Rural Gems Training

Tania takes Haarlem to the World on the wings of Agriculture

Report by Gurshwin Damons and Juzevan Du Plessis, GEORGE, South Africa, 7 October, 2020

Tania Phillips is a part of Learning Academy Worldwide’s AGRACADEMY and she lives in Haarlem in the Garden Route District municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A village 16km east of Avontuur and 29km south-east of Uniondale, in the Langkloof region. 

Earlier today she made a presentation on Agriculture in general and her experiences in Haarlem. She explained soil preparation to the actual planting of crops such as beans and onions. Tania touched on the topic of photosynthesis and soil irrigation, further illuminating soil formation. 

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Jade Ribiero and Aaron Usher, currently based in Durban, South Africa also from the Learning Academy Worldwide, together with the founder of the Learning Academy, Theophilus Van Rensburg Lindzter currently based in Brussels, Western Europe also took part in the presentation. Gurshwin Damons and Juzevan du Plessis took part in the presentation from George in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The presentation was made from Haarlem. The technology used to make the presentation is an application called Zoom which allows video and audio calls to be made from virtually anywhere in the world, using a mobile device or computer. 

Tania’s view of the role of the community supporting this process is that the community participates in the agricultural processes and she receives assistance from certain members of the community.

The content presented revolved around agricultural processes in Haarlem and what stood out is the fact that agriculture is a sustainable form of maintaining a living and can be done by anyone who knows how or is able and willing to learn.

For her, this is personal. Tania explained that both her parents are involved in agriculture meaning that she was exposed to it from a very young age and was taught the ways of farming. 

Tania shared information about the little village Haarlem. It is more rural than urban which means there is a greater sense of community with agriculture at the forefront of the economy. This is a good place to stay in terms of geographical attributes, apart from the good sense of community, with beautiful landscapes – A great place to live.   

We learned that even though you are a farmer living on a farm, you cannot plant crops all year round. There must be a 3-6 month interval between planting of crops.

Another new piece of information is the various ways in which crops can be planted with relay cropping, rotation cropping and mixed cropping etc.

Tania received applause from all after she completed her presentation. 

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