The climate-smart option of growing produce in greenhouses should be scaled-up to meet the challenge of food security in South Africa and the rest of the continent. This is the focus of the Boland College Greenhouse project.
The official launch of the Boland College Greenhouse, which took place on Wednesday 15 March, was celebrated with an abundant display of freshly grown cucumbers, green beans, red onions, pepper dews and cocktail tomatoes – the produce of several horticulture piloting activities in the greenhouse over the past few months.
The greenhouse is part of an ongoing collaboration between Stellenbosch University (SU) and the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) to strengthen the skills of the staff and students of Boland College, a vocational educational and training (TVET) institution, for optimising water usage and climate-smart agriculture in South Africa.
Forming part of the Orange Knowledge programme, the project is funded by the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation (NUFFIC) through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Boland College principal Charles Goodwin says: “Agriculture is a niche area for the college, as it is strategically aligned to the growth of the agriculture sector as a means to achieve rural development and address the triple threat of unemployment, inequality and poverty and promote food security. It is very proud of its strides in advancing high-tech climate-smart agriculture and the development of emerging farmers and women in agriculture.”
The new greenhouse at Boland College forms part of the region’s partnership support structure. This will, in turn, be supported by a South African-Dutch Triple Helix Platform, which includes stakeholders from the education, private and public sectors.
“The Nuffic project is a major success in the simulation of high-tech greenhouse environment to the students,” said Mr Vincent Uys, Project Manager of the Boland College Greenhouse, “and it remains a privilege for us to showcase this amazing project with our partners. We are excited to be a centre of excellence in the Boland region for horticulture and to be a game changer in training future farmers.
“We are very excited to see what the future holds with the project and the positive impact it will make in our rural communities.”
