Latest news with #FoodIndaba
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Triumph in a teacup — Covid took his job, but this Langa farmer is brewing a herbal success story
Losing his job during Covid led Mzi Mashicili to a life pivot. Now the Langa small-scale farmer dreams of becoming a big player in herbal teas and dried herbs. 16 on Lerotholi in Langa, Cape Town, is a vibrant space with a gallery at the front and a vast garden at the back. As part of the immersive experiences at the 2025 Food Indaba conference, farmer Mzi Mashicili hosted a breakaway event called 'Tea with a Farmer' in his garden in Langa. He offered his home brew of lemongrass tea mixed with other aromatic and herbs packed with health benefits. Mashicili (35) lost his job during Covid-19 in 2020, which he says left him feeling a kind of depression and stress. As the days passed his mom asked him to join her in a garden she had started on a patch of land, and this set him on a different course of self-discovery, passion and success. Mashicili took the garden so seriously that he has helped expand it, taken courses to advance his knowledge, helps feed himself and his family and now hopes to supply herbal teas to the booming, tourist-rich retailers in Cape Town. 'It started at the time of Covid, so most people lost their jobs during the Covid. I was one of those victims who lost their job and I grew up in the household where we were exposed at a very young age to how to farm, because at the backyard my mother used to have spinach, carrots; we didn't buy a lot from the street vendors, we were always like having something at home. So that was the culture that was introduced at a young age. But because of the stigma in the township of the youth it was not in my mind that I want to become a gardener or small-scale farmer,' he says. Mashicili was devastated after he lost his job, which he had had for six years. 'Covid showed people flames, it showed a different type of life. So because there was nothing to do, just staying at home, doing nothing, was stressful, closer to maybe depression.' After his mom convinced him to join her in the garden, he realised she and the lady she gardened with needed a lot of help because the garden wasn't fenced and they fetched water from a nearby hostel with 20-litre buckets they put on their heads, there were barely tools to work with, and no proper storage facilities for them. As he was working and recruiting other young people in the neighbourhood to join he was approached with an opportunity to study farming basics in a short course offered by Abalimi Bezekhaya, a nonprofit organisation that supports micro-farmers on the Cape Flats and in townships to grow vegetables organically. Its website says this enables individuals and groups to start their own vegetable gardens at home, or community or institutional gardens, to encourage food security and create livelihoods. Now, four people work on the garden, including Mashicili's mom and a seasonal person. They sell the vegetables from the garden and also sustain themselves from it. Mashicili says there are challenges because a lot of unemployed people or people on grants come in and ask for help because they cannot buy vegetables and need something. Because of this he says he is still looking for ways to be truly profitable and sustainable. Mashicili says he learnt a lot in the month-long course, including co-planting and pesticide-free planting. 'I didn't know that there are plants that you have to plant with other plants and there are plants that don't like to be planted with other plants. We call it companion planting. 'As an organic gardener you have to prove that by creating your own compost and own ways to deal with pests. Now… if I want to chase away the insects, I know that I can plant some marigold, you know, if it's around like cabbage or spinach or cauliflower, yeah, I can plant some marigold so that it can chase away the insects.' Mashicili has had a hunger to learn since grabbing the opportunity with both hands in 2021 and studying for two years at the South African Food and Farming Trust. That included an internship with hands-on experience on a farm, and from that he discovered a love of herbs and making teas. He is currently part of the Agrihubs support programme run by the South African Food and Farming Trust, which primarily deals with the production aspects of being a farmer. Its website states: 'Core components of an Agrihub practical support includes input-side services, e.g. nursery, extension support, tool hire, farming inputs, etc. 'Value addition for farmers, e.g. sorting facilities, pack houses and processing infrastructure. Knowledge generation to share good technical practice but also to collect and disseminate local knowledge and practice and a coordination market agent function of availability and order fulfilment to assist with market access.' Mashicili adds: 'What attracted me a lot through that learnership was the importance of herbs because I already know vegetables, because as I said, I grew up in a household where we didn't buy a lot of vegetables because my mother grew a lot of what we needed.' He believes his Mzi's branded herbal tea has a big market in Cape Town because people are generally health conscious in the city. 'I am very passionate about herbs and creating these brews,' Mashicili says, jokingly adding that he is leaving the vegetable farming to his colleagues. 'There isn't always a lot of money in this but we have received help, as you can see – we now have a fence, water, an irrigation system… and other tools. You need to be passionate and persevere. I know it will work out in the end, we have the knowledge and the work ethic now… even if it means packing all your products and delivering by taxi all over Cape Town, I do it, because it is the only way to success.' DM
eNCA
3 days ago
- Business
- eNCA
Growing food, growing communities
MTUNZINI - Small-scale farmers are being encouraged to expand their networks to boost trade among themselves and ensure their products reach retailers. But they're not alone in this effort. The HCI Foundation has hosted the second edition of its Food Indaba in KwaZulu-Natal. The foundation supports eight local organisations, which provide training and assistance to hundreds of farmers, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.
Daily Maverick
22-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Maverick
How harnessing AI could transform SA's food systems for sustainable growth and reduced waste
Reducing waste, adding nutrients to food staples, or even coming up with new recipes — computer scientists share some of the AI-powered innovations already taking shape in the Global South that could benefit African food systems. Artificial intelligence has come into the spotlight over the past decade and even more in the past five years with people getting more access to generative chatbot AI platforms such as ChatGPT. Researchers said there were different kinds of AI being used by countries in the Global South to help make their farming practices more efficient, from reducing food waste in the food system to fleet efficiency and making sense of food labels for consumers. The seventh annual Food Indaba explored topics under the theme 'Artificial Intelligence and the Food System'. The Indaba ran from 7 to 20 July. Looking at how AI technologies are shaping African food systems, the director of the eResearch Office at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Dr Clement Nyirenda, and research scientist and science communicator Frederic Isingizwe presented some of the top applications driven by AI that are being used in the food system. Their presentation was part of multiple discussions and panels hosted at Makers Landing, Cape Town, on Friday, 18 July 2025. In their predictive analysis, Nyirenda said AI would be used for 'forecasting yields, market demand, improved planning, reduced waste and supply chain optimisation'. Their presentation stated that the technology could also assist with tracing and managing inventory, optimising transport routes and food safety monitoring. Nyirenda explained that AI could help implement 'real-time monitoring of food quality and safety standards; climate resilience and climate modelling to adapt farming practices to changing weather patterns'. AI in food systems A number of AI innovations aimed at improving food systems are already being used to achieve sustainable and accessible food, especially for lower-income households. In Malawi, Tanzania and Rwanda there is Sanku's Project Healthy Children, an AI tool for nutrient-rich food processing. It works with small-scale flour mills and aims to combat malnutrition by fortifying flour with essential nutrients. Nyirenda found that the key challenges are 'equipment failures and calibration issues resulting in variable food quality'. He said AI could help 'auto-adjust micronutrient mixes during milling' while 'cloud-based AI analytics track dosing accuracy and machine performance and predictive maintenance alerts that will enable timely servicing and reduce waste'. In East Africa, Ghana, the Caribbean and South East Asia, AgUnity aims to help smallholder farmers with record keeping, coordination to have more organised harvesting, storage and distribution. This could help reduce 'significant food spoilage and waste in rural farming systems', said Nyirenda. 'AgUninty is a low-cost smartphone that uses a blockchain-powered transaction platform built to digitally empower remote farmers and address financial and reduce digital exclusion,' Nyirenda said to delegates. Koko is mainstreaming liquid bioethanol cooking fuel as a fast, safe and affordable alternative to dirty cooking fuels such as charcoal. They partner with the downstream fuels industry to 'drop in' this new fuel, and offer a suite of distribution, dispensing and end-use technologies that ensure customers can safely access clean fuel at prices that undercut dirty fuels. It has software-integrated bioethanol cookers that measure carbon impact. Nyirenda said he was surprised at some of the innovations already taking shape in the Global South. 'I chose these specifically because they are used in countries with a similar socioeconomic state to South Africa,' he said. He added that despite his tech science background, he had found himself roped into the work of food security and food systems through interdisciplinary collaboration with his colleagues at UWC's the Centre for Excellence in Food Security. 'AI can prevent the big food losses that happen in the food system. It can also help with quality control and other things such as helping to create recipes and new menus. People are coming up with cool ideas using these tools,' says Nyirenda. Obstacles to implementation Isingizwe shared the hindrances to rapid development of these technologies in the South African context, such as a distrust of the technology, especially in rural and farming communities. 'Obstacles in South Africa's agricultural sector can be a lack of reliable data for training AI models that are locally relevant, high costs associated with adopting AI technologies, particularly for smallholder farmers, a lack of training and expertise in AI among farmers and agricultural workers, and inadequate technological infrastructure in rural farming areas may limit access to technology and internet connectivity,' said Isingizwe. He pointed out that not having clear policies or frameworks governing AI for integrating it in food systems was a challenge and showed a resistance to change. 'Traditional farming practices may hinder the adoption of innovative technologies,' said Isingizwe. In his research he predicted that AI could help reduce post-harvest losses by 70%; increase farmer income by 20-40%; while retailer networks could reach more informal vendors with fewer vehicles. One of the delegates, a small-scale farmer from Langa, said he was not aware there was so much use of AI-powered technologies in agriculture already. 'I am older so I feel like this AI stuff has already left me. We are still dealing with simple issues like accessing markets and pulling together as smallholder farmers in the community.' Kurt Ackermann, the CEO of the South African Urban Food and Farming Trust, said that 'as the focus shifts toward the role of cities, and city planning, in addressing food security, AI could play a significant role in how the cities of the future — and by extension the food systems of the future — might better serve the needs of human beings. 'Conventional thinking about AI puts the technology at the centre of the discussion, whereas the creation of a more humane world — and how AI could help — is at the heart of Food Indaba 2025.' Ackerman also noted that although the discussion of the day was about the practical implementation of the technology, he wanted the discussion to keep in mind the question: How do we get food on people's tables? The South African Urban Food and Farming Trust has done immense work to help realise food security in urban spaces and has collaborated with multiple organisations for more than a decade, and even across South Africa's borders. DM
Daily Maverick
20-07-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
The human cost of the food on our plate and wine in our glass
Last week, I was working in the Western Cape, specifically speaking to farmworkers in rural areas just outside Cape Town. For the first part of the week the discussions centred on working conditions on farms and food insecurity. For the rest of the week I participated in discussions at the Food Indaba that again highlighted the issue of food insecurity, with a specific focus on food waste. In a country where one in four homes is food insecure, there is food waste of more than 10 million tonnes – a staggering figure, especially considering our hunger crisis. As I visited the farmworkers, who graciously allowed my colleague and me into their modest homes, I couldn't help but admire their bravery and willingness to speak out despite possible retaliation from the farmers on whom they depend for their meagre incomes. In fact, a particular moment of tension took us all aback, but it was a further indicator of the urgency of the required intervention. We witnessed one of the women, whom I'll call Janet to protect her identity, being intimidated by an angry farmer because she was speaking to us. The farmer, having seen us arrive, shouted angrily, demanding to know who we were, and proceeded to shout at and threaten Janet in her home. Once he realised he couldn't do much about the situation short of physically muzzling her, he stormed off angrily, muttering to himself. You see, what Janet was telling us about was their deplorable working conditions. She told us that she only had seasonal work, which could sometimes end up being only two to three months out of the year. She said in a 'good month' she could make R4,800. Although Janet's husband was considered to have more of a steady income than her, as well as a contract, he made a similar amount. However, in the rainy season, if, for example, it rained for a week and no work could take place, he would not get paid for that week. This, Janet said, meant it was quite difficult to put food on the table consistently for her family of five. Another alarming practice that Janet told us about was the use of harmful pesticides on the farm, with workers receiving no personal protective equipment to shield them. She described being out in the field working with other farmworkers and having pesticides being sprayed on both them and the produce as they worked. Besides being completely shocked, I also felt angry at the inhumane treatment that vulnerable communities like this face in our food system. It really drove home the point that the Constitution, and all it promises, often fails to reach those who need it most. And this places a responsibility on those of us with social capital and proximity to power to ask harder questions: how exactly does the food we eat every day – and the wine we enjoy – get to our plates? DM
Daily Maverick
14-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
On landfills, butternut and buffets — Zero Waste Summit
The Western Cape provincial government target stipulates that 50% of organic waste should be diverted from landfills by 2022, and 100% by 2027. 'Food is as complicated as life,' said Kurt Ackermann, CEO of the SA Urban Food & Farming Trust, as he opened the Zero Waste Summit at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on 10 July, an event created by the Food Indaba. Petro Myburgh, sustainability manager at the V&A Waterfront, Melania Ludwig, owner of Zero to Landfill Organics, along with Roberto de Carvalho, executive chef at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), and Alison Evans, head of Waste Markets at the City of Cape Town, were panellists at the summit, hosted by Maverick Citizen managing editor Zukiswa Pikoli. Prefacing the day's discussion, Pikoli spoke about the food justice landscape that included the eradication of food waste as a focus area, particularly in light of South Africa's hunger problem. 'Food justice emanates from the public health crisis – issues of hunger and noncommunicable diseases in South Africa,' said Pikoli. She cited the Union Against Hunger's reflections on food waste, where France's 'Garot Law' requires large supermarkets to donate rather than discard, and that South Africa could look at making similar agreements with food rescuers so the cost of transporting food would not be a barrier, and tax incentives would be provided. Landfills A total of 67% of all waste is diverted from landfills, with 200 tonnes of organic waste diverted at the V&A, Myburgh explained. 'Most waste always used to be landfilled, in a 100 to 200 years they will look at landfills and ask: why were they throwing resources into a hole?' said Evans. Organic waste creates methane, which is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, she explained. Organic waste is filling up landfills and we are running out of space – it takes 20 years to develop a new landfill. Evans mentioned a provincial target stipulating that 50% of organic waste should be diverted from landfills by 2022, and 100% by 2027 – a 'scary target'. 'In the city this has translated to a restriction at one of the two landfill sites. We have to take this seriously; what is the City's role in this move from putting waste in the landfills to getting it into the economy? Either feeding people, creating animal feed or composting – all the things you can do with organic waste are positive and good for the ecosystem – and can also turn it into energy through anaerobic digestion.' Evans said diverting organic waste by 100% by 2027 is an unrealistic target, bearing in mind that 'we need to move towards that target, and the City is no exception'. Since 2016 Evans's department has distributed 50,000 home composting containers to residents, which 'brings down the barrier of entry; no one is going to start a compost heap from scrap'. They have also trialled separation at the source of organic waste. Informal traders have very few ways to preserve fruit and vegetables, so from small trials they have seen that traders are very willing to separate waste and let it be picked up by the City. In trials, Evans explained, people in low-income households have come on board with separating waste because they don't want rubbish attracting rats and pests. The City of Cape Town's other role is regulator; it does not collect all waste, since the private sector does manage some of it. Policy and by-laws require large commercial waste generators to submit integrated waste management plans and be accredited, and companies doing composting have to do the same. Butternut – just use a peeler Ludwig's company helps the hospitality industry separate food waste, which she said only takes a few days to get going. 'A small restaurant produces a tonne of food waste a month, a large hotel up to 20 tonnes. An ice cream factory produces a tonne a month. It can be up to 50% of your waste.' The UK-developed Guardians of Grub is a tool that helps hospitality companies save money through tracking waste. Ludwig's company will provide feedback on what is discarded, to improve their edible food redistribution and 'save the planet at the same time'. Love Food Hate Waste is a tool for individuals to minimise food waste, which Ludwig recommended. Common reusable items include the end slices of bread loaves and potato peels. Peeling a butternut with a knife rather than a peeler wastes 20% of edible butternut, she explained. 'There's always food that is not edible – eggshells, teabags, bones, banana peels – but let's keep edible food in the chain.' Staff meals and smaller plates Pikoli asked De Carvalho what the strategies are for waste when hosting large events at the CTICC. 'The best way is not to create waste in the first place… If you plan accordingly there's a lot of food you can save,' he said. The CTICC gives all the staff a meal (9,000 meals per month) and 70% of food is then recovered from functions. If there is an event requiring 10 buffets, they have to keep all 10 looking stocked. So, they decided to keep more in fridges and only put it out when necessary. De Carvalho has also found that if they make the serving plates smaller, people eat less. Another strategy to reduce waste is to create set menus for people of exact portions. This financial year they have separated 10 tonnes of organic waste at source. They also found that through feeding staff they diverted 3.5 tonnes of food from a landfill. 'Charity starts at home. Also, the staff come from vulnerable communities and now they have something in their stomachs when serving these people,' De Carvalho said. The CTICC gives away used cooking oil for biodiesel. The fat trap (where oils, grease and fat are prevented from going into the wastewater system) collects fat for compost. They are in the planning stages of creating a garden for the kitchen. AI on the recycling belt Myburgh said her first goal at the V&A was diverting 30% of waste. It was a challenge, and separation at source was the most important intervention. They have intensified organic waste and recycling through issuing a cheap ice cream bucket for the restaurants to dispose of food waste, along with continual training and education, as well as kitchen audits. They operate an on-site waste recovery centre, and Myburgh says that seeing 130 people working on it is 'poetry in motion'. There's a clean and a dirty belt of waste, ensuring 120 to 160 tonnes is available for recycling and 200 tonnes of organic waste avoid landfills. AI is now being used on the belt to recognise contaminated waste, to salvage more. The last statistics Myburgh found that 88% of landfilled waste is still organic and 26% labelled as organic is not. That is why it is crucial to get separation at source right. Cheaper to chuck away? It costs R900 to dump a tonne of waste into a landfill in Cape Town, and R200 elsewhere in South Africa, Ludwig said. She's found the reluctance to start composting is down to economics and effort – it requires a bit of effort to have a number of bins to sort your waste. She explained that 4,000 tonnes dumped daily in landfills in Cape Town is organic. Her facility works with 250 tonnes a month. She wants to get to a point where 4,000 tonnes are made into compost, and we stop using fossil fuels as fertilisers. 'It's been so easy to throw it in the bin. We're not asking you to recycle, just separate. Don't put straws, sugar packets, etc in organic waste – these small items are what's contaminating the waste. The glass stopper on bottles goes into compost, then we can't use it,' said Ludwig. 'And wrappers on sweets – nobody died from eating a mint that wasn't wrapped in plastic.' DM
