In Africa, one in five people suffer from chronic hunger and two in five are living in poverty. The average family also spends close to half their income on food. Do we have answers for this situation? What will it take to build food systems that are resilient and sustainable? What power do households have to feed themselves? What obstacles do they face?

The biggest obstacle may well be our mindset? We think we can’t grow our own food let alone generate viable income streams from agriculture for the following reasons:

1. Space – for those in urban settings, especially high-density, there just isn’t enough space to lay down beds upon beds of vegetables where we can grow our own food
2. Water – this is certainly relevant in rural Africa but increasingly in urban settings as well. Water is limited and often rationed, not leaving us with the capacity to irrigate gardens
3. Soil – some areas don’t have good soil and so we don’t bother with agriculture
4. Time – let’s face it, life is busy and it takes work to maintain a garden. Often we just don’t have the time and capacity to grown food and take care of all our other concerns.

And so we would rather spend almost half our income to buy food that has been grown for us!

What if I told you there was a vegetable garden that only needs 2-4 square meters of space, creates good and fertile soil, is self-watering on a daily basis and basically manages itself! You will never need to weed or cultivate it and you might only need to water it once or twice a month! What if I told you that this garden will produce all the green vegetables your family will require? Does this not sound like the answer to the continent’s food challenges?

The 100- Fold Africa Project is an initiative to empower households and communities in Africa to build robust food systems, feed themselves and earn a living through the use of innovative, efficient and highly productive vegetable gardens.

 The 100-Fold Garden is a low-tech, efficient vegetable bed that automatically waters the plants directly to the root zone, through capillary action from a reservoir stored beneath the soil. This garden with many advantages allows for the high-density planting of vegetables making it highly productive, up to 1000% more than a conventional vegetable bed. Because it is self-watering and self-governing, once installed and planted, the bed requires very little human attention. Its versatility lends it to urban, peri-urban and rural Africa alike.

The 100-Fold Garden is definitely part of the solution to Africa’s hunger and poverty!

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