Land Care

Plenty of opportunities for young people

There is a critical need to support young people in disadvantaged rural areas, and LandCare provides such opportunities.

Young people in rural areas are often disadvantaged. By disadvantaged we mean they are ISOLATED (being far away from assistance), POOR (have no money to satisfy basic needs), POWERLESS (have no voice in decision making) and VULNERABLE (were previously discriminated against). The Junior LandCare Programme would like to address these issues HEAD-ON.

The objectives of the Programme are to:

• Encourage training in leadership and facilitation skills
• Promote the awareness of the LandCare concept
• Stimulate youth clubs or cooperatives managed by the youth
• Support small projects that includes Permaculture
• Promote food security at homes and at schools

Support

The LandCare Secretariat has been rotating support for the Junior LandCare Programme between different provinces. The idea was to find out what works and what doesn't before the Department of Agriculture fully implements Junior LandCare in all nine provinces.

The Junior LandCare Programme was initiated in 2000. Mpumalanga received R1 million which they used for an intensive awareness campaign, as well as for funding small projects run by schools and youth clubs. These projects included field trips to botanical gardens, implementing LandCare within the curriculum and school grounds, youth clubs and activities, development of nurseries and permaculture food gardens.

In 2001 KwaZulu-Natal was granted R1 million for Junior LandCare. After a workshop with key role-players, it was decided to train existing youth clubs (Youth in Agriculture), 30 school groups as well as youth clubs in existing LandCare projects (Yield clubs). The programme is jointly implemented by Youth in Agriculture, Farmers Support Group, the provincial Department of Agriculture, Zakhe's Training Institute and Rainman LandCare Foundation.

Teachers and principals from 26 schools in the poverty node surrounding Umtata attended a workshop on Permaculture by the National LandCare Secretariat in 2001. All 26 schools have since implemented LandCare projects, which are fully integrated into the curriculum. The Department of Education in the Eastern Cape is excited about the opportunity of working with the Department of Agriculture to stimulate LandCare and agriculture at poor rural schools. There is a need to assist the existing youth structures with LandCare training. It is envisaged that the national Department of Agriculture will support Junior LandCare in the Eastern Cape during 2002. A workshop will be held soon.

Junior Landcare is promoting participation in caring for our natural resources. Bongeka Nondonga and Vuyani Mnqwazana from Bensile J.S. School work diligently at mulching and contributing material to a compost heap, using the principles of Permaculture. A layer of mulch protects the soil from water loss and dessication.

Permaculture

Permaculture provides an ideal opportunity for schools to turn their grounds into productive areas where learners, educators and the surrounding community are involved in improving the quality of the landscape and thus, the quality of education available at their schools.

The Permaculture framework has been used to develop illustrative learning programmes with a natural resources focus.

This encourages learners to become actively involved in addressing and responding to environmental issues.

Incentives

Each year, the National Department of Agriculture awards schools for BEST LANDCARE PRACTICE
within the national Eskom EduPlant Permaculture Competition, which is facilitated by Food and Trees for Africa (see below).

Further information on Junior LandCare can be obtained at the LandCare website or contact David Jacobs at tel (012) 319 7426