Barley Emerging Farmers Economic Development
The BE-FED project seeks to promote the participation of emerging black farmers in the commercial barley production supply ...
Siyavuna operates in rural areas in the Ugu District of KwaZulu-Natal. This district is characterized by economic duality where poverty co-exists with affluence. Whereas the commercial farming sector is characterized by under utilization of agricultural land, the subsistence agricultural sector is characterized by overpopulation, land degradation, low agricultural productivity and underdevelopment. Rural communities also lack infrastructure such as roads, electricity supply, clean tap water, sanitation, health facilities and training centers for skills development.
Siyavuna recognizes the importance of developing a model of agriculture that is more sustainable than conventional agricultural methods. Doing this requires the adoption of climate smart agriculture and agro-ecology practices. Conventional agricultural practices tend to compromise future productivity in favour of high productivity in the present. It does this by overdrawing and degrading agricultural resources such as soil, water and genetic diversity.
The organization seeks to alleviate:
(1) poverty and food insecurity prevalent in the Ugu District,
(2) the dire need to stimulate the local economy and enable entrepreneurship and
(3) the challenges of climate change and the resultant increased vulnerability of rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
It takes a pro-poor fair climate approach desiring to see that poor communities benefit directly from the projects implemented and that the intervention contributes to building resilience to climate change.