Potato farmers in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot recently announced an initiative that will enable responsible farming practices to help protect natural resources and dwindling water supplies.

Focused on the sand flats, or Sandveld, region of South Africa, the program draws together Cape Nature’s Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor Initiative and Potatoes South Africa, an organization representing the industry, as well as other partners and stakeholders.

The Sandveld region forms part of the western lowland area of the corridor. However, plowing of the land for production of potatoes and rooibos tea has transformed this important coastal landscape into the second most highly threatened ecosystem in South Africa.

In October, the team published guidelines that will help the Sandveld’s potato farmers ensure they better protect their land by keeping vegetation intact and incorporating ways to save water into their production plans.

“With the potato industry being the local economic driver, the largest transformer of natural veld, and the biggest user of water, the establishment and implementation of the guidelines are critical steps towards a sustainable solution,” said Jaco Venter, technical advisor for CapeNature, the provincial conservation agency.

The manual, “Biodiversity Best Practice Guidelines for Potato Production in the Sandveld,” is the result of a growing understanding that potato production systems in the region were becoming unsustainable. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund supported CapeNature’s role in the initiative as part of a project to engage farmers in developing scientific agricultural principles.

A team tasked with developing guidelines to improve potato production processes was created in 2006, bringing together farmers, retailers, and the conservation sector. The team approached a consortium of scientists to develop scientific agricultural principles that could be implemented in a biodiversity-rich yet agriculturally important area like the Sandveld.

Potato farming is just one of the industries that CapeNature aims to influence with this program; outreach is being made into the rooibos and 4x4 industries to find ways to better protect the corridor.

For more information: http://www.capenature.co.za