MTHATHA – We Earth Farm Vision, in partnership with Ntinga O.R. Tambo Development Agency, launched a Technology Innovation Agency (TIA)-supported, space-enabled farmer digitalisation system under the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation’s National Space Infrastructure Hub Framework.

The launch was held at the Savoy Hotel in Mthatha last week.

This system will give local and international buyers greater assurance that produce is linked to good farming practices, local standards and market requirements.

The Project Management Officer from Ntinga O.R. Tambo Development Agency, Zandisile Kanise, said they were launching a platform funded by TIA, designed to assist farmers in planning their projects and enterprises remotely, using space satellite and computer technology — tools widely used today.

She confirmed that they had partnered with We Earth Farm Vision, which has been contracted by TIA to work in this region as the development facilitation agent.

“They are working together to bring resources from the national level to assist in our areas so that even young people can take part in the programmes run by the government. After all this, we are trying to stimulate the economy and to ensure that farmers are assisted to plan their businesses so that they can be linked with the markets — so that, in the end, they can work in a way that brings economic benefit to their own communities,” said Kanise.

She added that the department wants 400,000 people to benefit from this programme throughout the country, and O.R. Tambo also has its own farmers.

“We are working hard to ensure that we are mobilising farmers — about 10,000 to 20,000 — who will participate in this programme. Farmers that will benefit are from the whole Eastern Cape, not only the O.R. Tambo District.”

The representative of We Earth Farm Vision in the O.R. Tambo District, Bonginkosi Kalala, said this is a company that has come up with an innovation in space-assisted agriculture, including village economic nodes.

He said they were launching a project that will start with 30 village economic nodes in the O.R. Tambo Region with Ntinga O.R. Tambo Development Agency.

“That model, which involves village economic nodes, will start at Bhaziya locality in Mthatha, where they launched it on a farm — one hectare for potatoes and another hectare that will be used for something else. When we looked at agriculture in the Eastern Cape, we saw that it is key in this province, specifically agriculture and tourism. We saw that what we need to do is to start our economy with agriculture, especially in O.R. Tambo, because it has land that has been abandoned by people as they have no funds, and most young people are not working,” said Kalala.

He added that they called upon other farmers, urging them to get in touch with their traditional authorities or with Ntinga, so that they can get more information about the programme. He said when they talk about live farming, they mean both livestock and agricultural production.

Head of Space Innovations at the Technology Innovation Agency, Malese Ndhlovu, said they have a programme called the Space Innovation Initiative in the agency.

She said this programme is specifically designed as an intervention, with an investment from the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, in partnership with the Space Infrastructure Hub (SIH), which is the latest large-scale investment driving space capabilities, resources, human capital and infrastructure, including technology, for the whole country.

“We are coming as an initiative that specifically supports the development and commercialisation of space innovations for the country. We are doing our job — the TIA is an agency created specifically by an Act of Parliament to enable the development and commercialisation of innovations into products and services that benefit the country. We are here to serve, and our role is to fund We Earth so that we can benefit those who are normally left behind.

“If you look at farming in terms of food security and sustainability, we are now adding more farmers into the commercial farming mainstream through this technology, so that they can also benefit from being digitalised, being visible, and being able to produce sustainable practices in a marketplace that exists for the food they are producing across the different crops they will be focusing on,” said Ndhlovu.

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