The drought will affect us all, but what if we could grow the solution to our problem?
As you well know, South Africa is facing the worst drought since 1982. There are more than 2.7 million households who face water shortages across the country. The water shortage is also impacting on farmers’ food production, and ultimately a drop in the quantity of produced food. The resultant effect will be sky rocketing food prices due to a lack of supply and this will majorly impact the 13.8 million people who go to bed hungry each day
Organic success
As food security becomes a concern for all, the focus is now shifting to alternative methods of farming. One such method is farming organically, which has seen success even in the current drought season.
FoodBank South Africa takes the example of the Tierhoek organic farm in Robertson 160km from Cape Town. The farm made a decision 10 years ago to go organic and haven’t regretted the decision. While others are scrambling to deal with results and the rising costs of the drought, Tierhoek have seen themselves through a successful growing season, with the orchard farm producing good quality and healthy vegetables. They also produce a variety of fruits including apricots, plums, mangos and lemons.
Ten reasons why you should grow an organic garden:
- Get the nutritional benefit of organically grown food.
- Save money, it’s much cheaper to grow food yourself.
- Protect future generations.
- Prevent soil erosion.
- Protect water quality.
- Save energy.
- Keep your food free from chemicals.
- Protect farm workers and help small farms.
- Promote biodiversity.
- Help you to beautify your community.
The price of food is going to sky rocket and continue to stay high for the next few years. To avoid struggling to afford basic foods, start an organic garden and grow your own food. If many of us do this, it will relieve some of the pressure on the low food quantities. The food you produce will be of a higher quality and healthier compared to mass produced food. It will also only cost you time and a little bit of effort to create an organic solution to this food shortage problem. Let’s work together to fight hunger in South Africa.