Africa-Press – South-Africa. Food security is a key challenge stemming from climate change, but a South African development company, Knowledge Pele, is using its expertise and experience gathered over the past 12 years to create a solution and rock band Coldplay is backing the project.
Knowledge Pele was founded in 2009 and is a subsidiary of 100% black-owned energy and development company Pele Green Energy. Knowledge Pele has been involved in the community development projects of several renewable energy generators in the country, including the CPV1 plant in Touwsrivier – where it set up a research and development hydroponic farm.
Hydroponics is a controlled-environment agriculture technology that does not use land or soil but rather nutrient-rich water. The research and development farm was so successful that Knowledge Pele and the Touwsrivier community have since launched a commercial hydroponic farm that produces over 4 000 kg of leafy green vegetables a month that supplies two major retailers.
Knowledge Pele is taking the expertise it has in controlled-environment agriculture to the global stage through a collaborative research project with Costa Rica’s environment and energy ministry and Sussex University.
While Knowledge Pele has always aimed to take their development work into the rest of the African continent, the opportunity to work in Central America was a surprise, managing director Fumani Mthembi said. The ball started rolling when rock band Coldplay had appointed Knowledge Pele as one of its global sustainability affiliates last year.
“We were in the first instance approached by Coldplay. We didn’t know it was them. We were interviewed by their sustainability consultant and they were looking to appoint affiliate organisations,” Mthembi said.
The band last year made plans to launch an eco-friendly tour by reducing their consumption, cutting carbon emissions by half and recycling as much as they can.
In addition, the band pledged funding for organisations doing “good work” in sustainability across the world – and Knowledge Pele is one of the 12 organisations identified. Coldplay initially intended to fund Knowledge Pele to do one additional project in South Africa. But Mthembi had a brainwave to expand the project to Costa Rica.
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“When we saw the announcement of the tour, and the fact that the first stop was Costa Rica, that changed the game for us… Costa Rica is the poster child of sustainability as a country,” said Mthembi. Renewables power nearly 100% of Costa Rica’s energy.
Mthembi is an alumna of Sussex University, as is Costa Rica’s current president, Carlos Alvarado Quesada. Mthembi reached out to Quesada who soon connected Knowledge Pele with the ministry of environment and energy, which was keen on a combined project. Mthembi said that Coldplay was also on board with the project, which launched on 17 March – the same day their tour kicked off.
Food insecurity is a global challenge – and as populations rise, there will be shortages of nutritious food, which is compounded by the climate crisis, Mthembi explained. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2020 report, nearly 690 million people are undernourished or suffering from hunger – that is 8.9% of the world population.
Extreme temperatures, droughts and floods are working against traditional farming. Controlled-environment agriculture sets up optimal conditions for growing crops by limiting their exposure to natural elements. Controlled-environment agriculture is a means to deliver more food in technology-savvy ways, according to Mthembi.
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While Knowledge Pele has experience with hydroponics, Costa Rica is well-versed in organoponics – a means to grow organic agriculture within confined space. This presented an opportunity for Knowledge Pele to learn about this different technology while also sharing its knowledge on hydroponics.
In both countries, the research and development farms will be set up in vulnerable communities to contribute to food security and employment needs while also gathering data on development impacts. Sussex University – a leading university in development studies – masters students, will over two years, collect data and conduct research on the development impacts of the use of hydroponics and organoponics, Mthembi said.
These development impacts are divided into gender equality, responsible consumption, decent work and economic growth, and climate action.
The impacts of the project are expected to extend beyond the four themes, Mthembi noted. In Costa Rica, it could possibly cut illegal migration out of Central America and into the US by creating opportunities for rural communities. In South Africa, the farms are solving for job creation and local economic growth in the rural, peri-urban and township communities. There is also the benefit of using knowledge gained from a country at the forefront of sustainability – Costa Rica – and bringing that into South Africa, Mthembi explained.
There will be eight organoponic farms in Costa Rica’s province Puntarenas two of these farms have already been built. As more funding is raised, the project will expand beyond Puntarenas, Mthembi said. In South Africa, four hydroponic farms will be set up across several provinces – the Northern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo. The final project may be based either in the North West or Mpumalanga or be split across the two. More farms will be built as more funding is raised, she added.
Ultimately the research project should help create a way to deliver food, with the required nutrition, at scale, in the face of the climate risks ahead, Mthembi explained.
While the projects are to be implemented in Costa Rica and South Africa – the aim is to expand them across the world. “What we did in Touwsrivier is what we intend to do in the world… When we are clear about the impacts, then we will want to scale,” said Mthembi.
Asked about what motivates her to do this work, Mthembi said that at the heart is the “genuine belief” in freedom, equality and justice.
“Knowing that the world is one in which not everyone is free, not everyone is equal… where social justice is a continuing issue… that is the essence of what I do,” she said. The intention of delivering infrastructure, industrial assets and human development programmes is for people to experience themselves “as more and more free, more and more dignified and more and more equal in the world.”
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