DWF, PLAAS to host rural development and agriculture workshop
10 August 2015
DWF and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, will host an action-dialogue on communal area agriculture at the Donald Woods Centre in Hobeni from 15 to 17 September.
The workshop will focus on enhancing traditional rural small farm and homestead systems, to sustainably increase income and food supply. Delegates, including academics and strategists, will review communal area agricultural development interventions, successes and failures over the past 30 years and explore ways in which homestead income and food supply can be sustainably increased within the rural community surrounding Hobeni in the Eastern Cape
The constraints and potentials of household farming in communal areas will also be discussed, with a detailed report with specific recommendations due to be compiled.
The objectives of the workshop are:
- to deepen understanding of the general conditions encountered by rural households who farm in communal areas, and to identify constraints and opportunities for improved production and income;
- to identify opportunities to change these conditions by feasible, well-targeted interventions that improve prospects for small-scale producers; and
- to discuss a range of specific innovations that have produced success in communal area agriculture, the reasons for such success, and their potential applicability elsewhere.
