15-08-2014 field visit 2: Talking to the farmers

This weeks visit was one of first were we would experience participatory design on a first level basis, so you could imagine my excitement...along with some anxiety. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and made sure I had some sort of activity prepared for our second field visit. By prepared I mean i had enough sunblock, water and a hat to keep this pale skin from burning. 

After our drop off in Tladi we had a quick greet with the farmers and decided that a focus group would be best suited. The farm site is quite big with 6-7 farmers and more on site, so doing individual interviews would be tricky and take too long, hence the focus group. The focus group went quite well with us discussing and asking questions about not only seedlings but about their environment and things regarding their practices. 

A questionnaire was also given to the farmers regarding precedent studies and products, things similar to what I might be designing for them. Originally I thought just giving the farmers space to comment the good and bad of each design would be enough but in the end I had to explain each design a bit to them and take note on what they said about each design. 

I walk around the farms at the end gave us the extra insight to how seedlings are grown on the farms and what conditions these farmers work in. It was also interesting to see what types of vegetables they grow and which work better than others. 

 Here some farmers have tried to protect their seedlings from birds and pests.  

 The farmers mostly grow their seedlings in tires with some soil. They use nets to cover and protect them, although it does not always work

06-08-2014 Field visit 1: meeting with RDFF

Most research up until this point has been done at home usually, hunched over my laptop, filtering through endless list of sources, readings and journal articles but today I had the chance to go into the field and get my first taste of what this process and experience will be like in the weeks to come. 

Dr Naudé Malan, one of the supervisors for this project, organised for my fellow students and I to sit in on the Region-D Farmers Forum (or to make things easier the RDFF) monthly meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at 10:00am but we were the first to arrive there with only the chairman, Sakhile, and deputy chair, Masorame, there to greet and welcome us. We took our seats and slowly the farmers started strolling in one by one, looking quite intrigued by the new-comers to the meeting. As each of them strolled in I noticed that majority of them were over the age of 50, most likely pensioners with only 2 or 3 younger than that. 

 

The meeting started with a prayer and blessing. This is something new to me, not really being a very religious person but gave me insight to their beliefs and culture. The meeting carried on with introductions of everyone and also discussing the up coming food market, Soweto Imvelo Market, and what farmers needed to have ready by then. 

 After the meeting we were driven to individual farms, or gardens as they prefer to call them, to have a brief introduction to the farmers and get our first insight to what the gardens look like, what tools and equipment they have access to and with what conditions they work. We also gave a brief explanation to the farmers of what each of our projects are on and the process of the design and research. I was glad to see that a lot of them seemed interested in my idea of designing some sort of technology to help with growing seedlings. 

The first visit for me was more to just observe and introduce ourselves to the farmers. From what I observed, most farmers are very hard working and are enthusiastic about the projects and interested in the whole process of participatory design. They need improvements on the gardens and are willing to help to get to a better future. Hopefully next week I will be able to interact with them more and get solid feedback on how I am actually going to help them.