Building small farmers and sustainable village communities by increasing coffee production makes sense in South Africa.

Coffee is the second biggest commodity traded globally after oil, and South Africa is not even listed globally as a producer. This information comes out of the farmers weekly, http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/index.php?p[IGcms_nodes][IGcms_nodesUID]=da803a3f67b81bbecddcfd61f0a6115f
, and raises some interesting questions regarding the lack of coffee production in South Africa.

At 100ha, the current portion of land dedicated to coffee is quite ridiculous given that coffee originated on the African continent where climate, soil and high unemployment and poverty make the region ideally suited for coffee growing and processing.

Coffee is a labour intensive crop that would benefit areas of high unemployment like the Wild Coast (old Transkei). It is also ideal for inclusion in sustainable rural village projects as it provides work as well as income for the community.

South Africa also has an advantage with none of the major diseases that affect coffee plants except leaf rust. farmers weekly goes on to say that the gene bank currently contains rust resistant varieties that augurs well for organic coffee production.

The Sicambeni sustainable village project near Port St Johns is an ideal location for coffee growing with soil that is unspoilt by commercial farming exploitation leaving a vast potential for organic yields.

There are moves to increase land dedicated to coffee crops and to assist and train small farmers in Mpumalanga and Kwazulu-Natal but more needs to be done to bring the smaller communities into the game possibly via a cooperative style arrangement.

With the potential for increased jobs as well as export possibilities it makes a great deal of sense to focus on building up this microscopic local industry and providing employment, home grown South African coffee for the local market as well as increased potential in export earnings.

Shifting consciousness and convincing people that they can sustain themselves without outside interference.

The challenge in building a successful and sustainable community in a rural area is very simple. It means creating a paradigm change in people attitudes and perspectives. The shift in consciousness that kicks in once a person or persons realize that they can do it themselves is astounding.

Achieving this means not allowing the community to start to depend on the volunteers assisting them and teaching them the basics about permaculture and other life skills necessary to sustaining themselves alongside nature.

These volunteers will not remain indefinitely and should be able to reach a stage where they can move on having planted many seeds literally as well as figuratively in peoples’ minds that will germinate, grow and bear fruit in future discussion and interaction with other communities like themselves.

Many programs that start off with good intentions lapse and end up leaving 4x4 vehicles, empty school rooms and other evidence that they were indeed once there and yet these items are of no future use on their own to the rural community.

We are intent, at Sicambeni just outside Port St Johns, on teaching and nurturing the absolute basics for sustainable living and then letting the community evolve slowly, increasing their knowledge of permaculture and teaching others around them these basic fundamental life supporting skills.

Applying the philosophy in a specific community.

The essence of a successful approach to building a sustainable and workable rural community is working hand in hand from the start with the community and building a philosophy of inclusivity from the word go.

Different communities have different strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities as well as their own individual combination of human individuals. Obtaining contribution from all towards the greater whole and the ultimate good of the community is a prerequisite.

Some will get involvement from the outset and others might be a bit skeptical until they see positive results. Bringing in expert input and advice is a tactic that bears fruit, not only for this community but also for those brought in from other communities to share and help build.

Permaculture is a much bandied about word and has lost a great deal of its impact through repetition and being randomly used to describe community programs that don’t adhere to the basic concepts.

Someone brought in to work and teach can not only strengthen the community and its structures but will gain much food for thought and take back a different perspective on methods and techniques that go to build a workable and sustainable permaculture ethos.

This meeting of minds and sharing the same philosophy on the individual and the individual rural community and their right to structure and build sustainability in their distinct and unique way is a crucial building block for communities as well as other communities that they meet with and share ideas that they have worked.

Permaculture deals with the growing of food and the efficient use of arable and fertile land as well as the structure of grazing fields, planted fields and rested fields. As a starting off point it has the benefits of dealing with the basic need for a reliable and stable source of healthy nourishment that comes from planting crops with a plan and getting back into sync with the earth and its cycles.

Those in a community that are initially skeptic will be confronted with results that show short term, immediate gain and benefits for the entire community.

This is a critical step in reinforcing the community belief in their individual identity and the culture of building their place on the planet from the bottom up independent from government choices or decisions made by big business.

As a foundation, instilling a belief in the people regarding their capacity to supply enough food for all from the earth is a great boost and can underpin the next stages of constructing new houses and other structures and fencing for keeping animals out of vegetable patches. Water management is a factor in choosing where to plant and where the waste management site is located as that can infect and affect the growing of healthy and nutritious vegetables, herbs and fruit.

These are all key long term decisions and need to be thoroughly discussed with the community and people need to be chosen to work on these aspects of community existence in a full time capacity.

The emphasis is on building a program block by block that never actually reaches a destination but keeps evolving as the dynamic changes and the flow of people, food, livestock, waste and water keeps changing, increasing and decreasing related to human movement, demand and climate change.

Building sustainable and self supporting communities in the rural areas is an achievable goal.

Regaining a place in the earth cycle and ending a process of simply being a consumer is the key to building sustainable and productive communities in rural Africa.

The engrained feeling of being a victim and floating along at the mercy of the ebb and flow of human dynamics that one has no control over has been the lot of the citizens of Africa and other third world countries for decades.

Decisions made by multinational corporations and 1st world countries regarding trade, the environment, agriculture and economic control of the planet seldom include African and other 3rd world problems in the decision making process.

This is a top down system and makes no space for revitalization and empowerment from the bottom up. Arbitrary decisions based on politics, ego and building a specific brand with advertising on 4x4 motor vehicles do not contribute to finding lasting and sustainable solutions to poverty, starvation, unemployment and the other scourges that beset Africa and the 3rd world.

In order to address this gulf, that separates not only decision making processes but also the list of priorities that potential communities at the bottom work with compared to their well off counterparts at the top, it is necessary for people to forge their own progress around communities built around people and not political agendas.

Choices made by the community and built on are an important empowering factor in freeing people from a dependence on factors beyond their control. From this freedom stems a direct increase in self belief and identity with a community, a cause that is greater than the individual.

This vision of a living, dynamic community organism can be a living model for the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Sustainable opportunities open to volunteers.

The Opportunities open to volunteers at the sustainability project are big and the potential for building still more opportunities is even bigger.

The opportunities that abound here for volunteers with ideas and paths forward to improve and enrich the ongoing community development towards the goal of sustainability will provide self starters with a context within which they can build content that is beneficial to themselves as well as the community.

Along with the opportunity to meet and work with rural people that are striving to improve their position on this planet and not relying on government and big business handouts, volunteers will have the chance to find themselves and be able to contribute time and ideas to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Life changing is a phrase that gets used far too often and yet we have people that have passed through our part of the planet and expressed thanks for the opportunity and used that phrase as well as others just like it.

There is no specific daily schedule simply a need to do things that have to get done in the day to day running of a community that sustains itself without hand out contributions from the outside.

Volunteer time, effort and patience in getting to understand the dynamics here is of more benefit to the community than cash and advice from people that have never been here but sit behind computers and just throw stats around.

The chance to set down a footprint and watch one of your own ideas take wings and fly, contributing yet another brick to the foundation that supports the journey towards sustainability may just be intoxicating enough that you want to stay longer and contribute more ideas.

Sustainable opportunities open to volunteers.

The Opportunities open to volunteers at the sustainability project are big and the potential for building still more opportunities is even bigger.

The opportunities that abound here for volunteers with ideas and paths forward to improve and enrich the ongoing community development towards the goal of sustainability will provide self starters with a context within which they can build content that is beneficial to themselves as well as the community.

Along with the opportunity to meet and work with rural people that are striving to improve their position on this planet and not relying on government and big business handouts, volunteers will have the chance to find themselves and be able to contribute time and ideas to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Life changing is a phrase that gets used far too often and yet we have people that have passed through our part of the planet and expressed thanks for the opportunity and used that phrase as well as others just like it.

There is no specific daily schedule simply a need to do things that have to get done in the day to day running of a community that sustains itself without hand out contributions from the outside.

Volunteer time, effort and patience in getting to understand the dynamics here is of more benefit to the community than cash and advice from people that have never been here but sit behind computers and just throw stats around.

The chance to set down a footprint and watch one of your own ideas take wings and fly, contributing yet another brick to the foundation that supports the journey towards sustainability may just be invigorating and stimulating enough that you want to stay longer and contribute more ideas.