SUSTAINABLE FARMING FOR LOCAL CO-OP

July 2020, Klipheuwel Wind Farm.

A co-op of 30 emerging farmers, situated close to Caledon in the Overberg, have received support from Klipheuwel Wind Farm, to help develop into a sustainable farming enterprise that can raise close to 1 000 pigs for the region’s meat market.

The wind farm has funded a repository of animal feed, comprising of 30 tonnes of pig feed, stored in a central depot. This provides a store that the farmers purchase required feed from, thereby generating funds that are used to build suitable piggery infrastructure. This sustainable model is already underway and is proving a successful way of benefiting this co-op as a whole.

Situated 10km away from Klipheuwel Wind Farm, Shaw’s Pass Emerging Farmers (SPEF), which has been operating since 2017, is located on the Hemel en Aarde Road within the Theewaterskloof Municipality. This group of emerging farmers aims to promote sustainable farming practices, developing into a fully-fledged piggery with all best business practices in place. Job creation is another one of their goals, as well as revenue creation.

Anthony Hess of Shaw’s Pass Emerging Farmers (SPEF) explained, “Our vision is to establish a fully-fledged 150 lactating sow production unit within two year. With this funding, our group has new impetus and has been motivated to organise purposefully and to grow our farming business into a sustainable enterprise – an enterprise that will make the surrounding black communities proud, and to act as role models and mentors for other emerging farmers.”

This initiative is part of the wind farm’s enterprise development programme. “The importance of agriculture and the emerging farmers of outlying communities to our national economy is well known and their contribution to the alleviation of poverty, food security, and employment creation is imperative,” explained Hlengiwe Radebe, Economic Development Director for Klipheuwel Wind Farm, the financial supporter of this programme.

The Klipheuwel Wind Farm’s enterprise development programme looks to empower small enterprises, within the Theewaterskloof Municipality’s communities of Botriver, Tesselaarsdal, Riversonderend, Greyton, Genadendal, Villiersdorp, Grabouw, Caledon, Hermanus and Kleinmond.

“Our programme is committed to support sustainable local developments in the wind farm’s surrounding communities who require assistance to increase their chances of success,” concluded Radebe.