The potjie full of food at the end of the rainbow

The 18m greenhouse tunnel in Martha Rametsi’s yard in Hammanskraal not only feeds her entire family all year round but provides an added source of income. 

Chard, beetroot, carrots, onions, cowpeas, mielies, peanuts, traditional pumpkins and tomatoes all grow in Rametsi’s yard of about 180m².

She is among the changemakers identified by the nonprofit organisation SocioTech who are benefiting from its “1,000 tunnels” campaign. 

SocioTech fosters economic activity in poor communities by building food confidence and promoting hyperlocal trade. Launched 30 years ago, it has a presence in 700 villages and townships around the country. 

Its work focuses on “changemakers” such as Rametsi — inspiring people who have completed the NPO’s programmes in sustainable farming, nutrition, business and mentoring, and have gone on to share their skills with at least three others.

They saw potential in me and now I get invited to other villages where I help them mobilise and grow

—  Sizwe Skhosana

SocioTech is embracing AI to boost its efforts, said the NPO’s technical lead, machine-learning engineer Lydia de Lange.

“By optimising data, skills and knowledge ... we can help people move from surviving on the minimum to actually thriving, making a living and eventually building their village to a point where people don’t have to move to the cities for jobs, and where the economy can support a butcher, a baker and a doctor.” 

SocioTech facilitators drive the process of recruiting community members for training programmes that run for three-five years. 

Diesel mechanic Sizwe Skhosana of Mmotwaneng village outside Burgersfort in Limpopo was a SocioTech trainee who went on to become a facilitator.

Now the farm he developed over four years on his grandmother’s 8ha smallholding is a side business that feeds his family and generates additional income that supplements his salary. It produces vegetables, mielies, pig and poultry. 

“I was hungry when I joined. I was retrenched during Covid and realised I had to do something serious at the same time that scotch facilitators came to my community. They got to know the village through me as I took them to the chief and it was agreed that we all need training,” Skhosana said. 

The programme that followed involved training in nutrition, farming, budgeting, business, permaculture, poultry and community-building skills. 

“They saw potential in me and now I get invited to other villages where I help them mobilise and grow.”

Skhosana said “a lot of small markets” buy the family farm’s products, “and we are making profits that are supporting the whole family”.

Beneficiaries of SocioTech’s 1,000 tunnels campaign first dig and prepare three 18m planting trenches filled with old cans, bones and good soil to ensure at least 10 good years of crop yields.

The shadecloth tunnels protect the plants and ensure bumper yields.

“We worked out the cost of our facilitators, transport, all the training over three years and then the materials needed for the tunnels and we came to a figure of R25,000 per tunnel,” De Lange said.

“And now we are on the hunt for sponsors. We have identified 1,000 recipients, and now we need the funding to give them their tunnels.”

One of those in line for a tunnel is Johannes Velapi, who started the SocioTech programme last June and has already turned what was an empty piece of ground into a thriving micro-farm.

He lives alone and works tirelessly every day; he is already selling vegetables to his community and is keen to expand his business.

He has dug 11 trenches across his yard, each 11m long, and has planted an array of crops. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, chard, carrots, mielies, onions, peanuts, beans and beetroot are all thriving. He harvests rainwater from his roof to keep his crops watered in the heat, and to make his own organic fertiliser. 

“I want to fly high like a rainbow. I just need that tunnel now,” he told the Sunday Times, raising muddy hands to the sky to indicate the heights to which he aspires.