The initiative is located in the rural Sarah Baartman municipal district in the west of the Eastern Cape Province, home to the Xhosa people. Poverty in the territory is associated with limited livelihood options, unemployment, low wages, poor labour standards, and precarious employment. Tenure insecurity is common amongst farm dwellers. Commercial agriculture is focused on animal husbandry and monocultural horticulture. In contrast, participants in the initiative practice mixed farming, producing both horticultural and animal husbandry products.

The mission of the Phakamani Siyephambili organisation "Stand Up and Move Forward" is to advance agro-ecology and food sovereignty by enabling farmers to use their local knowledge of Xhosa culture to supply nutrient-rich organic produce to local markets.

The initiative was launched in 2013. At the end of 2019, the initiative included 783 members across three municipalities and 13 geographical areas in the Sarah Baartman district. The initiative operates across 100 farming/food production systems involving small-sale farmers, who accessed land through the government’s various land reform strategies, farm workers and dwellers who live and work on commercial farmland, school gardens, township and informal garden and vegetable plots.

After receiving training in agroecological farming practices, women micro-food producers came together and united with the main aim of producing and marketing food, as well as collectively saving money. Women engaged the local municipality to access land that they plan to use co-operatively for food production.

In 2019, through the East Cape Agricultural Research Project (ECARP), a considerable number of children were incorporated into the initiative : 130 school children from 6 schools in Grahamstown were trained in agroecological farming practices.

Members using organic methods demonstrate and report more efficient water use, greater resilience of crops in dry periods and reduced input costs.

Members exchange knowledge, open-pollinated seeds and share income, farming implements and produce. Social capital, self-esteem, agency, resilience and capabilities essential to secure land, produce food and sustain agroecology have all been developed.

The biophysical, social, and economic activities and interactions create synergies that strengthen the local food systems and make them more productive whilst sustaining ecosystem services such as healthy soils.

This sheet is produced within the framework of the Avaclim project, which aims to create the necessary conditions for the deployment of agroecology in drylands. The international solidarity association CARI coordinates the Avaclim project while Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) is in charge of its implementation in South Africa.