 Good evening. Welcome to the farming podcast brought to you by Private Property. My name is Mbali Wongo and welcome for joining us this Tuesday evening. I almost forgot I was about to say Thursday evening. Clearly I'm rushing into quarter two already but welcome for joining us this Tuesday evening. Today's show is a bit interesting because we get to speak to someone who's built their career within the agricultural sector but doing something slightly different not being a farmer not being a marketer but we are speaking to an agrijournalist slash photographer who's also had an agribusiness within the agri valley chain so we're going to get some insights into the different or alternative farming methods that are available to ensure that our beautiful sector that we all dearly love which is the agricultural sector remains sustainable for the long term. I think it's important to contributing towards food security but at the same time being sustainable. I just want to say that before we introduce our guest please continue to follow us on social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You would find all the information and the weekly posters of our private property farming podcast on our social media not forgetting the other shows that we have on our channel as well relating to property whether you're a first-time home buyer whether you're interested in property investments or whether you'd like to see new show houses openings of new properties etc private property and especially our YouTube channel has got you so if you miss any of our weekly shows you can obviously get the repeats of those shows on our YouTube channel on the various playlists that are available. Thank you once again and continue to share like and comment on all our live conversations most importantly because you get to speak to the to the guests that we have onto the show directly but I'd like to introduce our guest today her name is Marinda Lowe and she is like I said an every journalist slash photographer let's get to know about who she is and her role to the agricultural sector. Marinda how are you doing? Great thanks for having me and thank you to all your listeners and viewers great to be here thank you. Thank you I'm sure this is going to be interesting conversation so I really can't wait but before we get into the nitty-gritty Marinda please just give us a short introduction what you've done in the agri industry especially with your compost making business etc and what you do now as an agri journalist etc. Great question thank you very much and my composting or my agri career actually started as a packaging technologist it was a export table grape company exporting grapes to to the EU and to Europe and beyond and they wanted to convert from conventional farming to organic farming so the farm it was very sandy soil so what needed to be done and especially in organic farming is that you need to build the soil structure and organic matter the best way to do that is composting. So I was sent on a composting course to Austria and I completed the composting course there and then I started with Ili Reilinges we started Reliance Compost which is now a national composting company providing organic compost to quite a few farms and landscapers and so on so that basically was the base also of of organic farming and sustainable farming is the compost and then eventually I actually started writing about composting and organic farming and that led to a career in in journalism took me to media 24 to new magazine and then freelancing and event writing agricultural articles on anything ranging from keynote farming to goat farming and alternative farming systems in South Africa. Wow so but what does what does alternative farming systems mean are we talking about changing soil and rather farming and compost or you know the the new term or kid on the block is hydroponically etc using growing medium etc this is regarding into crop production but maybe moving on to livestock what are some of the alternative farming methods but if you could just explain that concept broadly so we could understand. I think alternative farming is looking at historical conventional farming but looking at it from a different angle or farming better or smarter and it can also mean alternative farming systems such as vertical farming if you live in high density areas and you don't have land surface that you farm vertically you rooftop farming we see that beehives are being kept on top of skyscrapers and so people farming in water and acroponics hydroponics and people farming oysters avalone and seawater kelp and then also freshwater farming so alternative farming is not only looking at conventional farming and doing it differently in terms of organic but it could also be totally different farming systems you know. What are some of the upsides and downsides of having to explore alternative farming systems you mentioned for example instead of farming like the old traditional ways people can now farm vertically it sounds very fancy and technical does it come at a high price etc you spoke about bees being kept in skyscrapers you know what type of infrastructure and investment is required in that and who looks after the bees at the top of the skyscrapers you know what I mean so what are the pros and cons of alternative farming systems? Well the reason for alternative farming is that the old or historical ways of farming is not working anymore you see that conventional farmings they need to add more chemicals they need to increase the dosages but also our export markets are starting to demand less and less chemical sprays and the standards are very very high in terms of what for example fruit farmers are allowed to use and spray on the apples of pears and citrus that goes to international markets so from one hand there's a demand from customers to reduce chemical and other input and also it becomes costly but also we need to look at our resources our water and soils being diminished so from that point of view we also need to look differently or look for alternative ways of farming so there's pressure from both sides both from nature and the resources we have available and then the markets itself that demands that we look that demand that we look differently to how we farm and then also we need to develop new markets we want to start farming different products we need more bees to pollinate the more almond trees and blueberries that are being planted in South Africa so you find that from one industry another industry grows and you also find that farmers need to diversify even more in terms of the product range that they have available so I don't know if that answers your question yeah I mean you spoke about from your answer you've also just alluded to you know the reason why alternative farming methods are critical is that they help us preserve our natural resources you know and that being water and soil which is such big components into the farming industry and if I think mentioned that you've just done a bit of work or research around water and soil can you share something about those two elements for us I think the two the two is very interrelated to each other the example that I mentioned was the same when you put nutrients when you give nutrients to the plant and water and if there's not a good soil structure your water will and your nutrients will leach out so what you need to do and what certainly what what South Africa needs to do is build the organic matter content in the soil what that means basically is adding composting in the soil or on top of the soil mulching that not only helps with the evaporation of moisture from the soil it prevents weeds growing in terms of the mulch that you put on top but it also helps to create a soil structure it creates aggregates if that's the word I can use that help to maintain soil in the moisture in the water so your soil quality and soil structure goes hand in hand with the top and the amount of water that you use and then yes but it depends on which soil type you use and also which crop and how you are you water are you manage your water and what type of irrigation so there's many other parameters in terms of water usage that one can look out to reduce the amount of water that one uses yeah going back to compost Miranda because you ran a business within the composting and I suppose some of the key insights that you're sharing as well are you know real live or lived experiences within your compost business and you mentioned that you know you saw the compost two farmers as well as private individuals in the home gardens and I'm just thinking I mean as a farmer who's just farming on fast stretches of land you know that once you farm more sustainably I'm sure compost might not work for him or her you know unless they try different methods to preserve soil etc but do you think for professionals who are farming you know in the backyard gardens or sorry individuals who are growing food systems in their backyard gardens etc how can they preserve their compost time and time again because sometimes as a farmer myself I get queries from individuals saying oh my crops died what happened and then you know that's in their picture or someone would say I just bought a new house my you know I can never grow anything in this in this backyard garden what's wrong with the soil you know is the soil too red or yellow or whatever the case is and people sometimes need advice so you know for people then maybe who are not sure about their soil compositions and want to go into compost and maybe just do the two or mix the two in there in their private spaces how can they preserve compost how can they ensure that you know they can grow healthy food for that for their for their own individual or family consumption sure it's it's a lot of questions in in one in term I'll try to give you lots of answers as well composting and using compost is just one way of adding organic matter in the soil adding plant matter back into the soil because you need to feed the microbes and the soil life that's inside the soil you don't necessarily only have to use compost you don't have to buy compost if you don't have it but if you've got leaves or grass or weeds um you can you can use that all all of those are organic matter that you can put back in the soil something else in terms of crops dying and using companion planting or making use of a system or method called companion planting is also beneficial companion planting means that you plant certain plants next to each other the one is the natural repellent of pests of the other so it means that they that attract certain insects that will that are predators of pests and it also means some some plants actually secrete stuff in the roots that actually help manage soil health so companion planting is planting different plants together that are beneficial for the other one's growth or protection so composting is one aspect of of farming or soil health but there's also other aspects such as using mulch mulch is a layer of organic matter whether it's old leaves or grass or cuttings or whatever so using that on top of the soil to prevent weed growth that is for example that's another way of of preventing moisture loss and preventing weed growth using a mulch and and then companion planting as I've mentioned it also attracts insects that's important to reduce your insecticide input and what are the are there's so many questions in one but composting you don't need and composting is not always practical or viable in terms of cost for you sure of a huge part yes on commercial scale ah thank you before I move on to the next question I just want to encourage any of you watching at home this evening we are joined by Marinda Lowe who's an agrijournalist slash photographer and I suppose entrepreneur in the composting space or agripreneur should I say and today we're talking about alternative farming methods and earlier on if you missed some critical points that you mentioned is that she highlighted a few of examples of what alternative farming methods are so if you missed the first part of the show you could definitely catch it on our YouTube channel but please comment ask any questions that you have to Marinda let you want her to clarify specifically on farming sustainably on alternative farming methods conventional farming or organic compost yeah this show is for you Marinda I just want to find out um uh with your uh now I'm just thinking with the farmer's head yeah with the composting business and for people that are listening to you and maybe would want to try being in the composting industry or start their own compost business um and you mentioned the word organic uh in some examples that you explained is every single compost in the composting business it is it is it 100 organic so when you're going into the business do you have to be certified organic because I know to be organically certified requires some um someone to go through uh what a certification process of some sort I think we need to distinguish between organic farming and sustainable farming organic farming is um it's when when you go through a certification process to get a label that you put in your product that gets sold as organic and organic product in a retailer so the retailer might have some standards and they might be organic body that might have standards and then your product is certified organic so it's uh to farm organically more linked to a certification system um to farm sustainably is to look after the resources that you put in whether it's um looking at the chemical inputs it's not necessarily an organic that you're not allowed to use sprays or insecticides or weed killers or so but it's the sustainable use of all your inputs um something else I just want to mention we focusing on on organic farming and and composting and soil based but um we alternative farming systems could also involve farming in and with water and that that is aquaculture which means your plant is is physically in that in a liquid medium it's physically hanging in water so the the roots are suspended in in the water um but um and aquaponics is um aquaculture actually sorry I'm wrong way other way around is that you you farm um you farm fish or you farm crustacea or corals or something so it's it's water animals water plants that's being um it's being farmed or often in combination with plants so that the nutrient rich water of fish let's say use that example is then fed through two herbs and other plants um which then purify the water and use the nutrients and then the purified water filtered back to the the animals the the fish so it's a closed loop system not always closed loop but it's it's a water based system so alternative farming systems could entail farming on land but it can also entail farming with or in water wow so moving on to something else I think maybe could also that could also come much closer to home for our audience this evening is that also you have like a non-conventional career right it's not a traditional line that one would pick up based on the skill set that you have like photography and you started writing first and then you moved into journalism etc what are what are some of the non-farming opportunities that exist in the agricultural sector um you know based on your experience and looking at how your career has also turned excellent question um in terms of photography what is interesting when I was researching uh uh writing articles for southafrica.co.za I wrote about farming and and agricultural commodities in south africa and that was translated into all 11 south african languages it was a huge project but the absence of good photos of south african farmers and south african products and south african commodities that I realized is also a huge opportunity that there's not a lot of images available you know of of um trapped cages you know we're trapped being bred and things like millet in south africa you know in terms of non-agricultural opportunities in within the agricultural sector um sure there's a lot I'm thinking of venues you know if you waiting venues training venues if you want to train farm workers you know how to prune how to how to trim the hooves of your goats you know that kind of training venues I'm thinking of restaurants coffee shops farm stores something else that's probably non non-farming but definitely related to agricultural commodities is processing I mean if you've got a huge tomato farmer and your market is satisfied with or saturated with tomatoes and you're sitting with tomatoes then preserving those products is a secondary industry whether you jam it dry it sprinkle it um you know they you know further processing of agricultural products um certainly agritourism is is huge and I think that that's also in terms of people wanting to buy property I think that could also be an option to look at is is how can I use this property also not only to farm but as a destination probably a tourism destination it could be people wanting to take part and see what happens on the working farm but it might also be people wanting to escape the city and just experience fresh farm air so there's so many aspects of of agriculture that doesn't not that doesn't necessarily involve getting your hands dirty um yeah but and and then involving into into other value added products and and and offerings that's related to a farm yeah I like that example that you brought in with your photography that you know you you found a gap pretty much um where you can't just yeah I can attest to the fact that there aren't so many pictures of South African farms farmers or farming you know the ones that you do find online are always just mostly repetitive or it's a hand holding a cell phone um or when you're talking about farming it's just attracting the field but you could see that these destinations are non-African destinations and also non-South African and so um with your photography um what did that entail were you just taking photos around different farms were you traveling and finding very beautiful destinations that exist within the sub uh in in South Africa uh and taking pictures of that so infusing it with a bit of tourism and farming um what type of pictures did you send and where did they land up um it's it's interesting what kind of what kind of photos get sold but also what kind of photos are people commenting on and what people want to see is is for example um one one series of articles I wrote was how to clip the moves of your goat and why it's important to trim the hooves of a goat but no one no one understand or not many people understand how important it is for a goat to have the hooves regularly clip because he needs to it needs to walk far and and trade very securely to get to where he wants to go it's a climbing animal so I took photos of someone trimming you know cutting step by step the hooves of a goat certainly not a glamorous wasn't a glamorous day but it was fantastic um and then another one for example was blueberry farming is how people how blueberries are grown that it grows in in peat it's a very uh it's imported uh they grow in pots they don't grow in soil and the nutrient goes through the water and dripper systems into into the the individual buckets or pots and then the different varieties how it's been picked um how it's been packaged um and also just being outside eating directly from from the plant and chatting to people while they working it a fantastic experience so I think there's a there's a we don't see enough of farmers and real life farmers and what they do and the good stories you know that might be simple stories it might be spectacular stories but um the stories of people farming and um there's so many different ways of doing things and alternative ways of doing things and we can learn so much from each other oh wow I think just to sum up our conversation today we spoke about some non-farm opportunities um and also earlier on in our conversation you mentioned um different or various alternative farming systems or methods uh for anybody listening this evening and is also maybe thinking of alternative farming systems specifically in the South African context what opportunities are available for a new entrant wanting to come into the agriculture industry to specifically form what uh alternative farming systems are available within the South African context that someone can take uh um take advantage of sure that's a good question um I think if you're a non-farmer and you need to decide on on you want to farm what do you want to farm that will determine what the market wants you're not going to farm something that you won't get sold so determine determining what the market wants if there's a huge market for organic apples and you sitting in an area where there's organic you know where it's suitable for growing fruit um and you've got bridging capital for five six years until your apples become viable then then that's something you need to consider so you look at the environment you look at your soil type you look at where your farm is situated you also look at what the market wants um and then that will determine what kind of crop or livestock or what farming system you're going to use if you want to farm cucumbers but the area is probably not viable then you need to think of an alternative farming system and then think probably on tunnels you know using tunnels farming cucumbers in tunnels um so I think it there's a lot of parameters that one needs to look at when you when you want to want to enter the farming but it's certainly you want to farm something that you want to sell at the end of the day and then therefore you need to be close to a market you need to be able to provide the right product um to the market but you also need to look at your soil type what kind of soil what kind of quality of water and do you have enough water and then work around your resources that you have available and make sure that you utilize them sustainably awesome thank you so much so um without um you know wasting too much of your time just for anybody also that's interested and wants to know you know where you're writing your articles etc what are some of the publications where you're writing about alternative farming methods do you have a blog or where can we find some of your information cool thank you um I wrote quite a few articles on uh for a company called South Africa dot co dot z a um articles range from quinoa farming prawn uh goat farming medicinal plants indigenous fruits indigenous vegetables um goodness I can't even remember what I wrote about guava farming fig farming I don't know there's so many I was part of a agricultural team and all those articles are translated into all 11 South African languages the company's called South Africa dot co dot z a day and um under each article there would be a choice of languages so you click on the language and you read the article in the language of your choice wow thank you so much Miranda for your time this evening I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I'm sure that our guests uh did sorry our audience uh did too I've just got two comments to read for you that said um from Lisa Tava saying thanks for letting us know about the latest in farming and uh Zamila just saying greetings family um I'm sure they're watching the private property podcast uh right now and our conversation so thank you Miranda for your insights and for um obviously sharing the information about where you uh have those alternative farming articles that we could catch up on great stuff thank you Mbali I had fun thanks for your time awesome thank you if you missed tonight's episode you'll catch it on our YouTube channel on private property under the farming podcast playlist today we're joined by Miranda Lowe um who is an agri journalist and a photographer and also um uh an agri premier I'd like to say um who had her own composting business and but most importantly the cracks of our conversation today was about alternative farming systems the different methods in which you could begin farming thinking about your natural resources things like climate change being able to still produce but really farming more sustainably in this environment in the environment that is um that you're faced in or that specifically speaks to what type of commodity you want to farm and so yeah that was our show this evening on alternative farming methods but um thank you again for your comments and for engaging with us it's always nice to know that you are watching and to send a little shout out to um to myself or the guests thank you so much for your support that's it from me tonight and I bid you farewell for this evening take care see you soon thanks Mbali