Abstract

This article sheds light on how non-formal education was used as a tool to provide knowledge and skills for Manyeledi community members who are engaged in subsistence farming, to improve their crop yield. Manyeledi is a rural village in the North-West province, which, like most rural areas, is experiencing environmental degradation caused by the depletion of natural resources, and poor farming practices. The environmental challenges experienced by this community include among others, the less arable land, changing climatic conditions and poor rainfall. . A growing number of Manyeledi households live in abject poverty, where subsistence agriculture is the only source of livelihood. The community lacks the advanced farming skills needed to deal with the arid land and an acid soil. The paper provides insight into a community engagement project spearheaded by Bokamoso Impact Investment (BII), a non-governmental organisation that works to increase the crop production of marginalised groups. Through the above project, the environmental awareness campaign was launched to impart skills and knowledge that helped the Manyeledi community to deal with the environmental challenges. The training which the project members received through Non-formal education developed a heightened sense of awareness, of the need to improve their farming methods in order to enhance their livelihood sustainability. The study was qualitative in nature and observation and a one-on-one and focus group interviews were employed to collect data. The finding was that the skills and knowledge imparted by the NGO and the University of South Africa, improved the community’s farming methods, which boosted crop production.

摘要

本文阐明了如何将非正规教育用作为从事自给农业的 Manyeledi 社区成员提供知识和技能的工具，以提高他们的作物产量。Manyeledi 是西北省的一个农村村庄，与大多数农村地区一样，由于自然资源枯竭和农业实践不当，该地区正在经历环境退化。该社区面临的环境挑战包括耕地减少、气候条件变化和降雨量不足等。. 越来越多的曼耶勒迪家庭生活在赤贫之中，自给农业是唯一的生计来源。该社区缺乏应对干旱土地和酸性土壤所需的先进农业技能。该论文深入介绍了由博卡莫索影响力投资 (BII) 牵头的社区参与项目，这是一个致力于提高边缘化群体作物产量的非政府组织。通过上述项目，发起了环境意识运动，以传授帮助 Manyeledi 社区应对环境挑战的技能和知识。项目成员通过非正规教育接受的培训提高了意识，意识到需要改进耕作方法以提高他们的生计可持续性。该研究在性质和观察上是定性的，并采用一对一和焦点小组访谈来收集数据。调查结果是，非政府组织和南非大学传授的技能和知识，