Remote Community Vegetable Garden  |  Namibia

Purros is a remote, poor village in the northwest corner of Namibia, 800kms northwest of Windhoek, with a population 610 people, made up of Himba and Herero ethnicities.

The people of Purros have endured many years of drought. The local infrastructure is basic, and resources are limited.

The primary school has 130 students attending, from Purros and other villages in the region; it is poorly equipped. Students eat just one meal a day - usually a bowl of maize.

Puros has one small shop that sells basic food items like maize, macaroni, sugar, salt and tin food. This food is very expensive. Members of the community must travel 200km for food supplies, which means that they spend most of their money on the transport and not on food.

The aim of this project is to build a closed tunnel vegetable garden, measurements 9m (w) x 15m (L) x 2.4 (H) to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbage, onions and carrots to increase the nutrition in the meals provided to the primary school students. The entire community will eat vegetables from the garden, but with an emphasis on the school children.

It will be a closed netted garden to protect the vegetables from animals. Due to the harsh climate, there are not too many insects/pests.

Excess vegetables will be sold to local tourism venues, and the profits will be used to ensure the sustainability of the garden.

The garden will be tended to by a local Garden Manager, as well as the school children.

The community recently installed a community chicken coup, being used for the same purposes. The chicken manure will be used as fertilizer for the garden.

The community is receiving guidance from the Agriculture Department at the University of Namibia.