Project News

From 13th to 15th November 2017

The social worker of the Department of Social Development (DSD) Vhembe district, the chairperson of the protective workshop forum and Mr Ren Kamioka, JICA expert attended the SHEP workshop in Polokwane, Limpopo province.

SHEP stands for Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion. The SHEP approach was developed in the JICA technical cooperation project in Kenya, which is set out to realise "Market-Oriented Agriculture" and convert farmers' minds from "grow and sell" to "grow to sell". The programme of the workshop is not only composed of the lecture to learn the SHEP concept but also the practical exercise that participants conduct market survey to know the demands of the market.

There are many persons with disabilities of Self-Help Groups (SHG) and protective workshops who are engaging with agriculture in the project site which is located at Vhembe district in Limpopo province. However, most of their products are for self-consumption and do not lead to income generation.

The social worker and the chairperson of the protective workshop forum said that "we realised the importance of knowing the market demands first before making crops". They promised to conduct market survey with persons with disabilities and choose crops to sell together.

Participants conducted market survey

Farmer explained the impact of SHEP (Centre)