The community farm project
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer und Sabrina Lucke, doctoral candidate at the Chair of Sport and Health Management, supervise South African families in the framework of the Gansbaii Community Farm-Project in cooperation with Grootbos Foundation. In Masakhane, Western Cape, about 100 families currently participate in an intensive training for one week, in which participants get to know the principles of sustainable vegetable growing. In an area funded by a company they learn how to cultivate breeding ground, modular beds, and water-saving planting care. Furthermore, the focus is on dealing with the environment as a whole. After successfully participating in the first training, families have the opportunity of planting vegetables in their own gardens. Seeds are provided free of charge by the government.
Scientific input given by the Chair of Sport and Health Management
The team of the Chair of Sport and Health Management supervises the training and assesses the efficiency of measures on several levels. Researchers hope that families have more money available for education and saving, because they can reduce expenses by homegrown vegetables. In a long-term perspective, a small neighbourhood market in Maskhane is an option, aiming at exchanging and selling homegrown vegetables. Furthermore, initiators hope that families eat healthier and people are strenghened in their personal development. Obviously for all participants, this takes place under difficult conditions. Jörg Königstorfer describes this as follows: "Some families have available 200 Rand monthly, about 13 Euros, for foodstuffs and clothing. Most township residents have no school-leaving qualification, that is why the education level is low. These persons are less aware of imporant relationships of human behaviors and the environment than highly educated persons." Lily Uptown, project manager of the Grootbos Foundation, adds: "Even if some persons stop vegetable growth after some months, we observed that they profited nevertheless: via the training, they developed more self confidence, which for example helped two participants to find a permanent job. This made us happy and illustrates the greater meaning of the project."
Mastering challenges
Sabrina Lucke developed a measurement model to assess the effects as part of the project. She met especially the methodical challenges of questioning partly lowly educated township residents. " A lot of the residents have never been in touch with surveys and scientific scales. It is unfamiliar to them that they state their opinion in front of researchers. We had to modify the scales in lenght and complexity without taking the risk of an information loss. Addionaly, there was the language barrier: the main part of the population speaks Xhosa - a language which is more spoken than written." In 2016, several surveys took place. After finishing the first training and planting of homegrown vegetable gardens successfully, the training is supposed to be repeated in 2017. In November 2016, Sabrina Lucke und Jörg Königstorfer were on-site to accompany the measurements. The results of the project will not only be relevant for the participants, but also for township families in allover South Africa. The reason: dealing with limited water ressources, healthy nutrition, and care of endemic plants are crucial topics of the 21st century.
More informationen about Grootbos Foundation
Contact
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Team assistant: Mirjam Eggers
Uptown München Campus D
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Phone +49.89.289.24559
Fax +49.89.289.24642
info.mgt@sg.tum.de