The University of Cape Town (UCT) demonstrates multiple educational outreach and programme initiatives aimed at supporting sustainable land use and agricultural practice among local- and national-level communities (including students, small-scale growers and urban food-gardeners). These programmes emphasise low-input production, water-wise gardening, skill-development for food security, land-use policy engagement and technology-enabled small-farm solutions. Where available, it is clear that many of these offerings are open/free to the target community (students, community gardeners).

1. iGARDI Project at UCT

The iGARDI Project is a sustainable vegetable garden (432 m²) on UCT’s Middle Campus (heritage site “Call 2 Care / Welgelegen”). It is water-wise, low-input, aimed at alleviating food insecurity among students, and serves as an educational tool: empowering learners (students) with gardening skills, sustainable food production, and nutrition. call2care.org.za

  • Outreach target: UCT student community (and via skill-development aspect broader community)
  • Fee status: Free (no indication of charges for students or community gardeners)
  • Relevance: Directly about land use for vegetable agriculture and sustainable gardening, skill build-out.

2. Outreach by the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU)

UCT’s EPRU engages with government agencies, community stakeholders and NGOs; hosts policy-workshops, public lectures and research dissemination in the environmental/land/agrarian domain, including land-use, agriculture policy.

  • Outreach target: Government stakeholders, community stakeholders, NGOs (national/regional scale)
  • Fee status: Likely Free or low cost (public lecture/workshop format) — however explicit cost not stated in available source
  • Relevance: Focus on sustainable land-management from a policy & community outreach vantage.

3. UP-UCT Future Africa Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations

As of April 2024, Prof. Maano Ramutsindela holds the Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations at UCT (Dept of Environmental and Geographical Science). The Chair’s agenda includes land-use change, sustainability transformations and environmental geography, enabling outreach and collaborative research on land use, potentially including agricultural land management.

  • Outreach target: Researchers, postgraduate students, and by extension community/collaborative partners
  • Fee status: Internal research chair; educational outreach component largely free (academic/public seminars)
  • Relevance: While less explicit about direct training in agricultural land management, it supports the institutional capacity for sustainable land-use education and outreach.

4. Student Tech-Solutions for Small-Scale Farmers (“AgriSentry”)

UCT students developed the “AgriSentry” low-cost sensor system for small-scale farmers to monitor soil moisture, sunlight, temperature and thereby support precision agriculture and sustainable land-use.

  • Outreach target: Small-scale farmers (national scale)
  • Fee status: Developed as a solution tool; outreach/training likely free (participation in competition)
  • Relevance: Shows UCT’s role in practical technology and outreach for sustainable land-management for agriculture.

University students pitched practical, tech-based solutions to support small-scale farmers at the 2025 TCS Sustainathon, from affordable soil sensors to digital marketplaces and precision agriculture tools.

In September, 10 teams of university students from across South Africa gathered at Wits University to compete in the 2025 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Sustainathon. Now in its fourth year locally, the competition challenges young people to design practical, tech-based solutions to pressing social and environmental problems.

This year’s theme was sustainable agriculture and food security. Teams were tasked with tackling challenges such as helping township farmers access affordable tools, fighting child malnutrition and connecting small-scale growers directly with markets.

The winning project came from Team PowerLock, UCT engineering and computer science students Phemelo Maile, Mnelisi Mabuza and Mahlomola Mohlomi. Their project, AgriSentry, gives small-scale farmers affordable ways to understand and monitor their crops.

Many small-scale farmers can’t afford high-tech farming equipment and often don’t know when the soil is too dry, when rain is on the way, or how much fertiliser is being washed away. This leads to wasted water, lower yields and lost income. They also struggle to keep a record of farm performance, making it harder to qualify for loans or insurance.

AgriSentry tackles this with simple, low-cost sensors placed in the ground and around fields. These measure:

  • Soil moisture — to tell when the crops actually need water, preventing over or under watering.
  • Sunlight — to show how much light crops are getting.
  • Temperature — so farmers can see when conditions become too hot or cold.

All this information is collected and sent to a central unit, which turns it into easy-to-read advice. Instead of confusing graphs, farmers get clear SMS alerts — in their own language — telling them things like: “Your maize field needs water today,” or “Stop irrigating, rain is expected.”

Over time, the system also builds up a record of the farm’s performance. That “track record” is crucial: it can be shown to banks or cooperatives as proof that the farmer is running a productive operation, opening the door to credit, subsidies or crop insurance.

“Essentially what our solution addresses is being able to make affordable sensors for farmers who are working on their crops, either in their backyard or who have small farms,” explained team member Phemelo Maile, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at UCT.

Summary

Together, these activities show that UCT offers several educational/outreach programmes on sustainable agricultural land-management (or closely related sustainable land use) targeted at students, community growers and small-scale farmers. The iGARDI Project stands out as a concrete, free, community-oriented vegetable-garden education initiative. The institutional and policy outreach via EPRU and the Research Chair strengthen UCT’s coverage. The tech-solution work further shows UCT’s engagement at scale for small-farm applications.