A smart farm springs up and empowers locals

An experimental 'smart farm' is taking root at the doorstep of Gauteng's only Big Five game reserve and could become a blueprint for other socially and environmentally conscious farms in the future, writes Tanya Faber.

- Tanya Faber

Dinokeng Game Reserve, 40 minutes from Pretoria, opened its doors in 2011 as a model of future conservation where people and wildlife live in harmony in a sustainable way. Now, a 122ha smart farm that sits right near the reserve and close to the community of Hammanskraal is taking root and producing crops while uplifting the local community, with the help of WWF South Africa.

The farm fits in with the United Nations approach of One Health - an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimise the health of people, animals and the environment. The farm was purchased by Inqaba Biotec, a DNA and genome sequencing company, for its corporate social investment work. The organisation's executive director, Dr Oliver Preisig, had often visited Dinokeng and admired the piece of land on its doorstep as the perfect spot for innovation that would also enhance the tourism offering of the reserve.

Because of their interest in promoting agroecology as a farming method that considers both people and nature, WWF and Inqaba are now working together on this 'smart farm' project. The 'smart' component of the farm is that it reduces waste, works with the rhythms of nature, optimises the use of fuel, water and organic fertiliser, while boosting the livelihoods of those involved in a way that goes beyond mere wages.

"Through our Business Development Unit, in 2022 Inqaba teamed up with us," explains Luyanda Njanjala, Smallholder Farmer Programme Manager at WWF, "and in January 2023 we started drawing up our plan to test an agroecology model close to a metropole area."