SABI Magazine SABI Magazine June July 2017 | Page 18

Food Gardens
Seed K i t
Pro j e c t
hel p s boost ea s y ve g g i e g r owin g
O
ne in five South Africans go to bed hungry
every day – that is over 10 million men,
women and children who have no idea
where their next meal is going to come from.
In an effort to help break this chain of poverty, agriculture
firms, Laeveld Agrochem and AgricultSURE, have joined forces
with their Seed Kit Project, which empowers and equips people
to grow their own vegetables.
According to Kobus Hurter, chief executive officer at
AgricultSURE, the project aims to provide vegetable seed kits
to, in particular, the lower income groups in South Africa.
Their single daily meal of maize ‘pap’, marog and meat – for
those who can afford it – falls far short of providing adequate
sustenance and nutrition. A desperate situation indeed.
The Kit
The Seed Kit Project’s innovative contents include everything
needed to successfully plant, grow and harvest one’s own
vegetables. Each R150 summer kit (gem squash, green
beans, and cabbage, carrot and spinach seeds) and winter
kit (cabbage, beetroot, onion, carrot and turnip seeds) also
contains two types of fertiliser, complete rope guides and very
basic, comic book style illustrated instructions.
“Just add water and you can produce an impressive
100 – 120kg of healthy, nutrient-rich vegetables on a piece of
suitable land as small as 15m 2 . This means that for as little as
R1 200 (four summer and four winter kits) one can grow enough
vegetables to supplement the daily diet of a household of six for
a whole year” say the Seed Kit Project team.
A lot of effort and energy are being put into the project, says
Corné Liebenberg, Laeveld Agrochem’s marketing director.
“We realise that this can make a marked difference in the lives,
and health, of many South Africans, and by involving schools we
are nurturing our country’s future farmers and entrepreneurs.”
Neel Rust, chief operating officer at Laeveld Agrochem, remarks
that their involvement in the Seed Kit Project comes from them
wanting to help address the rising food shortage in South
Africa, without posing a threat to the country’s commercial
farmers. “The project allows for food to be grown and eaten.
So it does not compete with the current commercial market for
vegetables,” Rust concludes.
Laeveld Agrochem will assist AgricultSURE with the distribution
of the vegetable seed kits through their 65 depots countrywide.
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SABI | JUNE/JULY 2017