Two horticultural tunnels and a borehole at a Soshanguve engineering school are giving Grade 9 learners hands-on agricultural training and a recognised qualification to take into the industry.
By Maile Matsimela, digital editor at African Farming
Forty Grade 9 learners at Soshanguve Engineering School of Specialisation north of Pretoria now have two horticultural tunnels and a borehole, and, through them, a hands-on introduction to food production that goes well beyond the textbook.
The infrastructure, officially launched on 15 September, was provided by the Shoprite Foundation and marks the expansion of a school-based agriculture programme that is developing young South Africans with practical farming skills and an accredited qualification to match.
Maude Modise, director of the Shoprite Foundation, told guests at the launch the project is about more than putting up structures. “We’re not only just launching a tunnel and celebrating and handing over a tunnel,” she said. “We’re all believing in the possibility of what can happen in the future with regard to farming, food security, climate change, all of those things.”
Also read: From seed to supermarket: Community food gardens take centre stage on Shoprite and Checkers’ Market Day
Proof of concept from the East Rand
The Soshanguve installation follows the Foundation’s first horticultural tunnel project at Oosrand Commerce and Entrepreneurship School of Specialisation on the East Rand, where about 5 000 units of produce have been harvested over the past two years for the school’s feeding scheme and for sale to the surrounding community. More than 1 700 learners have received agricultural training through the Oosrand project.
At Soshanguve, learners will use the tunnels for practical training covering soil science, crop rotation, compost production, irrigation, and pest and weed control. A solar-powered borehole ensures a reliable water supply, which is a critical production input in a region where water security cannot be taken for granted.
Why engineering and agriculture belong together
Modise said the Foundation chose a school of engineering precisely because modern farming is inseparable from technology. “These days, there’s nothing that you can separate from technology, engineering, data,” she said. “What we hope to see with that tunnel is not only the learners in the agricultural class gaining agricultural experience. We’re hoping that we’ll also see innovative solutions that are going to help us find a future.”
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A production model that manages excess
The production model is carefully planned. Farmers help learners with staggered planting to ensure there is no excess at any given time. What is grown first supplements the school’s feeding scheme. Spinach from the tunnels, for instance, replaces purchased produce and frees up budget for other essentials. What remains is sold to the community at prices below retail, because it is organic and locally grown.
Modise said community demand at the Oosrand site already exceeds what the tunnel produces. Community members there have asked the school to plant more. Some buy from the school and resell at markets. “Community members also look at it as an innovative opportunity where they buy from the school and they actually sell elsewhere in markets,” she said.
Beyond the school fence
The school-level project sits within a broader Shoprite corporate social investment strategy that has seen the group establish community food gardens across the country. “We have recently celebrated our 300th CSI garden in the country,” Modise said. Through that programme, the group provides communities with seedlings, training and initial infrastructure, enabling them to grow food for sustenance and, where viable, to sell surplus produce.
For Soshanguve, the ambition does not stop at the school fence. Principal Tladi Mashiane said the school plans to share what it learns with neighbouring schools. “We are one of the schools that is not selfish,” he said. “We are planning also to share with our neighbouring schools the skills and the technology behind agriculture.”
Also read: ‘We are producers, not just beneficiaries’ – food gardens gain market access on Shoprite Market Day
Changing how young people see farming
Mashiane said the project is already changing how learners see farming. “Most of the time they used to buy these vegetables from different entities, but now it will inspire them when they see them growing in their school grounds,” he said. He was candid about the perception challenge agriculture faces among young black South Africans. “It’s very rare for a black child to take this course, because most of the time we think it’s one of the careers that doesn’t look nice,” he said. “I think sometimes agriculture is not well presented to the communities in South Africa.”
An accredited qualification alongside matric
The practical learning is being formalised. MarketPlace Academy, the Foundation’s implementation partner, trains educators as facilitators and supports the addition of an accredited plant production part-qualification to the CAPS curriculum. “Learners already study agriculture at school, but an accredited plant production part-qualification also requires practical work,” says Chantyl Mulder, CEO of MarketPlace Academy. “The tunnels give them a place to do that work. That means they can leave school with matric and a recognised qualification that gives them a first step into the industry.”
Also read: Here are the winners of the inaugural Shoprite Act for Change Food Garden competition
Learning by doing
The production realities are not lost on the learners. Zanga Mphaphuli, a 16-year-old Grade 11 learner who was part of a pilot group that began the project last year, has already grasped the variables that determine a successful harvest. “I’ve learnt that growing food involves much more than just planting seeds and watering them,” he said. “Things like temperature, soil quality, sunlight, pests and water management all make a difference.”
Building the next generation of farmers
“Skills, experience and practical learning are the way of the future,” said Modise. “A few years from now, we’ll have learners who are entrepreneurs in farming, who innovate solutions that actually make a contribution to farming. We are hoping to see the next innovators, the next changemakers, the next people who are going to tell us this is the way we should go in terms of farming.”
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