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I went to visit this home stand with Nomokhaya Monde. It was in the village of Guquka, Eastern Cape. It was a good example of home stand agriculture. He used to work on a farm, then as a miner. He is now retired at 73 but uses his farming knowledge. He makes baking racks for bread from fencing wire and galvanized iron and sells them as a small craft industry. He has three dogs and many chickens. He says he does not want more land; there is enough to do with what he has. Quite a few people in this area around Fort Hare are still cropping.
His vegetable plots are on one side of the house and are protected from chickens and other animals by a fence. He grows his vegetables in terraces going down the yard, which is on quite a steep slope. In his veggie beds, when we visited he had peas and beans, maize, and sweet potato (a local variety). He buys seed rather than saving it.
He has quite a good flock of indigenous chickens which he keeps a part of the yard which has been fenced off. In the chicken run is a large native fig, which is quite a common plant in these villages. The fruit fall and feed the chickens. Within the chicken run is a small coop which has been designed to keep young chicks safe from hawks. In another part of the chicken run is a laying shed for hens which he has constructed from corrugated iron.
He has quite an extensive collection of fruit trees. When we arrived the citrus were in fruit and he clearly had more than he could eat himself. He told us that he sometimes markets his excess fruit but the price is very poor, only one rand for an orange. His trees are peach, apricot, plum, apple, guava, and oranges. He has small basins around his orchard trees which he can fill with water from his pond. He bought his fruit trees and seems to have no knowledge of grafting or propagation for trees, though there are many possibilities in the village with scattered indigenous trees, casuarinas and acacias, as well as a variety of fruit trees.
He has paid a lot of attention to water collection and use. As noted already, the trees are planted in small basins about two metres across. The vegetables are grown on terraces. Above the vegetable plot in the highest corner of his yard he has built a small dam, about 3 metres by 2 metres across and a metre deep. The dam has been constructed with a corrugated iron base. Over this base he laid stones to hold the iron in place and then finished off the whole structure with cement and lime mortar. This water is used to irrigate the tree crops as well as the vegetables. To fill his dam he has constructed channels which are about half a metre deep. These lead into the dam and catch water running off the road above his house. One of them is about 15 metres long and leads outside the house to catch water coming down a slope next to his yard. He has also constructed a second lower dam further down the garden which takes excess from this top dam. Now that there is a village tap, he sometimes tops up the dams with water from the tap. So what he has achieved is a rain water catchment which funnels water into his garden and a distribution system of hoses feeding water by gravity to his crops. For his household uses he has a rainwater barrel which catches rain from a piece of guttering on the back of his house.
There are two compost heaps which use kraal manure, the maize stalks and other vegetation from his garden. He does not create any mulch himself or use any cover crops other than the beans.
Problems and suggestions
This garden is completely cleared of mulch. There is no mulch around the base of the fruit trees or in the vegetable gardens. This means that the ground is always drying out and does not create a good humus. The terraces for the vegetables garden are an excellent idea but they slope noticeably, meaning that water is not retained as well as it might be. He also loses water from his land during the summer rainy season, there are in fact channels to take excess water off the property. While this may be necessary to prevent flooding a better solution could be a very large bund and swale extending out from the property across the gully next to his house.
The water that comes from the channel he has dug to carry away summer rains could be joined to a contour bund and swale coming out from the side of his property towards the gully. The water would run down the channel in the yard and then spread out along the swale which would also catch other summer rainfall. It should be about 30 metres long and rounded up at the far end, so the water stays in it, even in heavy rain events. It should be about half a metre deep from the original soil level with all this soil thrown up on to the down side of the channel (swale) to make a hump (bund) along the contour. On and beneath this mound, Mr Cheke should plant a set of legume trees – for example, tagasaste, acacia, albizia, leucaena, calliandra calothyrsus, crotalaria; whatever suits the climate. These could be cut for fodder for his chickens and used for mulch in the compost and round his trees, as well as being a source for wood for his kitchen fire so he does not have to buy wood or walk endless kilometres to collect it. There would be a drastic improvement in the pasture below this swale which would inspire others to build other examples.
Mr Cheke should be shown how to collect seeds so he is not dependent on hybrid vegetable seeds. He should also be shown how to graft and establish fruit trees. Another useful addition to his house would be a bigger house tank. At present he just has a small rain barrel. With assistance he could be instructed in the methods necessary to construct a large household tank using a lath frame and chicken wire with cement and lime mortar. This could supply all his household needs throughout the year and any excess could be used in the garden.