In 2021, about 2.1 million (11.6%) South African households reported experiencing hunger.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is playing its part to make a difference as the world turns its attention to the internationally recognised Mandela Day in honour of the late icon and former president.

Every year on July 18, people from across the globe are encouraged to make a difference in their communities.

At UJ, the Centre for Ecological Intelligence is making sure that students in need are well taken care of with fresh produce available at the Research, Training and Food Systems Hub situated at the Auckland Park Bunting Road Campus.

Here, various projects are undertaken to help alleviate food insecurity and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The projects we embark on essentially aim to teach people how to generate and farm food for themselves. For us it made sense to first start at home – UJ – and then introduce our innovative projects in communities and open spaces,” said project manager Godfrey Ndamane.

The hub has set up integrated food systems at various sites in Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga over the last few years, which offer living laboratories and incubation hubs for relevant and practical experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate and postgraduate students from a diversity of disciplines.

The centre offers teaching and training courses, and programmes in agroecology, aquaponics, aquaculture, hydroponics, water-energy-food nexus among others.

“When we started, we were doing aquaponics farming, which is a combination between hydroponics and aquaculture where we farm vegetables utilising the fish for their waste to provide nutrients for the plants.

“We later introduced open field farming, then brought in the element of seedling generation/seed propagation.

“We realised the amount of money we were spending to get good quality organic seeds was a lot and felt it made sense to establish a project that focuses on generating our own seedlings for our projects,” added Ndamane.

The next project on the horizon for the centre is setting up custom greenhouses and looking into drip hydroponics as well as a focus on worm composting to get nutrient-rich compost.

“The hub serves an important purpose for us to do proof of concept on our projects. This is mainly done so that when we go into the communities the projects are a success. The success of the project hinges on whether or not we are confident and comfortable that the interventions we are introducing will work.

“So we first start at UJ and set up these projects, do the proof of concept and once we are comfortable that what we are doing works, we can venture out and do these projects in the community to achieve societal impact, a leading narrative in the UJ community.”

Manyasha Ntsoane is responsible for the seedling propagation.

The centre is also a training ground for future agriculturists and farmers.

Malebo Rakgoale is a crop science student from another institution, doing her experiential learning at UJ. She is the student leader of the nursery at the hub.

“We produce seedlings and microgreens in the nursery including rocket, yellow mustard, cabbage, red cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bulb onion, beetroot, leeks, broccoli and herbs like different varieties of parsley.”

Rakgoale, together with other students, experiments and grows the crops at the hub as part of their practical, experiential learning.

Manyasha Ntsoane is responsible for the seedling propagation and microgreens production at the centre.

“What we do here is an example of enterprise in the space of agriculture where we focus on growing the microgreens to reduce the costs for the centre, a good example of sustainability. We grow the seedlings, so we are able to produce vegetables and have access to them. We also grow seedlings because we seek quality seedlings that can be hard to find. We have invested in the training and research to find ways we can provide the best-quality seedlings.”

Ntsoane added that the growing microgreens (baby plants) were then taken to the other food systems in the hub.

“The systems – hydroponics, aquaponics and traditional underground farming. Once the seedlings are fully grown we take them to the ground and they will be taken care of from there for about three months until they are ready for harvesting as mature vegetables ready for consumption by students or sold to the School of Tourism and Hospitality restaurant.”

Ntsoane encouraged people to start their own gardens at home.

“It is actually important to know what type of soil you have. We can show you how to use small spaces like balconies and different types of containers for the plants to grow. Grow wheels and compost for instance are a good combo for seedlings to become full mature vegetables. To grow your own vegetables you must have good-quality soil, a good mixture of compost, quality seedlings and that will create your healthy garden community.”

Zandile Moruthanyane, the work integrated learning (WIL) co-ordinator primarily responsible for hydroponics farming, gives in-service training to students.

“The food system hydroponics, specifically drip hydroponics, has higher yields and grows fast. The crops grow within three months. It is a farming method that is soilless. We use different kinds of growth mediums like sawdust and coco peat. We put nutrients that are solvent in water and automate the irrigation to water the plants.”

There is a lot to learn at the centre and students and visitors are encouraged to make time to visit and learn about the different food systems.

“To truly capture the essence of what we do, people must come and see for themselves how all these projects work. We want students to come and form part of the work we are doing,” said Ndamane, adding that all the projects taking place at the hub aimed for sustainability.

He added that there were volunteer programmes once a month for people to take part in and that soon they would be opening a market to sell the various vegetables that are grown at the hub.

“The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals we align ourselves with are all of them, but in particular we want to continuously meet the No Poverty, Zero Hunger and Partnerships Goals. We believe in creating jobs, that is why we introduce these projects in communities because they have the capability of employability for people.”

The university will also be participating in other community engagement events for Mandela Day and the month at large.

These include activities led by the Community Engagement Unit at various Johannesburg hospitals, the Jozi My Jozi initiative, the formal clothing drive by the Faculty of Humanities and the Jars of Hope initiative by the School of Hospitality and Tourism.

This is in addition to the various projects that take place beyond Mandela Day, such as the Gwakwani Smart Village project in Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape Water Harvesting project.