Food Security
The Market Garden programme is a food security initiative focusing on income-producing community food gardens and small-holder farmers. The programme utilises agro-ecological and bio-intensive farming methods. It combines technical skills training, expert support, and social dynamics workshops.
The Market Garden programme also includes FTFA’s Business Box which supports beneficiaries to market. This includes cash flow management, banking skills, financial administration, records keeping, compliance basics, and business planning.
School Food Gardening
School food gardens are essential to ensuring learners have access to healthy, nutritious food. Inadequate nutrition, particularly in school learners, is well known to negative impact productivity and learning ability, and we want to turn this around.
Many schools and communities apply to FTFA for assistance to start or develop permaculture gardens, and the need is real.
FEED Africa (Farmer Development)
FEED stands for Farmer Eco-Enterprise Development. The programme focuses on commercial agriculture and supply chain by promoting bio-intensive techniques which are coupled with training and farmer support.
Project growth is scaled at a sustainable rate which means farming interventions are usually 4-5 years. In this time, training includes the facilitation of social dynamics and business skills workshops including marketing.
Homestead Gardening
Homestead gardening focuses on establishing and growing food gardens at the homes of invested, passionate individuals in townships or rural communities.
We believe that homestead gardening is fundamental to ensuring food security in South Africa, and so we start with a permaculture guild (fruit tree, medicinal plants, herbs, and vegetables) over the 13-month implementation phase.
The EduPlant Programme
The EduPlant Programme is a flagship school-linked gardening initiative. Started by FTFA in 1994, it has grown and evolved to be the leading school food gardening and nutrition programme in the country.
EduPlant utilises a cluster-based workshop approach to develop food security networks in communities, involving educators, learners, and community members, as well as Early Childhood Development Centres. It is well-designed and has become instrumental in many schools’ feeding schemes.