban vegetable production to income generation and
improvement of nutrition status of poor households in 2 selected cities and
municipalities in Namibia. The research showed that urban and peri-urban agriculture
is practised by over 70% of the residents ((Dima et al., 2000 and Ogunmokun et al.,
2002). Over twenty-three types of vegetables and fruit trees are grown on tiny plots,
but the main ones are maize, beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, watermelon, sweet
potatoes and pepper. The household members consume most of the produce and
this contributes to the improvement of their nutrition. Many producers are willing to
expand their plots if they are assisted with some inputs, whilst those with no gardens
have expressed interest to start vegetable gardens, if they are provided with space
and initial capital. Existing marketing outlets are limited to the locality. Most
vegetable production takes place during the summer rains supplemented by water
from the municipal water taps, which have now become very expensive. Animal
production is limited to small stock and poultry, while fishing is only a seasonal
activity. The absence of policy on urban and peri-urban agriculture is seen as a
serious constraint towards its intensification and development.
Pilot project: Small scale agriculture with digested solid waste and waste water
The main objective of this pilot project, sponsored by the European Union, was to
expand vegetable farming in urban and peri-urban areas through interdisciplinary
research on the use of digested solid waste and waste water in peri-urban vegetable
production to improve the standard of living in Goreangab ‘location’ (an informal
settlement of Windhoek).
A mason and some artisans were trained in the construction and maintenance of the
Integrated Biogas Systems while the community members received training in the
management of the system and in vegetable production.
Due to delays suffered from non-cooperation of Windhoek Municipality in the initial
stages of the project, there was no adequate time to generate enough data to reach
concrete conclusions on the efficiency of the use of Integrated Biogas System for
peri-urban vegetable production. Moreover, the cost of building the biogas system

88
was higher than previously anticipated and beyond the means of the targeted
community members. This affected the proposed transfer of the technology to other
communities.
Despite these problems, the introduction of the integrated biogas system yielded
positive results (Ogunmokun A. A, Mwandemele O. D. and Mubiana. F., 2002)
including:
• Provision of irrigation water and digested organic manure for the production of
vegetable and fruit tree, leading to improved household nutritional status and
the provision of income through the sale of excess vegetable products.
• Provision of biogas that is used for cooking thereby reducing deforestation of
the locality and the pollution of the nearby Goreangab Dam.
• Enhancing understanding and appreciation among the officials of Windhoek
Municipality of the concept of urban vegetable production and its benefits of
poverty alleviation within the informal settlements
• Creation of awareness and interest in Integrated Biogas System among the
community members and relevant Ministries
Study: Impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural production, household food security
and nutritional status
This study is part of an FAO Integrated Support to Sustainable Development and
Food Security Programme (IP) regional initiative involving Namibia, Uganda and
Zambia and was sponsored by the Norwegian Government through FAO.
The aim of the initiative was to gather disaggregated quantitative and qualitative
information on the impacts that HIV/AIDS has on agricultural production and food
security within the broader context of other constraints.
The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows (Ogunmokun, 2003):
• Loss of agricultural knowledge: HIV/AIDS has contributed to a loss of
knowledge in crop management, pest control, soil fertility, crop and produce
storage, freshwater fisheries, forest products, and traditional livestock
management. The lack of knowledge is affecting the uptake of improved farming
practices.
• Labour patterns: Among HIV/AIDS’ effects on labour allocation is the loss of
labour due to illness or death and the out migration of youths from the farm to
look for waged labour. The pandemic has also contributed to some changes in
gender roles and relations with women spending more time looking after the sick,
and less time on their productive activities especially those related to farming.
• Household finances: The reduced availability of household labour, declining
crop productivity and yields, sale or loss of assets, and increasing demands on
household financial resources are all contributing to greater poverty. This has
implications on food security and nutrition, people’s susceptibility to HIV/AIDS,
and communities’ resilience to the negative impacts of other phenomena.
• Household food security and nutrition: Households recognize the importance
of good nutrition for the sick and the young, but poverty and increased numbers
of dependants are preventing them from obtaining appropriate foods.
Households’ access to food is negatively affected by reduced labour availability
(and the resultant declines in crop areas cultivated and crop yields), declining
household income bases and the effects of asset loss. Consequently, the most
vulnerable groups (orphan-headed and female-headed households) reported that
they had to decrease their number of meals, often consumed inadequate
amounts of key foods and food groups (such as starchy staples, animal products,
legumes, fruits and vegetables), and at times had an insufficient amount of food
for the entire household. Forty three percent of all households in the survey

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sample stated that they had experienced food shortages during the month prior to
the survey. Widow- and orphan-headed households were less able to cope, with
a high proportion of 63% and 55% of these households respectively reporting a
food shortage. Affected households’ increased food insecurity is forcing them to
depend more on relatives for help, and this is damaging their sense of dignity and
self-respect. Based on this study, appropriate response strategies and activities
were developed, one of which is described below.
Pilot project: Farmer Field and Life Schools as a response strategy to HIV-AIDS
AIDS orphans and female-headed households are among the poorest-of-the-poor
within Namibia and efforts to help them are difficult. At a minimum, these children
and households need targeted and concentrated assistance to achieve any measure
of increased year-round food security and increased household income. As a
response to the growing number of orphans and widows, MPC (Multi Purpose
Consultancy) and other partners -with technical advice of UNAM in horticulture and
irrigation, technical backstopping from FAO, feeding scheme from WFP and
sponsored by the Finnish Embassy in Namibia- established two pilot Farmer Field
and Life School (FFLS) projects (one junior and one adult) in the Endola area of
Ohangwena. The junior FFLS is designed specifically for orphans and vulnerable
children (OVC; in particular the HIV/AIDS orphans), and the adult FFLS, is designed
to target poor and vulnerable adults (widows and female-headed households)
affected by HIV/AIDS.
Twenty four facilitators (extension workers, teachers, social animators, civil society
volunteers) who were trained over a period of 9 days were used to implement the
FFLS projects.
Thirty orphans and vulnerable children between 12–18 years of age and thirty
widows were trained for a period of 6 months in agricultural (field preparation, sowing
and transplanting, weeding, irrigation, pest control, utilization and conservation of
available resources, utilization and processing of food crops, harvesting, and storage
and marketing) and life skills (Interpersonal skills in teamwork, communication,
human relations and social interaction; entrepreneurial skills). The curriculum has a
practical agricultural bias, covering both traditional and modern agricultural practices.

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The following are the positive and visible outcomes of both FFLS projects in Endola.
• Enhancement of the link between education and agriculture to promote
holistic education for rural children and vulnerable adults.
• Competent and assertive agricultural and life skills among vulnerable youths
and adults.
• Improved learning processes and outcomes in adult educational programmes.
• The importance of agriculture and its contribution to personal well-being,
nutrition and food security was well demonstrated.
LESSONS LEARNT
Lack of an adequate policy on urban agriculture
From the experience gained in these projects, the main factor that strongly influences
the success of urban agriculture projects that aim to positively influence nutrition and
income situation in households affected by HIV/AIDS is the absence of a policy on
urban agriculture in Namibia. This lack of policy (and therefore lack of
recognition/acceptance of urban agriculture by government and municipal officials)
constrains the development and intensification of urban agriculture. In the case of
project 2 described above, it took the Windhoek Municipality two years to accept the
implementation of the project within its boundaries. The absence of policy also meant
that urban producers neither get technical advice from extension officers nor get
considered for financial and other support usually availed to rural producers.
Therefore, the production of vegetables and fruits fit for human consumption cannot
be assured.
Most urban agriculture-taking place in Namibia is carried out in the backyards with
very few carried out in urban open spaces. Due to lack of policy on urban
agriculture, the municipalities have no areas demarcated for urban agriculture.
Consequently, those who use open spaces for urban agriculture do so illegally,
although the municipal officers rarely trouble them. However, animal husbandry
within urban boundaries is very strictly controlled and in fact discouraged.
While few chickens may be kept for some time for home consumption, municipal
officials would impound other animals found within the municipal boundaries.
The non-allocation of land for urban agriculture makes it difficult, if not nearly
impossible, for prospective urban farming projects to start. However, Municipal
officers, due to their sensitivity to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, may now be willing to
allocate land in the fringes of their boundaries for peri- urban agriculture projects.
Being the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, water is the main limiting factor to any
form of land husbandry in Namibia. Water for agricultural purposes has the least
priority in Namibia compared to water for human consumption and for industrial
purposes. Even within the allocation of water for agriculture, water for irrigation is
rated much lower than water for animal consumption. Meanwhile, water is the most
important input in urban agriculture in Namibia. The most common source of water
for urban farming is rainwater sometimes supplemented by tap water. In Namibia,
rainwater is very limited (30-550 mm per year) unreliable and falls within a relatively
short period (late November-early March). The cost of tap water is high (over US$
1/m3
) and this might affect the success or failure of urban farming projects for
alleviating the nutrition and income plights of HIV/AIDS affected families. The studies
show that water is expensive compared to the returns from urban agriculture.

91
Any organization venturing into any urban agriculture project in Namibia should first
ensure that there would be a reliable and cheap source of water for the project. This
will require serious negotiations with the Municipalities on availing land close to the
municipal wastewater recycle plants for the project. Another solution may be to grow
high value crops, which can then be sold for cash that will pay for the water and other
inputs as well as generate some income.
Some of the projects considered ways of making water more available to urban
farmers such as rainwater harvesting, reuse of wastewater and use of water from
rivers and canal (there is a 160km long water canal running through many of the
towns in north central regions of Namibia where nearly half of the population lives).
Water harvesting for individual garden projects require the purchase of water tanks
costing between US$ 50-US$500 for unit ranging from 1m3
to 10m3
. This initial cost
is well beyond the means of most urban farmers except with external funding. Some
municipalities (especially Windhoek) recycle their wastewater and make them
available at cheap rates for watering grass and flowers but not for agriculture
purposes. The water recycling method using the integrated biogas digested
(described above) is also very expensive and beyond the means of most individual
households. Results from this project, however, indicated that the products from the
digesters are safe for human consumption (a major fear of many people involved in
the projects).
An irrigation method that was found simple, affordable and effective is the Family
Drip System (FDS). This system was piloted at UNAM and is found not only to be
efficient in applying water but also to be cost effective. Water is collected in a raised
drum and is conveyed through PVC lateral pipes to simple drippers. This method
covers twice the area that is normally covered by surface irrigation methods. The
FDS is used for irrigation of small & medium plots, backyard gardens etc from 100 m²
to 2000 m². The system has been used for irrigation of vegetables, orchards, fruit
trees, row crops and greenhouses. The FDS, being gravity-based, does not require
any energy source for its operation and it is suitable for all types of soils, climates,
and water sources and on flat land or slight slopes. The cost of this system is about
US$ 200 per 1000 m2
. The system was also introduced to the JFFLS plot at Endola
and it is working perfectly.
Reduction of labour requirements
Most urban agriculturalists rely on their own labour to perform agriculture activities.
However, households affected by HIV/AIDS spend more time looking after the sick

92
and less time on their productive activities, especially on urban agriculture. In some
cases, older children are used to take care of their siblings and to help in urban
farming, sometimes to the detriment of their schooling. In many cases the urban
gardens were completely ignored or abandoned.
There are two possible approaches to reduce the effects of the loss of labour in
affected households. One approach is to make use of labour efficient/labour saving
agricultural practices and the second one is to encourage cooperation among urban
farmers through cooperatives and support groups. There are already many
HIV/AIDS support-groups and organisations formed to offer other psychosocial
support to affected members. By pooling their labour and other resources together,
members involved in such projects would be able to carry the labour requirements of
the farming when some other members are sick or indisposed.
The right mix of crops, trees and animals
The model developed by FAO and used in the Junior FFLS in Endola contains:
• Staples (traditional millet, sorghum, maize, sweet potatoes) to fill the stomach
• The Vegetable garden (beans, carrots, tomatoes, green pepper and spinach)
and Fruit trees (pawpaw, granadilla and guava, aloe) to provide a healthy
growth
• Medicinal plants (garlic and other herbs) to boost the immune system
• A chicken house to raise indigenous chickens for egg production and as
supplementary for income generation. Alternatively: goat or rabbit keeping
These range of crops and animals result in production of food products that can
guarantee balanced diet and improved nutrition.
The diversification of enterprise to include chicken, goat or rabbit keeping can be
used to expand the base of income generation. Another enterprise that could be
considered for diversification of urban agriculture is aquaculture. The market potential
for fish is good and it has high nutritional value. Wherever water is available,
aquaculture can be easily combined with horticultural production in an integrated
system.
Institutional aspects
For the full potential of urban agriculture to be realised, there is need for government
departments, the municipalities and the private sector to be involved.
The government and the municipalities can provide a conducive policy environment
that encourages the producers to grow high value vegetables, fruits, poultry and
small stock using sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies. The policy
should embody an allocation of responsibilities amongst the concerned authorities in
respect to legal recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture, guidelines on the
correct husbandry practices as well as the protection of the environment for
sustainable production.
Any successful project should aim at fully utilising existing structures and institutions.
There are several Municipal departments such as the Urban Planning, Social
Welfare, Water Affairs, and AIDS Coordinating Committee etc that should be
involved in drafting policies and laws to promote urban agriculture as well as
providing resources such as land, water etc for the success of the projects. Also
inputs from several Ministries are required: the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and
Forestry (providing extension technicians to conduct training on various livestock &
crop production activities to urban producers groups and HIV-Aids affected families;
nutrition and food security monitoring), the Ministry of Health and Social Services
(provision of training on HIV/AIDS issues and provision of affordable health care
services), the Ministry of Women Affairs, Child Welfare and Gender (provision of
training on gender issues and assistance in the selection of project participants).

93
Non-Governmental Organisations (like Africare, AIDS Law Unit, Namibia Red
Cross Society and Catholic AIDS Action) can provide HIV/AIDS affected households
with counselling services and home-based care, organisational support to farming
groups, technical training, and so forth. They should be seen as active partners in
any project activities. Community Based Organisations (e.g. LILONGO EPARU,
TKMOAS, Namibian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NNP+) and OMWENE
TULENGENE) can contribute by providing home based care to infected and affected
HIV/AIDS households and awareness creation and advocacy on how urban
agriculture can positively improve the health, nutrition and financial status of
HIV/AIDS affected households. Educational Institutions (University of Namibia
and Agricultural Colleges) can provide technical backstopping and training in
agricultural production and food processing through their community development
programmes. International Organisations (e.g. FAO, WFP, UNDP, UNAIDS,
WHO) can provide their international backing and ability to attract funds. Public and
Private Financial Institutions (like Agribank) can provide financial backing in terms
of grants and soft loans and supplementary funding for agricultural projects with
HIV/AIDS affected communities.
Ensuring sustainability
The sustainability of urban agriculture projects can therefore be defined as the ability
of the projects to keep going continuously without failing for as long as they are
needed. This implies the ability to institutionalise the whole idea of urban farming and
sustain it with appropriate funds in order to meet the nutrition and food security
demand of HIV/AIDS affected households now and in the future. All the stakeholders
identified above need to work jointly and for common purpose under the framework
of existing structures. One such structure that could be used in Namibia is the Food
Security and Nutrition Secretariat in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and
Forestry, which already coordinates food security and nutrition issues in conjunction
with other relevant stakeholders.
The sustainability of the field approach should take into account the economic,
ecological and social dimensions. This means that the ability to produce sufficient,
affordable, quality food, while protecting the environment and biodiversity and
ensuring that farming is economically viable and contributes to the well being of the
HIV/AIDS affected households.
A major limitation to any urban agriculture project aimed at generating income is the
lack of proper market structures to market the produce from the farms. An
HIV/AIDS group in Odibo (Northern Namibia) started producing vegetables, but there
was no market for the surplus, so the garden failed. Of joint importance to marketing
as limitations for generating income are inadequate processing and storage of the
excess produce. Processing and storage of the produce can result in properly
packaged nutritious food that can be helpful to HIV/AIDS patients, babies and elderly
people; and can keep for long and be marketable at the local shops. So, an effective
way to upscale production of urban agriculture projects is to introduce proper market
structures as well as promote proper storage, grading and packaging of produce. Of
course this, and other strategies aimed at up scaling urban agriculture, will work only
if and when the concept of urban agriculture has been institutionalized and
recognized by the government in form of policy.
References
DIMA S. J., A. A. OGUNMOKUN: AND T. NANTANGA (2002) The status of urban and Peri-urban
agriculture in Windhoek and Oshakati Namibia. ftp://ftp.fao.org/sd/sdw/sdww/nam_periurban_02.pdf
MULTI PURPOSE CONSULTANCY (2005) Meeting the challenge of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods in
Namibia. Report submitted to the Embassy of Finland, Windhoek Namibia. Feb. 2005.
OGUNMOKUN A. A.; O. D. MWANDEMELE AND S. J. DIMA (2000): Use of Recycled waste water from
biogas digesters for vegetable production in the Goreangab Dam Area of Windhoek Municipality. 1
st

94
WARFSA/WaterNet Symposium on Sustainable Use of Water Resources: Advances in Education and
research. Maputo, Mozambique, 1
st
- 2
nd
Nov. 2000.
OGUNMOKUN: A. A., S. J. DIMA AND T. NANTANGA (2002) How much farming is taking place in
urban areas? Presented at the conference on “Towards a civil and caring society” on 17-19 June 2002
at the University of Namibia, Northern Campus
OGUNMOKUN A. A, MWANDEMELE O. D. AND MUBIANA. F. (2002) The use of biogas as alternative
fuel source in the Goreangab Dam Area of Windhoek, Namibia. Presented at the Regional Workshop on
the Renewable Energy and its applications for the Rural Development, at the Ministry of Mines &
Energy, Windhoek, Namibia, 18th
-19th
July 2002.
OGUNMOKUN A. A. (2003) Impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural production, household food security and
nutritional status in Ohangwena Region of Namibia. Report submitted to FAO Rome.
ftp://ftp.fao.org/sd/SDW/SDWW/namibia_hiv_aids_survey_2003.pdf

95
3.16. POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION BY MOA BOTSWANA
D.L. Keboneilwe and M.E. Madisa
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE BOTSWANA
Gabarone, Botswana
INTRODUCTION
The Ministry of Agriculture of Botswana is currently coordinating Urban and Peri-
urban Agriculture initiatives, in line with its main policy objective of food security. As
the country is faced with various challenges of rapid urbanization, declining economy,
growing urban poverty and HIV/AIDS, urban agriculture has become increasingly
relevant for the country. So far few studies have been carried out on urban
agriculture. Mosha (2001) and Byerley (1996) indicate that urban agriculture is not
employed in Botswana in a scale comparable to other developing countries.
However, there are indications that urban agriculture is growing and is contributing
considerably to income generation, employment creation and poverty alleviation
(Hovorka 2004).
‘
The policy interest on urban agriculture was necessitated by the following:
Rapid urbanization. The recent Population and Housing Census Report indicate
that the urban population now stands at 52% (CSO, 2001).
Growing urban unemployment that stands at 21 % (GoB/UNDP, 2002)
Growing urban poverty. The current national situation with respect to poverty is
that about 36.6% of the population is living below the poverty datum line (UNDP,
2002). Whist the 1997 Botswana Institute for Development and Policy Analysis
Poverty report showed urban poverty to be lower than rural poverty, a recent
report by UNDP on poverty indicated that urban poverty was now on the increase
(ibid.)
HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses a huge challenge for the nation at
large. Botswana is among the Southern African Countries which are hard-hit by
the HIV/AIDS pandemic with about 17% of its population infected (CSO 2002).
Furthermore an estimated 35.8% incidence of HIV/AIDS in the productive age
group i.e. 15-49 years has been noted by the UNDP, 2002 report. The
government of Botswana approach to tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic is multi-
sectoral, with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in the forefront on issues of food
security, nutrition and poverty alleviation. Within MOA is an HIV/AIDS
Coordinating Unit has been set up to ensure that HIV-AIDS issues are
mainstreamed in the agricultural sector.
Policy development on urban agriculture
Such socio-economic and demographic trends have prompted the government to
explore Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA). The idea is to come up with a Policy
on UPA as it has been recognized through research and various consultative
workshops that it has the potential to contribute to the enhancement of household
food security, improvement in household nutrition, income generation, creation of
employment, poverty alleviation, waste management and beautification and greening
of cities & towns.
MOA has put together a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary taskforce to push
for the development and inclusion of UPA in National Development Planning
processes. The policy statements that indicate commitment to UPA has already been
included in the current National Development Plan. The Taskforce that comprises of

96
various stakeholders from both central and local government, NGOs and private
sector was set up in 2001, immediately after the first national workshop on UPA was
held. Two more consultative workshops were held in 2003 and 2005 to consolidate
issues on the development of the UPA policy. The UPA initiative has also been
officially launched by the Minister of Agriculture in 2004. It was deemed necessary to
launch the initiative in recognition of the fact that UPA is already in progress. It was
also meant to raise awareness and show stakeholders that MOA is committed to the
UPA initiative.
A draft working paper on UPA has been development and is yet to be finalized and
be considered by the Ministry of Agriculture Policy Advisory Committee.
Support at project level
The MOA is implementing certain projects which are geared at meeting the food and
nutrition objectives that also takes into consideration the HIV/AIDS. These include:
Having demonstration gardens in offices as a way of encouraging communities
to develop backyard gardening
Producing booklets for vegetation production to guide individual families and
communities on how to produce vegetables
Provision of formal and informal training in agricultural training centres
Provision of technical assistance on production and marketing aspects of
home and community gardens to individuals, families and communities, 4B-
youth groups (in or out of school), women groups, clinics and home based care
groups
Building partnerships with NGOS and private sector on implementing urban
agriculture. The Department of Crop Production and Forestry (DCPF) together
with “Never Ending Gardens,” a faith based organization from the USA,
implement a partnership project and completed planting 6500 vegetables plots in
homes of disadvantaged households in Gaborone.
LESSONS LEARNT
The experiences gained by the MOA indicate that for the successful implementation
of urban agriculture policies and projects it is important that:
Participatory approaches are applied in the planning, implementation and
monitoring of these policies and projects
Costs and benefits of urban agriculture projects should be shared by all
stakeholders involved in these projects
De-stigmatise urban agriculture projects by making them as open as possible to
anyone interested in improving their nutrition. The draft Policy Paper has chosen
to use this strategy in order to ensure that UPA catches on without being
stigmatized and/or associated with HIV/AIDS.
We recommend these as the basic principles or essential components to be
considered when coming up with such projects.
References
BIDPA (1997). Study of Poverty and Poverty Alleviation in Botswana. Ministry of Finance and
Development Planning, Gaborone.
BYERLEY, A. (1996). Urban Agriculture in Botswana: A Preliminary Investigation of Extent, Issues and
Potential. Working Paper 307. Uppsala, Sweden: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
International Rural Development Centre.
GOB/CSO (2002). Agricultural Statistical Report: 1998.
GOB/CSO (2001): 2001 Population and Housing Census. Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
Gaborone.
GOB/CSO (2000). Statistical Bulletin. March 2000 Volume 25 No.1

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GOB/MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT PLANNING (2001). Annual Economic Report.
Gaborone.
GOB/UNDP (2002). Botswana Poverty Reduction Strategy Report, Gaborone.
GOB/MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (1991). National Policy on Agricultural Development. Gaborone.
HOVORKA A. J. (2004). Commercial Urban Agriculture in greater Gaborone: Form & Function,
Challenges & Prospects. Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies.
MOSHA A.C. Urban Agriculture in Botswana: Challenges and Prospects (2001). Published in
Proceedings of the National Workshop on Peri-Urban Agriculture. Eds. Keboneilwe & Hovorka.

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3.17 SEZENI FOOD GARDEN PROJECT, ART OF LIVING FOUN DATION
Nyameka Ndashe
ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION
INTRODUCTION TO ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION AND THE SEZENI PROJECT
Art of Living (AOL) is an international NGO represented in 140 countries throughout
the world. Since 2002 AOL is registered as a Non Profit and Public Benefit
Organization in South Africa.
Art of Living implements programmes that eliminate stress, create a sense of
belonging and restore human values such as compassion, non violence, generosity
and an ethic of service and caring for all lives.
AOL implements innovative projects relating to health, education, sustainable
development and conflict resolution. AOL is run almost exclusively by dedicated
volunteers.
The Sezeni Food Garden Project in Silver City was started in September 2004 and
was initiated by the volunteer Nyameka Ndashe, who after having received basic
training in food gardens was inspired to start a community food garden in her own
neighbourhood Silver City in order to feed the hungry people in her community. As an
AIDS orphan, activist and caregiver, she was motivated to help those who were
malnourished and having to take strong medication on empty stomachs.
The project has been initiated from grassroots level by mobilizing a small group of
volunteers and making door to door visits to people that are living with HIV/AIDS
assisting them to care for the sick while raising their awareness on the importance of
good nutrition and the potential of having a food garden.
The primary objective is to create food gardens as local centres for skills
development & learning regarding urban agriculture and establish group food
gardens in order to uplift communities, challenged by HIV-Aids, unemployment &
poverty. Next to food crops, also indigenous flowers, plants and herbs are grown.
The food gardens will:
• Enhance awareness and empowerment to those affected & infected with
HIV/AIDS
• Improve diets and reduce poverty
• Enhance quality of life of those affected or infected with HIV / AIDS
• Enhance support from local service providers, NGO’s, local & National
Government
Land was obtained from the Municipality (total 3 hectares in several large plots).
Through effective lobbing the support was obtained of the Department of Agriculture
that supplied seeds and an application for a container (soup kitchen), water tanks
and piping for rainwater collection and irrigation, etcetera is in process.
Permaculture provided training on organic farming practices and Art for Living
supported organisational development and management skills development.
Other organisations supported with fencing materials and compost or manure.

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The training includes -next to gardening, nutrition education and other skills
development (e.g. broidery)- also a relaxing therapy, named Breath Water Sound, as
many poor HIV-infected participants are heavily stressed and the breathing therapy
-as well as the food gardening- empowers individuals to take responsibility for
themselves and ensure a healthy diet by cultivating fresh food.
The increasing level of energy within the individuals taking part in the gardening
groups, is then utilised to uplift the environment around them
LESSONS LEARNT
Up to date 3 community gardens have been established that are all producing
organic food to feed those that are hungry in her community. The food produced is
used by the participating families and given for free to those households in the
community that cannot afford to pay and sold to others for a nominal amount, thereby
creating funds that continue to enable her to buy seed for her gardens.
The gardens serve as a place of learning for all those who have an interest in fresh
food. It forms as a platform to uplift the community and to enhance the quality of life
for those living with HIV/AIDS.
In our approach the basis of each urban agriculture project is the development of
each individual. The spark may be there in these communities to undertake food
garden projects, however they do not have the level of energy that it takes to see
these projects through. Breath Water Sound is a key component and essential tool to
bring about the transformation within each individual. The focus of the project with
regards to HIV / AIDS is that we focus on the health & development of the individual,
rather than the illness.
The following benefits have been reported through food gardens in conjunction with
Breath Water Sound therapy:
• Increase in Energy
• Improved sleeping patterns & mood elevation
• Decrease in depression
• Reduction of Stress ( Trigger for opportunistic infections )
• Strengthened Immunity ( CD4 Count increases )
• Improved overall health & well being
• Positive Outlook on life

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We have a mixture of people with positive & negative HIV status working on the
project. This ensures, that the persons that are in good health condition, can support
the project, when others are too weak to work in the gardens. The project ensures
that the food is distributed to the weakest first and then to the affected families, and
finally to community / market. Breath Water Sound again, is a valuable tool, to
increase the level of energy of those infected and affected by HIV /AIDS.
Production aspects
Important crops for HIV-infected persons are spinach & garlic since people suffering
with AIDS have a natural craving for spinach & garlic. It satisfies their nutritional
needs and is readily available, easy to grow and continues to provide over a period of
time. Garlic is useful for mouth & throat thrush. Aloe is another local plant that is
extremely useful for skin problems. The introduction of herbs is important in order to
treat day to day ailments.
Gradually we will introduce organic farming and permaculture techniques.
Organizational aspects
Community Gardens are often plagued by local politics around land issues and theft
of vegetables. It is essential that everyone in the community is on board, supporting
the food garden initiative. This can sometimes be a lengthy process; however it is
better to have this in place, than experience problems later on down the line.
All people working in the community garden should also be encouraged to initiate
small gardens in their own homes. This has already started in the Silver City area.
A main obstacle in community gardening is the mind set of the poor and HIV-infected
people. People in impoverished environments are often looking for quick results and
are often not thinking in the direction of food gardening. The community members
view gardens as low rank employment.
The provision of Breath Water Sound in families affected & infected by HIV, will go
along way in getting individuals to take responsibility for themselves and their
communities, as well as increasing capacity for developing food gardens, especially
when the families are also being educated regarding the value of food gardens &
proper nutrition in supporting HIV AIDS affected families, which is essential. Those
community members that have a genuine interest to work with food gardens are in
the best position to motivate and train the other families to develop food garden
projects.
The training provided through the food gardens should not be limited to gardening
alone but offer various skills development programmes, so that everyone in the
community find something of their own interest within the framework of the garden.

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3.18 FALSE BAY HOSPITAL COMMUNITY GARDEN
Wendy Crawford and Karen Jordi
FALSE BAY HOSPITAL GARDEN PROJECT TEAM
INTRODUCTION
False Bay Hospital (FBH) in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, has allocated 2ha of the
grounds as a gesture of social capital investment. The allocated ground is being
developed as a Community Garden using the organic and sustainable approach of
Permaculture methods. The aim is to create a sustainable and productive model of
urban agriculture that can support poverty alleviation by addressing the issues of
food insecurity, health and empowerment through skills development. A Non-Profit
Organization is in the process of being established formally, to administer the project
and the Project Team will be formally appointed when the NPO is registered.
There are two core components to this project:
• The development of a Community Garden. A variety of edible flora will be grown
including herbs, vegetables and fruit. During the development process, the first
yield will support household food security for the gardeners and their families and
the second yield will be purchased by the False Bay Hospital for use in the
hospital kitchen. Over time the mature garden will become a commercially viable
market garden supporting the hospital and local community.
Total growing area of 5,400 m2
comprising 30 allotments (30m long x 10m wide)
separated by hedges (approx. 1m) for windbreaks. Each allotment will have six
beds (1m wide) separated by paths (0.5m wide). A no-dig method is used to build
the beds upon the ground without disturbing the soil and compost and mulch are
used to raise the beds. Two circular beds have been developed and planted with
a selection of vegetables and herbs applying companion planting and succession
to encourage bio-diversity and natural pest control. Average lifecycle per
allotment is 90 -105 days.
Recycled water from the hospital autoclave and rain water collected from the
hospital roofs into a retention pond will be used in the garden for gravity fed drip
irrigation.
The organic matter in the soil is increased to build soil life and increase soil
fertility, by production of compost on site using locally available/grown resources,
earthworm composting of organic kitchen waste (hospital kitchen & neighbouring
residents) and production of organic liquid fertilizer with ingredients grown in the
garden. Also mulching is applied to keep the soil covered which prevents water
evaporation and to enhance humus content and encourage micro-organisms.
Multi-cultural groups will gather in the garden to share in learning, skills-
development, capacity building and research. Trainee-gardeners will work in the
garden under the supervision of the garden manager. A total of 20 gardeners
(male & female) will participate in the production activities under the guidance of
a Garden Manager. It is not possible at this stage to project the number of
households/persons that will be indirectly involved (e.g. consumers of products,
producers of inputs e.g. compost, etc.).
The Dept. of Agriculture in the Western Cape (LandCare division) has supported

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infrastructure development by installing fencing and gates, and providing water
tanks and pipes for recycling water from the hospital autoclave, the gravity fed
drip irrigation system, tools and a wooden office/store.
• The development of a Training Programme, which will have an annual intake of
10 people running over two years. It will be a parallel process to the community
garden empowering the gardeners by equipping them with skills and practical
experience in urban gardening. When the gardeners leave the garden at the end
of the two year period they will be able to implement these skills in their
communities. As they become more self-sufficient, they will be empowered to
teach others to become self-reliant too. The training programme will be compliant
with the South African Qualifications Association (SAQA). The process to develop
the training programme will be managed by the Project Team and training will be
offered by registered facilitators. The Garden Manager will supervise and monitor
the practical implementation of the theoretical lessons. The 2-year training
programme will be offered free of charge to the trainee-gardeners. Trainee-
gardeners will work in the garden to gain practical experience. Second year
trainee-gardeners will mentor first year trainee-gardeners
LESSONS LEARNT
The success of the False Bay Hospital Community Garden project will depend largely
on the ability:
• To attract additional funding to cover the costs of completion of the garden
infrastructure, setting up the training programme and paying the project team
• To secure effective planning and management by the project team
• To obtain active community participation in the garden development and
training programme and wider social development
• To develop adequate business models and marketing strategies/plans
In order to replicate this model on a wider scale it is important to enhance:
• Awareness and commitment from government to tackles the issues of poverty
and HIV/AIDS in South Africa
• Commitment and vision from civil society organizations

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• A willingness from the Minister of Health to embrace the role that urban food
production can play in HIV/AIDS mitigation programmes
• The mandatory inclusion of social objectives as per the King Report for
businesses according to the new BEE Plan
• Enhance acceptance of the Urban Agricultural Policy for the Western Cape
and its inclusion into the Integrated Development Plan of Cape Town

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3.19 EMERGING FARMERS PROJECTS, WES-KAAP UBUNTU FARMERS’
UNION
Ann September
Wes-Kaap Ubuntu Farmers Union (WEKUFU)
INTRODUCTION TO WEKUFU
WEKUFU is not for profit farmers’ organization established in 2002.
The mission of WEKUFU is to develop a strong, democratic capable of representing,
promoting and supporting the interests of the emerging, previously disadvantaged
farmers and addressing the imbalances of the past.
Its main objectives are to assist the establishment of local farmers’ associations &
groups, to train members on organizational systems and procedures, to co-ordinate
the setting up of savings and credit schemes, to resolve problems and conflicts, to
negotiate on behalf of its members in order to remove constraints in terms of land,
water, financial and other resource issues and to assist emerging farmers with Phase
1 of the Land Reform process and act as observer during further phases.
WEKUFU receives funding from the European Union, the Belgium Government and
the Department of Social Services and Poverty alleviation. Members pay
membership fees which are kept at a minimum
WEKUFU has initiated with different parties in March 2005 a process, to establish as
a pilot in the West Coast District Municipal Area, two clusters of emerging small
producer groups who have gained access to land in one form or another (Pelrivat
and Klaver projects). These two projects were started in March 2005 and scheduled
for completion for both these projects is 31 May, 2006.
The Pelrivat project is being implemented in the south of the West Coast.
Beneficiaries here already have gained access to land and water and the main
challenge for these producers is their lack of basic capacity and reduced access to
relevant support structures for development. In the northern part of the West Coast,
where the Klawer project is in progress, there are the added difficulties concerning
access to land and water WEKUFU is negotiating with large commercial farmers and
is elaborating with the District office for the Department of Social Services on a plan
to acquire land and to establish food gardens in this area for growing vegetables.
The purpose of the trial program with the 2 clusters is:
a. to build the capacity of the local producers in production of foodstuffs through
improved structures of community co-operatives,
b. to develop the health and wealth of local communities, including households
affected by HIV/Aids, who are dependent on agricultural production for their food and
income.
A project team has been established to manage the two projects simultaneously. The
entire project has been divided into three phases:
Phase 1 – Planning stage: Consultation with Beneficiaries and Role players,
Drawing up of Business Plans, Soil Sampling, Market Scooping, etcetera
Phase 2 – Preparing stage: Establishment of Mechanisation centre, Preparations
for the formation of Co-operatives; Training of participants; Negotiations with
markets; Planting preparations

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Phase 3 - Implementation stage: Start up of co-operatives; Planting and growing of
vegetables; Harvesting and supplying the market
With help of the Department of Agriculture we managed to do soil analysis as a basis
for planning the most optimal use of the land available. We also take into account the
advice of the HIV/Aids network regarding nutritious crops for people living with HIV-
AIDS.
On behalf of its members, WEKUFU buys inputs and feed in bulk. In this way we
secure the best prices for our members.
To make tools and equipment accessible for those who need it, we have established
mechanization centres with the support of municipalities in specific areas. Our
current cluster projects make provision for tools and other equipment to be shared
amongst members.
LESSONS LEARNT
WEKUFU has experienced that for urban agriculture projects to be successful it is
important to:
• To assist members in the lobby for access to land and water for agriculture.
WEKUFU members partner with churches, municipalities and other institutions to
gain access to land for the purposes of establishing food gardens or other micro
farming projects. In the past we lobbied government, and will continue to do so,
to provide land. In some cases we negotiate with commercial farmers to make
land available in some form or enter into BEE partnerships with our members.
In some areas where WEKUFU is active, creating access to water is a major
issue. Often our members have to resolve to water saving measures such as
channelling kitchen and bath water into tanks from where it is used for irrigation.
Methods for retaining moisture in the ground are also being employed. In areas
where there are limited quantities of water, members are also focusing on the
production of meat which requires less water then the production of vegetables.
• Ensure participation, capacity building and planning for sustainability
Beneficiaries and those affected should be consulted during the planning phase
of a project for subsequent implementation. Capacity building through training
should be conducted once such needs have been identified. Planning for
sustainability needs to be of a high priority and adequate mentoring should be
provided once funding has been procured. To ensure sustainability, our members
have access to our services and assistance on a permanent basis. We have
dedicated field workers in the different municipal areas to service people in those
areas. Mentoring is provided continuously even if projects are concluded.
Because WEKUFU choose not to provide assistance in the form of cash to
beneficiaries, we have eliminated much of the problems generally associated with
providing such a service. Instead, funding is utilized to establish an infrastructure,
acquire inputs, tools and equipment as inexpensive as possible, etcetera.
• Establish strategic and active partnerships. This positively influences the
implementation of projects and helps to ensure sustainability of such projects.
Developing and encouraging working partnerships with departments and
organizations across all sectors, has proven to be of great value to this
organization as well as to its members. WEKUFU managed to align itself with the
following organizations: Dept. Social services and Poverty alleviation provides
funding, Dept. Agriculture and Land affairs regularly assist with technical support,
Municipalities have provided much of the land we acquired in the past; Agri-
business sectors supplies inputs, feed etc, at reduced prices; HIV/Aids action

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groups partner with us in the planning and implementation of projects to address
the issues of nutrition and income in the larger community; with Surplus People’s
Project (SPP) we undertake collective action and share resources; Goedgedacht
Agricultural Resource Centre (GARC) consistently share their technical
knowledge and experience to the benefit of our members; West Coast
Community Foundation (WCCF) provides much needed capacity building for the
organisation; Other civil society organizations ensure a market for our produce.

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3.20 URBAN GARDENING PILOT PROJECT OF AMICAALL-MBABANE
Sebenzile Nxumalo,
AMICAALL
Mbabane, Swaziland
INTRODUCTION
The city of Mbabane has a population of about 57,992 people of which 43% is young
people within the age bracket 15-34 years. (CSO, 1997) The city is divided into 12
wards, which comprise of formal and informal settlements. Informal settlements tend
to be densely populated.
It being the country’s administrative city, most of the governmental and none
governmental organizations are housed in Mbabane and many people migrate to this
city in search for jobs. The migration contributes to the spread of HIV infection,
poverty, prostitution, malnutrition, homelessness and overcrowding.
Seeing the threat of HIV/AIDS to the urban population African mayors formed an
Alliance to deal with HIV/AIDS issues within municipalities, known as the Alliance of
Mayors Initiative for Community Action on AIDS at the local level (AMICAALL).
The Swaziland AMICAALL programme was formally launched in August 2005.
AMICAALL’s mission is to improve the capacity of local government and urban
communities to identify and resolve problems associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic
and to mobilize a comprehensive, community based, effective and sustainable multi-
sectoral urban response for the reduction of infection and effects of the epidemic on
urban residents and
As part of these efforts AMICAALL-Swaziland implemented an urban gardening pilot
project, with the following objectives
1. To promote trench gardening as a strategy for urban food security
2. To mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on vulnerable families
3. To promote consumption of micro nutrients
A total of six families were identified in Emncitsini area, is a mountainous informal
settlement in the outskirts of the Municipal Council of Mbabane. Selected families
were those, which either had an elderly person as the breadwinner, child headed or
where the breadwinner was sick. These were poverty stricken families, due to
inability to provide for self as a result of the reasons highlighted above.
A radio show was conducted to sensitize targeted population and local authorities
and a series of informal meetings were convened for target families and project
partners, including as consultation meeting with the community HIV/AIDS team
where volunteers from the community were identified. This was done to ensure
continuation and sustainability of the project, post implementation by the change
group.
A two day training on trench gardening was provided to the beneficiaries and
seedlings were procured with funding from UNDP. HIV-AIDS Community volunteers
provided digging tools and manpower to dig the trenches and planting of seedlings.

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To ensure follow up at community level, the community action committees and the
health motivator were entrusted with follow up visits to the project site and monitoring
progress.
LESSONS LEARNT
• The project was well received by target population and other stakeholders as
a mitigation strategy.
• There is need to designate a full time coordinator for this kind of projects to
ensure sustainability and support from the Municipal Council.
• Urban agriculture needs to be institutionalized within Municipal council to
ensure access to resources such as a budget line for urban farming projects.
• There is need to network with the Ministry of Agriculture and cooperatives so
as to ensure technical support. A two day training is too short and the
participating families and community development officers lacked sufficient
farming skills and knowledge.
• Due to illness some participating families did not have a person who could
look after the garden; hence its viability is at stake. More group solidarity and
mutual assistance is needed.
• Other problems encountered are: Lack of water to water the garden, chickens
from neighbouring homes entered the gardens and spoiled the plants (and
hence the need to provide fencing for the gardens)

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4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The participants in the Study visit on Urban Micro-farming and HIV-AIDS analyzed
the experiences gained in the programmes and projects implemented by each of
them, during the field visits as well as during meetings.
They came to the following conclusions and recommendations.
CONCLUSIONS
A. Lessons learnt regarding food security, nutrition and HIV-AIDS
1. Adequate nutrition cannot cure HIV-infection, but can enhance life
expectancy and the quality of life of HIV-infected persons substantially.
Balanced diets are essential to maintain body weight and muscle tissue,
replace lost vitamins and minerals, strengthen the immune system and
thereby reduce the susceptibility to opportunistic infections and enhance the
ability to fight such infections (e.g. diarrhoea, TB, respiratory infections),
improve the response to treatment and delay the onset of full blown AIDS.
The first thing families affected by HIV-AIDS in low income neighbourhoods
ask for is always food, rather than medicines, counselling or care.
2. However, strange enough, food is rarely made the focus of HIV-AIDS
mitigation programmes and many HIV-affected households find it difficult
to follow the nutrition recommendations provided to them due to lack of
access to fresh nutritious food.
3. Where food aid is used to supplement the diets of HIV-infected persons, the
personnel involved rapidly recognise that this is not a sustainable solution and
that a more structural solution is needed to ensure access of HIV-infected
families to nutritious food and income. Local food production projects can
generate both requirements. Such projects are especially effective during the
early stages of HIV-infection before developing into stages requiring
antiretroviral treatment (ARV’s).
4. Adequate nutrition is also essential to optimize the benefits of ARV-
treatment: the ARV’s are more effective if the treated persons are well
nourished which is normally not the case in low income neighbourhoods. “It is
like building a house. If you have a roof but there are no walls and no
foundation, the house is not very useful. If you include drug therapy but you
do not have adequate nutritious food, you will not be able to fight the
infection”17
. ARV’s may even be harmful to undernourished people. Hence,
food and nutrition programmes are all the more important with the increasing
access to ARV-treatment in developing countries.
B. Lessons learnt regarding the impacts of urban gardening projects
1. Urban micro-farming projects have shown the following positive impacts:
17
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a. Higher food intake and better diets; improved health, better resistance
against opportunistic infections, more physical activity, better response to
treatment and delayed full blown AIDS
b. Savings on food expenditures and complementary income
c. Improved quality of life, less stress, more self esteem,
d. Social benefits: enhanced community building and social inclusion;
enhanced skills development and problem solving capacity; enhanced
income earning capacity; social and ecological education of young people;
reduction of crime and drug abuse
e. Improved urban living climate: enhanced recycling, cleaning up derelict
areas, city greening, more shade, less dust, savings on food transport and
energy costs
2. The experiences of the participants and projects visited indicate that the social
and nutritional impacts of community micro-farming initiatives can be
greatly enhanced by:
a. Realizing a strong coordination between conventional HIV-AIDS
programmes (often larger scale with many health workers and home
care volunteers working assisting the HIV-affected households) and
CSOs and CBO’s promoting urban micro-gardening (often with limited
staff and resources and mainly focussing on assisting groups and
providing social and technical training)
b. Encouraging community centres, schools, churches and other
CBO’s in low income neighbourhoods to run supply centres
c. Using existing institutional and community gardens as a demonstration
garden, training centre and seed production and distribution unit.
d. Making a systematic effort to promote home gardening (small plot,
container gardening, raising small animals, mushrooms in barn or cellar,
etcetera)
e. Paying more attention to scale and the creation of larger allotment
gardens especially close to very dense shanty towns with little
possibilities for home gardens (e.g. in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the
Municipality created a 20 ha allotment garden with 1000 allotments for
families with low income and HIV problems, which is provided with the
recycled water of the municipal treatment plant).
C. Lessons learnt regarding the resources needed for urban micro farming
1. No large tracts of land are needed for successful urban micro-farming.
20 m2 of land per family already improves nutrition substantially, with 150 m2
a family can provide most of its vegetables year round and with 500 m2, a
substantial complementary income for the family can be generated (next to
feeding the family)
2. Use of available micro-spaces for herbs and food production at
household level has to be promoted as much as possible prior to
lobbying for land with government and other institutions
3. Many community groups have been successfully acquiring access to
land by approaching local councils (public land), or by acquiring land leases
from local schools, hospitals, clinics, community centres, etcetera.
4. However, access to public and private land for micro-farming (especially
close to low income neighbourhoods) has to be enhanced, security of land
use has to be improved and a more systematic approach seems to be

111
required (see recommendations below)
5. Next to land, irrigation water and fencing are essential investments for
most micro-farming projects. Often micro-farming groups initially receive
access to water through local schools, churches, clinics etcetera. However,
this often leads in later stages to discussions on the price of the water.
Investments in water harvesting infrastructure (gutters for rain water
collection from roofs, drains for street storm water diversion into gardens,
water tanks) or wells/boreholes or supply of water from other sources at
a subsidised rate are needed in order to reduce use of drinking water and
related costs.
Water saving irrigation (drum, bottle and drip irrigation) and cultivation
practices (ridging, mulching, no till, use of compost and teas, etcetera) can
reduce water needs substantially.
6. Emerging micro-farming community groups in low income neighbourhoods
also need initial provision of inputs (especially seeds and compost) and
simple tools preferably in the form of a group revolving fund. Such
supply can be realised through supply centres initiated by CSO’s in the city.
7. Resource needs can be reduced by:
a. Keeping technologies as simple as possible in the beginning (survival
level)
b. Using all available local sources to the maximum e.g. sourcing of
inexpensive second hand tools and equipment and composting of urban
organic wastes, get help in the form of transport (composted wastes)
c. Training the group in growing their own seed and seedlings in seed
beds and simple nurseries and the creation of seed banks and sharing
seeds through networks
d. Encouraging to barter agricultural products for labour, manure, compost
etcetera
8. No single institution can carry the burden of financing all investments needed
and providing the required technical and socio-organizational guidance: a
well coordinated multi-stakeholder approach with public-private-
community partnerships, joint planning and shared budgeting is
required (e.g. CSO or CBO: awareness raising, group building, action
planning, lobbying, monitoring, problem solving and technical training; Min of
Health: promotion of food production through health workers, HIV-AIDS and
nutrition training, link with home based care, etcetera; Municipal Council:
provision of land, fencing, water harvesting infrastructure or well; Dept. of
Agriculture: provision of irrigation pipes and pumps, seeds and seedlings,
animals, training of government extension officers in urban micro farming;
Dept. of Education: inclusion of nutrition and gardening in the school
curricula; Dept. of Planning: inclusion of UA in land use zoning and of home
gardens in design of new neighbourhoods)
9. From the start of the community micro-farming activity mobilisation of group
resources and savings has to be built in as a routine to develop feelings of
ownerships, group discipline and accumulate some money for investments
needed next season (seed, compost, etcetera) and to develop the
infrastructure further.
Emerging micro-farmers at survival level require a high level of subsidy
in the provision of the basic infrastructure and inputs required. Also, to
boost the step from one level of the development continuum to the next level,

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e.g. from survival level to subsistence, or from subsistence to livelihood level,
requires substantial external input. However, the level of group savings and
reinvestments should increase gradually.
Financial institutions to be encouraged to provide for savings and credit
schemes for/with urban farmers.
D. Lessons learnt regarding community participation, organisational types of
micro-farming, group building and training
1. Important steps in the development of a community micro-farming project
are:
• Collection of available information with regards to: Policy and legislation
issues regarding urban agriculture; Nature and essential characteristics of
the target community, their livelihood strategies and needs; Existing
farming practices and challenges; Nature and operations of the
community structures
• Identification of institutional and local stakeholders and available
resources and potential sources
• Sensitization of local politicians on the benefits of urban agriculture a/o in
the light of the campaign against the HIV-AIDS epidemic, a/o by
presentation of statistics and facts on urban agriculture in collaboration
with research institutes and participation of politicians in forums and field
visits
• Get approval and support of -and work through- existing local
organizational and leadership structures; avoid conflict
• Careful identification and mobilization of the beneficiaries; Start small with
good people;
• Group formation and social skills development; for existing groups: define
criteria for providing technical and financial support (e.g. access to land
and water with written approval of the owner; quality of leadership,
etcetera)
• Establishment of demonstration sites;
• Technical training in food production in combination with nutrition, cooking
and HIV/AIDS training
• Assist the community groups in resource mobilisation (local, with
institutions and enterprises)
• Provision of starter packages to the beneficiaries;
• Establishment of basic monitoring and evaluation systems: joint definition
of evaluation criteria for each stage of the development continuum;
training in record keeping
• Mentorship programme: during one to two years a facilitator should
periodically visit the groups and assist them in problem solving, conflict
management, strategic planning, how to learn from their actions and the
problems encountered and provide follow up training. However, facilitators
should take care to prevent dependency of the group and they should
understand well the requirements of each stage of the development
continuum.
• Design of outreach and multiplication strategies; Upscaling of micro-
farming
2. Communities are willing to work hard to provide food to HIV/AIDS
infected and affected community members as long as they receive a
subsidy to cover their costs. Participants normally provide their labour for free
with the hope for future subsidies, food and income.

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3. In order to prevent stigma and to overcome the problems related to the
limitations of HIV-infected persons to provide their labour on a regularly basis, it
is recommended that beneficiaries work in groups & share labour and that micro-
farming groups are open and accessible to all poor and vulnerable
households in the neighbourhood, rather than restricted to HIV-infected
households only. Also having a good mixture of older people (wiser, more
staying power) and younger people (more innovative and working power) is
important.
The experience gained also indicates that it is important that groups continuously
seek to include new members (to be able to overcome the problems related
with high mobility and disease and death of group members). However, incoming
members should be willing to work in the community garden and establish their
own home garden (no free riders). A small membership registration fee is
recommendable.
It is recommended that the volunteers (often from HIV affected families
themselves) to take part as a member in one of the groups that they are
assisting, so that they share in the produce and receive an incentive for their
work in that way.
Since many urban people, especially male adolescents, have a negative attitude
towards farm work, it is important not just to promote plot gardening (with strong
association with traditional field farming) but to involve the youth in more
“modern” types of micro-farming: mushroom growing, organic hydroponics,
growing and processing medicinal herbs, vermiculture, aquaculture, raising small
animals, etcetera) as well as in non-farming activities related with the garden
centre like running a soup kitchen, a visitors service and restaurant, arranging for
marketing and transport, waste collection and production of compost, etcetera. In
this way the garden will become a vibrant centre of a variety of agriculture
related, food and income earning activities for people with varying interests
4. Important reasons for failure of community micro farming projects are the
following:
a. Apathy and mentality (dependency, money for work) of the poor and HIV-
affected families involved
b. Local politics interfering in the group
c. Lack of democracy and group management skills; dominating leaders
d. Underdeveloped group cohesion, lack of group rules and discipline
e. High mobility
f. Group conflicts e.g. on leadership, tenure issues, distribution of costs
(notably labour) and benefits
g. Service providers and donor agencies that force the groups to formalise at
a moment these are not yet ready for it. Such service providers and donor
agencies apparently have little understanding of the various stages of the
development continuum.
h. Lack of farming knowledge and skills
i. Lack of organisational, technical or financial support
From the above it may be clear that many reasons for failure have to do with the
socio-organizational aspects of these projects. This is why community groups
that engage in farming need to be well trained and guided not only in the
technical aspects but especially in group building and socio-organizational
skills: overcoming apathy, creation of a spirit of community cooperation and
volunteerism, mobilization of savings, group building, joint decision making and
action planning, conflict management, record keeping, resource mobilisation and
accounting, lobbying and advocacy, Horizontal action learning. Training should

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be undertaken after analysing the available skills in the groups/community and
should build on such strengths and fill gaps.
In the initial stages the group should avoid appointing formal office bearers and
committees but rather work with plenary management involving all members in
the decision making and implementation of group decisions through mandated
groups. Volunteers should be servant leaders not decision makers.
The inclusion of “celebration” (“ilima”) type of activities is very important for group
building.
It is also very important to develop linkages between groups engaged in micro-
farming so that they can learn from each other (horizontal action learning) and
can develop partnerships (joint buying of inputs or selling of surpluses, joint
lobbying, etcetera)
Formalization and registration of community groups may enhance the access of
the group to resources (e.g. subsidies).
5. Home gardens have a number of advantages for the HIV affected families
over community gardens or institutional gardens: close by the home so more
easy to protect from thieves; less time involved in travelling; farming activities can
be performed at the moments that this is most convenient for the family and
farming activities can be more easily combined with household chores, resting,
etc; the family can grow the crops and raise the animals that they prefer. Storm
water harvesting and reuse of household waste and grey water can easily be
practiced.
However, amounts of food produced often are limited due to the often limited
amount of space available for farming activities around the homes in low income
neighbourhoods, although with techniques as trench bed gardening, use of
vertical spaces, container farming, hydroponics, etcetera good results can be
achieved and an essential contribution to family diet and herbal medication can
be achieved.
An important disadvantage of home gardens for the participating HIV affected
families is that there is less support from other families in moments of illness and
chances of problems with non farming neighbours are higher in dense
neighbourhoods.
Through supply centres (organised by community centres, schools or other
CSO’s) seed and seedlings of selected crops, herbs and trees and basic tools
can be supplied at low cost to large numbers of households in the most
endangered communities. CSO’s working in that area can supply training to the
households lacking basic gardening skills.
Once the HIV affected families have been trained in the skills needed and
supplied with the required inputs and technical guidance, the home based micro-
farming activities often take off rapidly and are maintained well since the time
investment is directly benefiting that same household.
6. Community driven gardens have stronger social benefits
Allotment gardening is of practiced by people that do not have a home yard
and have jointly been able to get access to a piece of land that is subdivided in
small plots of a size sufficiently large to provide a substantial part of the family
food needs. They will work their individual plot and thus maintain relative freedom
as regards when to work their garden, choice of crops, etcetera. The allotment
garden contributes to community building and the individual gardeners can
expect more support from fellow gardeners in critical periods. The garden
organisation also makes it easier to jointly buy tools and inputs at cheaper rates
and to market surpluses.

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One of the disadvantages of the allotment garden for the HIV-infected household
may be that they have to invest time and money in meetings and in maintaining
the joint infrastructure of the allotment garden. The allotment garden may also
need more investment in fencing, irrigation infrastructure, sheds, etcetera which
makes it more difficult to get started and enhances the dependency on external
sources of funding.
Moreover, the management of the garden requires some group discipline and
adherence to jointly agreed rules regarding e.g. participation in garden
maintenance, soil/water management, use of chemicals, etcetera.
Communal gardening refers to a group of people in similar conditions (women,
orphans, PLAW, vulnerable households) that support each other in a joint farming
undertaking that they individually are not able to implement. The group
undertaking has a high therapeutical and instructional value for the participants.
The group farming activity may yield food that is shared or wholly or partly sold to
generate income.
A disadvantage of this type of micro-farming may be the high requirements its
poses on group management and group cohesion, setting and maintaining clear
rules regarding participation in the work and the sharing in the costs and benefits.
This is more strongly so, when the farming activity has a stronger commercial
character.
7. Institutional driven gardens are managed by an institution (clinic, hospital,
community centre, prison) often to serve their own clients (HIV patients, school
children, poor or HIV affected families in the neighbourhood, prisoners, etcetera)
Institutional driven gardens can spark enthusiasm for food growing in the
community by demonstrating the results of such activities and offer a space for
training and instruction. The institutional gardens also may be used as seed
and seedlings production unit for distribution to families with the aim to stimulate
home gardens (e.g. school children taking home the seeds to plant in containers
and home plots)
Institutional driven gardens often lack continuity due to the dependence on a few
motivated staff of the institution (which have their holidays or move to other jobs).
Also community participation and feelings of community ownership are much
less, sometimes also due to low trust of the people in the institution concerned.
Institutional driven gardens require a paid caretaker in order to ensure proper
management and maintenance.
E. Lessons learnt regarding appropriate technologies for urban micro-farming
1. Technologies recommended for urban micro-farming with/for HIV-Aids
affected families (especially at the lower levels of the development
continuum) should be easy to manage, low cost, labour saving and space
saving. Some labour saving technologies are: trench gardens (once
established), no till, water harvesting and drip irrigation, fast maturing plants
(like indigenous plants), plants that allow continuous harvesting, etcetera.
Some space saving technologies include multi-storey gardens, use of roofs
and window sills (e.g. vines, medicinal herbs), cellars and barns (e.g.
mushrooms, vermiculture), hanging bags and baskets, containers, green
walls, tower gardening in crates, aqua trap, zero grazing units (o/a dairy), tire
systems (poultry o/a)
2. Ideally the gardens should include a mix of crops: energy giving crops
(e.g. potatoes and sweet potatoes), high protein crops (e.g. legumes),
micro nutrient rich crops (e.g. green leafy vegetables, yellow and orange
fruits), medicinal herbs (e.g. garlic, sour fig, dandelion, ginger, lemon grass),

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perennial (fruits, nuts, fodder, mulch, nutrients) and animals (fish, eggs,
poultry meat, etc for protein and micro nutrients).
It is important to incorporate indigenous crops (wild edible plants= imifino =
traditional crops like black jack, amaranth, spider weed, cowpeas, orange
fleshed sweet potato, lambs quarter, calabash, wild mustard, quick weed,
etcetera, as a complement to conventional crops, since these are nutritious,
easy to grow, also in marginal soils since they make more efficient use of soil
nutrients and in low rainfall conditions. The crop can be harvested daily from
three onwards during 4-6 months, in a period while the conventional crops are
still growing. Hardly any weeding.
3. Soil fertility management is crucial to urban gardening taking into
account the limited spaces available (hence need for intensive land use)
and the often degraded and compacted urban soils. Double digging,
trench gardening, sheet and common mulching, composting, vermiculture,
use of grey water from households (including nutrients) are some of the
recommended technologies
4. Since HIV-Aids affected people may be negatively affected by traces of
chemical fertilizers and pesticides all urban micro-farming with /for HIV-
infected people should be organic
5. In the experience of the participants the initial training in intensive micro-
farming will have a duration of 5 -12 days (depending the degree of farming
experience of the participants and whether the training focuses on gardening
only or includes animal husbandry). The follow up training requires a
minimum of 12-18 monthly visits of ½ to 1 day each.
6. Main subjects to include in technical training of urban micro-farmers
are:
A. For gardens:
Planning and implementing a vegetable gardening project; organisation of
resources and getting started; setting up and managing a group; project
planning; working with money
Maximum production in minimum space using very little water and all
available resources (low input gardening);
Planning a vegetable garden; choosing the site, laying out the garden for
maximum production
Properties of good soils; Soil preparation: single and double digging,
trenching,
Successful sowing of seed, seed-saving, thinning and transplanting; Simple
plant propagation techniques
Vegetable types, and their specific needs; including indigenous crops
Planting techniques – interplanting, succession planting, companion planting
and crop rotation; Seasonal planting
Protection of the garden – wind, sun, heat and cold, pests, theft
Growing vegetables in containers
Basic garden maintenance – watering, mulching, weeding, transplanting
Controlling pests without poisons
Fertilising the natural way; organic fertilisers and teas; mulching, compost-
making from urban organic wastes, vermiculture
Harvesting and what to do with the harvest (processing, storage, proper
cooking for health; marketing)

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Keeping garden records
Dealing with problems experienced in gardens - problem soils; sinking
beds; unhealthy plants; pests and pest control; people problems
B. for animal keeping A similar list could be prepared for keeping of animals
(that preferably should be confined and stable fed). However, due to scarcity
of time we could not do that during the workshop.
C. General
Nutrition and Basic Health and Sanitation education with a focus on
HIV/AIDS, including a/o: special eating needs for people living with HIV-Aids,
special needs of patients with ARV’s, additional nutrition needs of pregnant
and lactating women and infant feeding choices to reduce mother-child
transfer; use of medicinal herbs and other local remedies for frequent health
problems; promotion of key foods and nutrients; changing dietary and food
preparation habits; promotion of water and food hygiene; additional feeding
after infection to compensate food losses, positive living, amongst others
All technical (agricultural) training should be combined with training on
the above mentioned health and nutrition aspects for optimal effect.
Training in waste recycling (for income, irrigation water and nutrients)
Training regarding potential health risks associated with urban farming and
how to prevent these: food hygiene, simple treatment of household
wastewater, proper animal waste management, proper water storage
practices, etcetera
F. Lessons learnt regarding Monitoring and Evaluation of Micro-farming
projects
1. Monitoring and Evaluation activities have to be built in all micro-
farming projects. M and E is first and for all an important tool for action
learning and decision making in the micro-farming groups but also generates
data that are of high relevance for policy makers and funding organizations.
Participatory definition of monitoring and impact evaluation criteria (e.g.
frequency of meals; income; weight; costs, etcetera), establishment of a basic
monitoring system, training in simple record keeping and evaluation methods
has to be part of the training of each micro-farming group.
2. The evaluation criteria have to be well adapted to each stage of the
development continuum (Survival. Subsistence, Livelihood, Commercial)
3. Documentation, systematization and dissemination of the lessons
learnt in successful urban agriculture programmes in relation to HIV-
Aids is urgently needed. This includes the analysis of the impacts of urban
micro-farming on nutrition, health, income of HIV-infected persons and their
families and related social costs and benefits of urban micro farming.
G. Lessons learnt regarding main constraints for urban micro-farming
1. Important constraints encountered by the urban micro-farmers are:

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- lack of adequate policies, regulations and programmes on urban
agriculture due to lack of understanding of the impacts of urban
agriculture among policy makers leading to a negative attitude towards
urban agriculture, overemphasis of the associated risks and
underestimation of the positive impacts of UA
- Limited access to land of water and high insecurity of land/water use
- Lack of external technical and financial support
- Lack of cooperation and coordination between national and local
Government and Civil Society Organisations
- Lack of attention for the food security and nutrition components of
HIV-AIDS programmes
RECOMMENDATIONS TO POLICY MAKERS
1. Central Government to put in place a Policy framework that recognises and
supports urban agriculture as a distinct land use option in urban areas (by
formulation of new or review of existing policies and regulations)
2. Municipal authorities to develop, in consultation with Civil Society, appropriate
guidelines to govern the conduct and practices of Urban Agriculture as a sustainable
approach to meeting the food and nutritional requirements for the urban poor, taking
lessons from existing civil society UA projects.
3. Institutionalisation of urban farming in the Municipalities, e.g. by
• Strengthening the mandate of the Municipalities regarding agricultural activities in
the Municipal area
• Creation of a interdepartmental office for urban agriculture and food security that
stimulates and coordinates urban food production initiatives and land allocation,
in close cooperation with community and farmer organizations
• Promoting integration of urban agriculture projects in relevant sectoral budgets
(agriculture, education, health)
4. Strongly enhance public – private cooperation in the design and implementation
of urban food production and nutrition projects.
5. Promotion of inclusion of local food production activities in all existing HIV-
AIDS programmes and application of an integrated multi-sectoral approach.
6. Support knowledge accumulation and network development a/o by:
• Establishing a task force and resource centre on urban agriculture and food
security
• Funding documentation of successful projects and dissemination of
lessons learnt
• Promotion of exchange visits especially between UA-practitioners
• Funding applied research on urban agriculture (see also recommendation #
9)
7. Enhance access to land for urban micro farming and security of land tenure
by:
• Provision of low cost longer term leases of public lands to micro-farming
groups

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• Promotion that schools, clinics, churches and private land owners establish
longer term land leases with micro-farming groups (e.g. by giving tax
incentives to land owners who do so)
• Inclusion of home and/or community gardens in the design of new
settlements and slum upgrading projects
• Integrating urban farming into urban development plans and land use zoning
Land for urban micro-farming projects should be located close to the beneficiaries’
residential areas in order to minimise transport costs, time and energy, ease of
monitoring & security of produce, enhance participation and to facilitate supply of
fresh vegetables to the community
7. Provision of funds and materials for the development of the infrastructure for
micro-farming (fencing, water harvesting and irrigation infrastructure, quality seeds
and seedling, compost)
8. Establishment of an integrated water policy including water harvesting, reuse of
grey water, sustainable water utilization, affordable pricing, etcetera
9. Inclusion of research on issues relating to urban agriculture technology and its
impacts on health, nutrition, local economy and environment in the agenda of
research institutes and universities a/o by increasing funding for such research (e.g.
research on sustainable water harvesting management; on economic and social
costs and benefits of UA projects, on strategies to minimalize the health risks
associated with urban agriculture).
Research should focus on solving key problems met by urban farmers and be
participatory and action oriented. Farmer knowledge and innovations have to be
taken into account.
10. Stimulation of access to credit for urban farmers e.g. by providing guarantees
to micro-financing institutions. The financing institutions should link up with local
savings mobilization schemes and provide matching funds to savings mobilized by
the communities.
11. Enhancing access to markets a/o by provision of market information and
training and supporting the establishment of local farmers markets in the low income
communities.
12. Incorporating urban agriculture in educational institutions e.g. school
curriculum
RECOMMENDATIONS TO INTERNATIONAL FUNDING AGENCIES
1. Take a long term view re development of urban farming, food security and
income-raising
2. Facilitate networking and information exchange between
people/organizations on the ground involved in urban micro-farming and HIV-
AIDS.
3. Assist organizations of urban producers to lobby for policy change and
access to land and other resources
4. Support farmer led research and technology development activities on
urban micro-farming
5. Support local savings and micro-credit schemes of urban producer
organizations and related financing institutions

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6. Provide international expertise to assist in the formulation of policies and
strategic programmes regarding urban micro-farming and HIV AIDS at city and
national level
7. Support the realization of awareness campaigns and policy seminars
regarding urban micro-farming and HIV-AIDS in cities in Southern Africa in
cooperation with RUAF and AMICALL
8. Provide seed funding (matching funds) for community led urban micro-
farming projects (incl. training workshops and follow up support, infrastructure
development, etcetera) organized by the participants on the basis of the lessons
learnt in this study visit
9. Support the production and publication of a manual focusing at CSO’s and
local farmer organizations, including:
a. Guidelines regarding the formulation and implementation of urban micro-
farming projects focusing on mitigating the effects of the HIV-AIDS epidemic in
low income neighbourhoods,
b. Training materials regarding the various political and institutional, socio-
organizational, technical and nutritional aspects of such projects
10. Support the organization of a second study visit in countries with different
socio-economic conditions than in the Republic of South Africa (initial target
countries: Uganda/Kenya) that also will serve to review the progress made by the
participants in this workshop

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5. FOLLOW UP ACTONS PLANNED
Towards the end of the study visit all participants developed an individual action
plan describing the activities to be undertaken in their own organization and
programme in order to strengthen the integration of urban micro-farming in existing
HIV-AIDS programmes and enhancing the focus of existing urban agriculture
programmes on HIV-AIDS affected families and communities.
In six month time the organizers of the study visit will contact each of the participants
to monitor progress made and to assist in overcoming problems.
Participants also agreed on a number of joint follow up activities, and appointed the
persons/organisations responsible for coordinating each activity, resulting in the
following plan:
a. Preparation of a Press release with main conclusions and recommendations of
the study visit (ETC-RUAF/CTA/Abalimi)
b. Establishment of a regional forum on urban agriculture and HIV-AIDS with
email-list serv for ongoing exchange and cooperation on urban food production
and farming and HV Aids issues (ETC Urban Agriculture: Email list serv; MoA
Botswana, UNAM and Kampala City: coordination)
c. Production of the proceedings on the study visit (ETC-RUAF) and its
publication on CTA and RUAF websites
d. Production and distribution of a multi-media DVD including a video of the
micro-gardening projects visited, the presentations made by the participants and
the proceedings of the workshops (CTA, ETC-RUAF)
e. Preparation of a proposal and generation of funds for the production and
publication of a manual on urban micro-farming and HIV-Aids (Soil for Life,
Abalimi and ETC-RUAF coord., CTA, and other organisations in Editorial
Committee)
f. Preparation of a documentary on the urban agriculture farmers movement in
South Africa (Abalimi, ETC-RUAF)
g. Preparation of a proposal and generation of funds for a second group Study
visit on this subject (Hosting city: Kampala) in a year from now (Kampala City
Council coord.)
h. Share successful micro-farming technologies; establish database (Abilimi
coord.; ETC-RUAF)
i. Attract seed funds for community led micro-farming projects (
j. Joint formulation of a regional support programme “Gardens of Hope” that
will supply technical assistance to local governments, NGOs and CBO’s and
other organizations willing to integrate urban micro farming in their HIV-AIDS
mitigation programmes and so-funding for local project initiatives on Urban Micro-
farming and HIV-AIDS. (ETC-RUAF coord.; Core group)

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ANNEX 1 PARTICIPANTS
Participants Country Organization/function
Mr. J. Woodend The Netherlands Programme officer CTA
Mr. H. de Zeeuw The Netherlands
Coordinator ETC Urban Agriculture /
Resource Centres on Urban
Agriculture and Food Security
(RUAF)
Mr. M. Masoka Zimbabwe Programme Coordinator Actionaid
Mr. N. Sigauke Zimbabwe Social Scientist ITDG
Mr. A.A. Ogunmokun Namibia Academic Researcher UNAM
Mr. G. Chisenga Zambia
Chief Operation Officer Catholic Aids
Action
Ms. M.S. Azuba Uganda
Agricultural officer Kampala City
Council - Gender and Community
Services Unit
Mr. R. Kabuuka Uganda
Senior economist Kampala City
Council -District Planning Unit
Mr. A. Cassamo Mozambique
Agricultural Development coordinator
Maputo City Council
Ms. D. Keboneilwe Botswana
Primary Rural Sociologist Ministry of
Agriculture
Ms. S. P. Nxumalo Swaziland
HIV/Aids Coordinator Mbabane City
Council
Mr. J.O. Onyatta Kenya
Chief Scientist DRD-Min of E,S&T
Kenya
Mr. J. Onyango Kenya Executive Director KAIPGG
Mr. J.Tembo Zambia
Technical Inform. & Comm. Manager
Project CONCERN Int. Zambia
Mr. S. Chanda
Fikansa Zambia
Program manager Catholic Diocese
Ndola
Ms. H. Pheto South Africa Director Food Gardens Foundation
Ms. J. Park South Africa Director Food and Trees for Africa
Ms. P. Featherstone South Africa Director of Operations Soil for Life
Ms. W.L. Crawford South Africa Consultant False Bay Hospital Garden
Ms. C. McClintock South Africa Head Sparrow Rainbow Village
Ms. C. Pendula South Africa
Trainer Co-operative & Policy
Alternative Centre
Ms. P.N. Ndashe South Africa
Programme coordinator Art of Living
Foundation
Mr. Jon S. Mc Cosh South Africa
Project Manager Institute of Natural
Resources
Mr. B. Johnson
Njokwe South Africa Agricultural coordinator INR
Mr. R. Small South Africa
Resource mobilisation Abalimi
Bezekhaya
Ms. A. M. September South Africa
Vice Chairperson Weskaap Ubuntu
Farmers Union

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Annex 2 Role and main sources of protein and micro-nutrients
Protein
What can high-protein foods do for you?
• Keep your immune system functioning properly
• Maintain healthy skin, hair and nails
• Help your body produce enzymes
What events can indicate a need for more high-protein foods?
• Muscle wasting
• Weight loss
• Fatigue and weakness
• Frequent infections
• Severe edema (fluid retention)
• Slow growth and development in children
Excellent sources of protein include beef, lamb, soybeans, tuna and shrimp.
Vitamin A
What can high-vitamin A foods do for you?
• Preserve and improve your eyesight
• Help you fight off viral infections
What events can indicate a need for more high-vitamin A foods?
• Frequent viral infections
• Night blindness
• Goose bump-like appearance of the skin
Although vitamin A is found only in foods of animal origin, some fruits and vegetables
contain compounds, called cartenoids, which can be converted into vitamin A by your
body. Food sources of preformed vitamin A include calf liver, milk, and eggs. Very
good sources of cartenoids include spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers
and kale.
Vitamin B1 (thiamin)
What can foods high in vitamin B1 do for you?
• Maintain your energy supplies
• Coordinate the activity of nerves and muscles
• Support proper heart function
What events can indicate a need for more foods high in vitamin B1?
• Loss of appetite
• "Pins and needles" sensations
• Feeling of numbness, especially in the legs
• Muscle tenderness, particularly in the calf muscles
Very good sources of vitamin B1 include asparagus, romaine lettuce, mushrooms,
spinach, sunflower seeds, tuna, green peas, tomatoes, eggplant and Brussels
sprouts.
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
• Help protect cells from oxygen damage
• Support cellular energy production
• Maintain your supply of other B vitamins
• Sensitivity to light
• Tearing, burning and itching in and around the eyes

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• Soreness around the lips, mouth, and tongue
• Cracking of the skin at the corners of the mouth
• Peeling of the skin, particularly around the nose
Excellent sources of vitamin B2 include mushrooms, calf's liver, spinach and
spelt.
Vitamin B3 (niacin)
• Help lower cholesterol levels
• Stabilize your blood sugar
• Support genetic processes in your cells
• Help your body process fats
• Generalized weakness or muscular weakness
• Lack of appetite
• Skin infections
• Digestive problems
Excellent sources of vitamin B3 (niacin) include crimini mushrooms and tuna. Very
good sources include salmon, chicken breast, asparagus, halibut, and venison.
Vitamin B6
• Support a wide range of activities in your nervous system
• Promote proper breakdown of sugars and starches
• Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood
What events can indicate a need for more high-vitamin B6 foods ?
• Fatigue or malaise
• Anemia
• Skin disorders including eczema and seborrheic dermatitis
• Convulsions or seizures
Excellent sources of vitamin B6 include bell peppers, turnip greens, and spinach.
Vitamin B11 (folate)
What can high-folate foods do for you?
• Support red blood cell production and help prevent anemia
• Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood
• Support cell production, especially in your skin
• Allow nerves to function properly
What events can indicate a need for more high-folate foods?
• Irritability
• Mental fatigue, forgetfulness, or confusion
• Depression
• Insomnia
• General or muscular fatigue
• Gingivitis or periodontal disease
Excellent sources of folate include romaine lettuce, spinach, asparagus, turnip
greens, mustard greens, calf's liver, parsley, collard greens, broccoli,
cauliflower, beets, and lentils.
Vitamin B12
What can high-vitamin B-12 foods do for you?
• Support production of red blood cells and prevent anemia
• Allow nerve cells to develop properly

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• Help your cells metabolize protein, carbohydrate, and fat
What events can indicate a need for more high-vitamin B-12 foods?
• Red or sore tongue
• Tingling or numbness in feet
• Nervousness
• Heart palpitations
• Depression
• Memory problems
Excellent sources of vitamin B-12 include calf's liver and snapper.
Vitamin C
What can high-vitamin C foods do for you?
• Help protect cells from free radical damage
• Regenerate your vitamin E supplies
• Improve iron absorption
What events can indicate a need for more high-vitamin C foods?
• Poor wound healing
• Frequent colds or infections
• Lung-related problems
Excellent sources of vitamin C include: parsley, broccoli, bell pepper,
strawberries, oranges, lemon juice, papaya, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens,
and brussels sprouts.
Vitamin E
What can high-vitamin E foods do for you?
• Protect your skin from ultraviolet light
• Prevent cell damage from free radicals
• Allow your cells to communicate effectively
What events can indicate a need for more high-vitamin E foods?
• Digestive system problems, especially malabsorption
• Tingling or loss of sensation in the arms, hands, legs, or feet
• Liver or gallbladder problems
Excellent sources of vitamin E include: mustard greens, chard, sunflower seeds,
and turnip greens. Very good sources include almonds and spinach.
Calcium
What can high-calcium foods do for you?
• Maintain healthy, strong bones
• Support proper functioning of nerves and muscles
• Help your blood clot
What events can indicate a need for more high-calcium foods?
• Frequent bone fractures
• Muscle pain or spasms
• Tingling or numbness in your hands and feet
• Bone deformities and growth retardation in children
Excellent sources of calcium include milk, yogurt, spinach, turnip greens,
mustard greens, and collard greens.
Iodine
What can high-iodine foods do for you?
• Help ensure proper thyroid gland functioning
• Ensures the development and proper functioning of the brain and nervous
system

126
What events can indicate a need for more high-iodine foods?
• Goiter (enlargement of the thyroid gland)
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Depression
• Weight gain
Concentrated food sources of iodine include sea vegetables, yogurt, cow's milk,
eggs and strawberries.
Iron
What can high-iron foods do for you?
• Enhance oxygen distribution throughout your body
• Keep your immune system healthy
• Help your body produce energy
What events may indicate a need for more high-iron foods?
• Fatigue and weakness
• Decreased ability to concentrate
• Increased susceptibility to infections
• Hair loss
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Brittle nails
• Apathy
• Depression
Excellent food sources of iron include chard, spinach, turmeric and thyme.
Magnesium
What can high-magnesium foods do for you?
• Relax your nerves and muscles
• Build and strengthen bones
• Keep your blood circulating smoothly
What events can indicate a need for more high-magnesium foods?
• Muscle weakness, tremor, or spasm
• Heart arrhythmia, irregular contraction, or increased heart rate
• Softening and weakening of bone
• Imbalanced blood sugar levels
• Headaches
• Elevated blood pressure
Excellent sources of magnesium include Swiss chard and spinach. Avoid
overcooking to minimize loss of magnesium.
Selenium
What can high-selenium foods do for you?
• Protect cells from free-radical damage
• Enable your thyroid to produce thyroid hormone
• Help lower your risk of joint inflammation
What events can indicate a need for more high-selenium foods?
• Weakness or pain in the muscles
• Discoloration of the hair or skin
• Whitening of the fingernail beds
Excellent sources of selenium include mushrooms, shrimp, snapper, tuna,
halibut, calf's liver, and salmon.

127
Zinc
What can high-zinc foods do for you?
• Help balance blood sugar
• Stabilize your metabolic rate
• Prevent a weakened immune system
• Support an optimal sense of smell and taste
What events can indicate a need for more high-zinc foods?
• Impaired sense of taste or smell
• Lack of appetite
• Depression
• Growth failure in children
• Frequent colds and infections
Very good sources of zinc include: calf's liver, mushrooms and spinach.
Main sources used to prepare this overview:
- www.whfoods.com
- FANTA HIV/AIDS Guide 2004
- WHO/FAO (2002) Living well with Aids. A manual on nutritional care and support
for people living with HIV/AIDS, FAO, Rome

128
Annex 3 Nutritional characteristics of selected food products
Servingsize
KCals
VitaminA
VitaminB1(Thiamine)
VitaminB2(Riboflavin)
VitaminB3(Niacin)
VitaminB6(Pyridoxine)
VitaminB12(Cobalamin)
VitaminC(AscorbicAcid)
VitamineE
Calcium
VitaminB11(Folate)
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Protein
Selenium
Zinc
Beans and legumes
Black Beans (boiled) 1 cup 227 X X X X X
Dried Peas (boiled) 1 cup 231 XX X X
Garbanzo Beans (boiled) 1 cup 269 X X X
Green Beans (boiled) 1 cup 234 X X X X
Kidney Beans (boiled) 1 cup 225 X X X X X
Lentils (boiled) 1 cup 230 X XX X X
Miso (Soybean) 1 oz. 71 X X
Soybean (boiled) 1 cup 298 X X X XX
Tempeh (cooked) 4 oz.-wt 223 X X X
Tofu 4 oz.-wt 86 X X X X X
Nuts and seeds
Almond .25 cup 213 X XX
Flax Seeds 2 tbs. 95 X X X
Melon seeds (no coat) .25 cup 123 X X X
Peanuts (roasted) .25 cup 235 X X X
Pumpkinseeds (dried) .25 cup 87 X X X X
Sesame seeds .25 cup 235 X X X X X
Sunflower seeds (dried) .25 cup 205 XX XX X X X
Grains
Buckwheat (cooked) 1 cup 155 X
Corn (Maize, yellow) 1 cup 177 X X X

129
Servingsize
KCals
VitaminA
VitaminB1(Thiamine)
VitaminB3(Niacin)
VitamineE
Calcium
VitaminB11(Folate)
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Protein
Selenium
Zinc
Maize (white) 1 cup 215 X X X X
Millet (cooked) 1 cup 286 X
Oats 1 cup 145 X X X X
Rice Brown (cooked) 1 cup 216 X X
Sorghum 1 cup 270 X X X X X
Spelt Flour 2 oz.-wt 189 X X X
Tef
Wheat (cooked) 1 cup 151 X
Fish and seafood
Dagaa (dried) 100 gram 280 X X X X
Halibut (broiled, baked) 4 oz.-wt 158 XX X X X X XX
Salmon (broiled, baked) 4 oz.-wt 262 XX X X X X XX
Scallops (broiled, baked) 4 oz.-wt 152 X X X
Shrimps (boiled) 4 oz.-wt 112 X X X XX XX X
Snapper (baked) 4 oz.-wt 145 X XX X XX
Tuna (broiled, baked) 4 oz.-wt 158 XX XX X X XX XX
Water Hawthorn
Poultry and lean meats
Beef (broiled) 4 oz.-wt 240 X X X X X XX X X
Calf’s Liver 4 oz.-wt 187 XX XX X X XX X X X X XX XX
Chicken (roasted) 4 oz.-wt 223 XX X X X
Lamb (roasted) 4 oz.-wt 229 X X XX X X
Turkey (roasted) 4 oz.-wt 214 X X X X

130
Servingsize
KCals
VitaminA
VitaminB1(Thiamine)
VitaminB3(Niacin)
VitamineE
Calcium
VitaminB11(Folate)
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Protein
Selenium
Zinc
Venison 4 oz.-wt 179 X X X X X X X X
Dairy products
Cheese 1 oz.-wt 72 X XX X X
Eggs Hen (boiled) 1 each 68 XX X X XX X X
Milk Cow 1 cup 155 XX X X XX XX X
Milk Goat 1 cup 168 XX X XX X
Yogurt 1 cup 155 X X XX XX X X
Butter 100 gr. 700 X X X X
Ghee (clanged butter) 100 gr. 885 X X X
Fruits
Apple 1 each 84 X
Apricots 1 each 17 X X
Banana 1 each 186 X X
Blueberries 1 cup 81 X X X X X X
Calabash X X X X X X X
Cranberries .5 cup 23.3 X
Grapefruit .5 each 60 X X
Grapes 1 cup 62 X X X
Kiwi 1 each 46 X X X
Lemons .25 cup 15 XX
Orange 1 each 62 X X XX X X
Papaya 1 each 118 X XX X X
Pear (bartlett) 1 each 98 X

131
Servingsize
KCals
VitaminA
VitaminB1(Thiamine)
VitaminB3(Niacin)
VitamineE
Calcium
VitaminB11(Folate)
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Protein
Selenium
Zinc
Pineapple 1 cup 76 X X X
Plum 1 each 36.3 X X X
Prune (dried) .25 cup 102 X
Raspberries 1 cup 60 X X X X
Strawberries 1 cup 43 X X XX X XX X
Watermelon 1 cup 49 X X X X
Herbs
Basil 2 tsp. 7 X X X X X
Black Jack
Black Pepper 2 tsp. 11 X
Cayenne Pepper X X X
Chili Pepper (dried) 2 tsp. 26 X X X
Cinnamon 2 tsp. 12 X X
Cloves X X X
Coriander Seeds 2 tsp. 10 X X
Cumin 1 tsp. 8 X
Dill Seed 1 tsp. 13 X X X
Ginger X X
Peppermint Leaves 1 oz.-wt 20 X X X X X X X
Thyme 2 tsp. 8 X XX
Turmeric 2 tsp. 16 X XX
Other
Honey X X X X

132
Servingsize
KCals
VitaminA
VitaminB1(Thiamine)
VitaminB3(Niacin)
VitamineE
Calcium
VitaminB11(Folate)
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Protein
Selenium
Zinc
Moringa (leaves) X X X X X X X X X
Coconut oil 100 gr. 900 X
Fish-liver oil 100 gr. 900 X
Red Palm oil 100 gr. 890 X X X
Sunflower oil 100 gr. 900 X
Main sources used to compose this table are:
• www.whfoods.com
• UN Nutrition Policy Paper # 20 page 31-51
• FANTA HIV/AIDS Guide 2004 page 75-93

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