PROJECTS

Thanda Community Farm

LOCATION: Mtwalume, South Africa

SIZE: 6 hectares

SCOPE: Climate resilience, flood and erosion control, water retention features, growing areas, food forest.

Gqayinyanga community farm is part Thanda's community farming programme. This farm has been suffering from seasonal flooding during the rainy season. During the dry season the land hydration is poor and continuous irrigation is required in order to produce food. The main goal of this project is to transition this farm to be more climate resilient, and in particular to improve the land hydrology during both the rainy and dry seasons. This is achieved by creating a buffer zone around the farm. This buffer zone in the form of a food forests and water retention features infiltrates the water received from the catchment area. This not only prevents flooding in the lower areas of the farm, but it improves the overall hydrology of the land and produces a surplus of food produce with very little management. A second buffer zone along the seasonal water way is proposed. This buffer zone includes vegetation and trees with a high water requirement such as bananas and papayas.