LETTER: Novel way to benefit farming and housing

Let’s keep it simple. The country needs more food production, more housing and more funding to support these.

At the same time, huge money flows are going into green investments, looking for genuine (not greenwashed) initiatives as vehicles for these funds.

May I propose a marriage? First, the facts. Farmers need to be better funded to allow them to pursue what will be farming’s next magic bullet, regenerative agriculture (Google it). All aspects of farming are improved by these methods and expensive fertiliser reduced to a minimum, along with insecticides and other such environmentally harmful chemicals. Oh yes, and regenerative agriculture also locks up huge amounts of carbon into the soil. What’s not to love?

When a farm goes down the regenerative path, in all fairness the owners of that farm could, without any loss of food production, be granted planning permission for a small area of the farm to be built upon. The value of this permission would be high enough to help substantially with the regeneration project and even schemes such as hydroponics, for example, could be used to balance the food production books.

If those who wish to pursue farming as a career could be first in line for housing, this could help with the justification for the planning application. If schemes that improved farming methods and assisted with alleviating the severe housing shortage could be initiated, green and environmental investment funds could well find these attractive. It could easily be the case that, for once, all parties walk away smiling. The warm glow of satisfaction from having done one’s bit in saving the planet is a bonus.

Robin Louis Ducret
Franschhoek

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