 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 AgriValley 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. But I'd like to introduce our guest today. Her name is Miranda Lowe, and she is like I said an agrijournalist slash photographer. Let's get to know about who she is and her role to the agricultural sector. Miranda, 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, Miranda, please just give us a short introduction, what you've done in the agri industry, especially with your compost making business, et cetera, and what you do now as an agrijournalist, et cetera. Great question. Thank you very much. My composting or my agri career actually started as a packaging technologist. It was an export table grape company exporting grapes 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 organic farming and sustainable farming as the compost. And then I actually started writing about composting and organic farming, and that led to a career in journalism. It took me to media 24 to new magazine and then freelancing and event writing agricultural articles on anything ranging from quinoa farming to goat farming and alternative farming systems in South Africa. Wow. So what does alternative farming systems mean? Are we talking about changing soil and rather farming in compost or 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. 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. So people farming in water, acroponics, hydroponics, people farming oysters, abalone 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. 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. 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 farming is they need to 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 and 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 waters, 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, the demands that we look, the 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 you've, 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 that 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 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, how 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 life or lived experiences within your compost business. And you mentioned that, you know, you sort of 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 far stretches of land, you know, that wants to 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 their private spaces, how can they preserve compost? How can they ensure that, you know, they can grow healthy food for their for their own individual or family consumption? Sure. It's a lot of questions in one. 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 or 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, you can use that. 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 attract certain insects that will that are predators of pests. And it also means some some plants actually secrete stuff in their 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 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 another way of preventing moisture loss and preventing weed growth using a mulch. And then companion planting as I mentioned it also attracts insects. That's important to reduce your insecticide input. What are the other, 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 a huge price 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 Loh who's an agrijournalist slash photographer and I suppose entrepreneur in the composting space. Oh 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 unless 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 with your 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 and you mentioned the word organic 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 someone to go through a certification process of some sort. I think we need to distinguish between organic farming and sustainable farming. Organic farming is it's when you go through a certification process to get a label that you can 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 to form organically more linked to a certification system. To farm sustainably is to look after the resources that you put in whether it's 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 on but it's the sustainable use of all your inputs. Something else I just want to mention we focusing on organic farming and composting and soil based but 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 roots are suspended in in the water but and aquaponics is aquaculture actually sorry I'm wrong way other way around is that you farm 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 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 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 um 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 um training venues um if you want to train farm workers um you know how to prune how to how to trim the hooves of your goats you know that kind of training venues um I'm thinking of restaurants coffee shops um farm stores uh something else that's probably non non farming but definitely related to agricultural commodities is processing I mean if you've got a new 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 uh dry it pickle it um um you know the 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 a 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 um that doesn't that doesn't necessarily involve getting your hands dirty um