Touws River (Thando Community Services)

Partner(s):

Thando Community Services (TCS) is a church based organization situated in Touws River. Touws River is a small rural location in the Karoo. TCS has a 6500 square meters vegetable garden. The vegetables are grown for both commercial purposes as well as domestic consumption. There are 7 project members at TCS whose livelihoods depend entirely on the project.

Our Involvement:

Prior to the administration of SAIE’s AgriPlanner training, The Thando Community Services project was in serious need for commercial capacity. AgriPlanner provides the TCS project with a firm technical foundation that can enable them to transcend subsistence levels of consumption and engage in commercial activities. They can thus meet their nutritional needs and earn a income that enables them to afford other necessities.

Project Progress:

The Touws River training started on 8 January 2007 with 4 of the seven project members attending. At Touws River, only members with the potential to train others were selected for training in order to increase the utility of the training. During the training, topics that were covered include market research, crop planning, crop selection, contract markets, human resource planning, record keeping and action plans. The discussions and interest levels became very intense and the trainer had to take participants through some of the technical aspects like how to make trench beds, earthworm cast, green manure and chicken manure. Most of the concepts taught in the training were new to the TCS project and this gave the training particularly high impact. Two support visits were conducted, with the project currently being supported by Soil for Life.

Funder:

Product:

Agri Planner

Location:

Western Cape