field visit. 20 August 2014.

____________________________________________________________________________________RE-CAP___

A bit of a delayed blog... but Wednesday was a key day for me in determining the projects focused direction. So I felt the need to spend the rest of the week transcribing all my old interviews and reflecting on the real issues of storing food, specific to small-scale urban farmers. Before we all left for the field visit on Wed, I spoke to Naude' about my concerns of last week and the project direction in general. It was determined that once I have come to understand as much as I need to about small-scale farmers in Soweto (I call it the big problem cloud), I must then lock down on a specific issue so that I can properly solve it. This required me to disregard some of last week's progressions as they were based on many aspects of the problem cloud. This is fine because some valid issues and observations raised last week with Earl will still contribute to the design solution. 

I felt also that the 'design' up until last week was based too much on existing literature about the gap between small farmers and big farmers. (On the concept that the small guys are missing what the big guys have, one of those things being stock, hence the long term storage I was pondering about). It is so so important that I address the issues of small farmers as they exist, the solution is nowhere on the internet, it will come... So in more fancy words... The solution cannot be deduced from faults of a precedent line of products (which is what we are all too used to in varsity, sitting in our fancy studios, clicking on important buttons, making all the decisions and drawing pretty pictures because design is a skill you know). Success will rely on the progressive realisation of the problem ecosystem. This will result in the solution being closely aligned with the true needs of small-scale farmers, to be identified. So aspects of the design will emerge and through successive points of contact with the key informants, these aspects will become refined. shme, shme, shme...

On the way to Siyazenzela the team debriefed the structure of their plans and I just mentioned that somewhere in the middle I need a flexible period of time to discuss specific problems and sketches I had done after last weeks meeting. We discussed questions we want to ask so we didn't repeat anything. We didn't debrief last week and that didn't go so smooth so this time was better. Anyways...

_______________________________________________________________________MEETING 3__

When we arrived at Siyazenzela on Wednesday I was pleased to see so many farmers going about their farming. I quickly greeted Sakhile as he had to leave with Naude'. The other farmers were busy transplanting seedlings so I greeted everyone and introduced the team. I introduced myself to Nkosimaye. A farmer whom I had not met yet. I acquainted myself with him whilst helping him to transplant some cabbage in the front of the farm. He was explaining the exciting time of the new season and how production is going to boom. The team individually introduced themselves and offered their help to the other familiar farmers, Earl, Phumlani and Mpila. Although I had called the familiar participants prior and asked them to notify the rest about the meeting, I did not want to disrupt their daily farming. I also notice the one pipe was still broken as I was washing my hands. After about 40 minutes of transplanting I went with Nkosimaye to their storage classroom to fetch some chairs and the meeting began. It's a nice space to have but it was a bit unorganised in there.

I was a bit worried about communicating with Phumlani and hoped that Magaba (asset mapper) would be able to make him feel more comfortable. We semi-formally introduced ourselves starting with the social scientist students, then me and then the farmers, who did a comical introduction... Mpila introduced himself as the director general. We then asked for formal consent from the farmers, all agreed but Mpila said he wanted to read the document and he would sign it at a later stage, he did say that he still wants to participate and that I can record the session. I am now glad for this as his input proved valuable... I need that consent though. I thanked Earl and Phumlani for last week and said that we will have to back track to get everyone on the same page and before we talk about the storage design I would like to do an informal interview to find out current problems with storage. 

This was time for me to sit back while the farmers talk, look at my special sitting-back-chair (image below).

4 participants... yay! This is were the images of the discussion stop but it took the majority of the day, 1h30min with a 15 minute break. Last week we discussed needs of storage for longer periods, transportation to points of purchase and off-grid preservation methods like cold, cool, (cool and moist, cool and dry), dry, vacuum storage and air circulation... And how different modules of storage can address the needs of different kinds of produce. The topics are relevant but given my resource of time a decision was to be made.

By this time, after many interviews with similar and smaller farmers,  I was familiar with storage needs specific to small-scale farmers (and the general ecosystem). It was also understood that commercial farming is a game of its own and small-farmers of Soweto have prospects of their own. Basing the project on the current agriculture system in Soweto it was noted that long term storage is not yet relevant and may never be. It has also been noted that within small-scale farming in Soweto there are different grades of farmers. It ranges from bed sized gardens to ones like this one at Siyazenzela. Farmers goals range from subsistence farming to much higher business prospects. Storage seems most relevant for farmers who are selling and so the product is focused on facilitating the transport of produce to points of purchase with the prospect of growth to a farms full potential. This type of farming is very unique as scales of farms selling produce can range from approx 3 squared metres to 8000 squared metres (need to check that figure). That is why it is important that the product is modular and can grow with a farmer to it's individual full size. An important observation is that many farms I have visited have unused space and thus a potential for growth (The growth is limited by different things on different farms so it can get complicated and maybe that is not my problem to solve. Sometimes it is man power issues, sometimes time issues, and I don't fully grasp this problem). 

So that means the product still tackles issues of transport and short term food preservation. This will most probably use a traditional/ precedent cooling method, and so I wont be exploring methods of storage too much. The design, however, will focus specifically on human centered design that addressed the needs of a small-scale organic farmer and his/her actions at points of sale like markets. This brings into play another user of the storage units... THE CONSUMER... who is concerned with aesthetics. A farmer's main goal is to sell their produce and they mention that it is important to attract customers. When Earl walks with his produce in the streets of Soweto, he wears bright green... I have seen other famers ringing bells... I need to consider presentation of the food whilst walking in the street and also at market events. 

In this meeting we spoke a lot about the two main selling activities of a farmer. It would be in-house and market scenarios. In-house refers to activities like customers coming to the site of the farm (this is where the storage does not come in), walking in the streets targeting walking customers and houses, dropping food at a site like a corner vendor or a spaza shop... these in house activities take place to generate a cash flow and help to economically sustain a farm. It is important to consider how the storage can facilitate this. The other one, market scenarios, is an important, mass income scenario for a farm and this involves the 'mass' preparation of produce to be displayed and maintained through the proceedings of a market day. The modularity factor of the product will help to tackle these varying scenarios depending on the different amount of produce coming from each farm. 

This all involves relatively short storage times like a maximum of 3 days. The farmers mentioned that harvesting takes place at 3am as they can only sell produce that looks fresh 6 hours after it has been harvested. For this reason they do not harvest anything leafy or fleshy the day before they sell... They laughed when I said it will still look fresh the next day. They say that consumers are first attracted to only the freshest most attractive, best smelling produce. An this works because it will be most nutritive. (They could harvest the day before for produce like onions and herbs and anything they classify as 'dry' and tomatoes if they are harvested greenish)  

We took a break and had some snacks. During this the farmers casually and comfortably spoke about how they have seen some farmers using chemicals because their stuff grows too quick. They are angry about this. They spoke and laughed about safety issues and vandalism like a few spiteful people coming in and burning their irrigation and tearing their greenhouse cover long ago. They said how a pad lock on the classroom storage door doesn't stop people from vandalism. This is different to other community farms that are surrounded by houses. Masarame on the other site says that the community looks out for one other. The bad things happening on Siyazenzela could be because of the position on a busy road or something mentioned by the farmers that they are not Sowetans, they are from town. 

In the last 30 minutes we spoke, I showed the farmers some sketches I had done after last weeks discussion. I excluded the sketches on alternative storage methods as the decision to do so was made on the farm on Wednesday, given the  info from the informal interview. We continued the discussion of problems around their current transportation systems like ease of transportation and use of the units when packing and selling. As well as an inefficient use of space.

I explained the drawings showing different functioning doors and stacking methods. I then did the silliest thing... the hand over of the pen.

Mpila was naturally loud spoken but the visuals further encouraged the other participants. Showing sketches really help communicate different ideas with out so many questions of what I was talking about. I'm not ready for mock ups yet but this will help me get there. I was happy that a lot of things in the sketches were criticised like:

packing and unpacking of crates, stacking crates, accessibility of crates when stacked, visibility of the goods to the consumers whilst they are in the crates, and presentation at a market set up.

The farmers mentioned how they now, unlike many emerging farmers, have a bakkie and this is how they transport mass goods to the market. They said last time they lost out big time because, while having 250 bunches of spinach in their garden, they were only able to pack 50 into the bakkie (in crates with only one layer of bunches in each crate because stacking produce on produce will squash the goods... so much space wasted!). They said they could of made 1 grand instead of R250 on the day of the market. They also didn't have time to harvest the rest as it all has to be done on the morning to insure freshness. If they could harvest the day before with a means of preserving the freshness they would. They mentioned that they would like a trailer to stack the storage crates on. It is important to note that not all farmers are at this stage but they have the potential to get to this stage of production. The crates cannot only be designed for a trailer set up, I must consider smaller scale transport as well. The farmers gave me input on smaller guys because they said they have been there, their input has really moved the concept I think I'm realising here how small I am in this process!

Earl and Nkosimaye say things... All the paper pressing made for a bad recording from the nearby phone but I got it all down with red marker!

The drawings were done prior to all their input so a lot was scratched but it helped to understand their initial concerns and better, more relevant drawings will come next week... all to help me develop a prototype which will be rolled out in 2 weeks...

Director general... directs...

It all made for some messy drawings which I left there in case they think of something that didn't come up in the meeting.

The meeting took one step backwards but two forwards so I am glad. I'm new to this participation stuff but its way useful. It is so nice to have a group of social scientist honors students around. Terri is a passive observer but really steps in when he has a concern which helps. Magaba makes strong efforts and raises concerns of who owns the bakkie and the land and the future of these things as well as the vandalism issue. He also managed to have a few conversations with Phumlani which comforted him somewhat. Phumlani has a jem of input to contribute, but we will discover it later. Jessica's prepared questions added structure to the meeting. Wamkelwa observes the happenings and this helps. Jane makes sure all of the above do all of the above and corrects my sloppy english =). Slowly we are tapping into the resources we have but its new ground.

I thanked the participants and said that their participation next week will be much appreciated. I'm excited to talk to some small farmers again and get some context from the market scenario. I know it's holidays on 2 Sep which is the next market but I must go if I can. 

field trip 13 August 2014

This was the first technology design integrated workshop which involved the development of rough sketches. The goal of today was to get the team and the farmers on the same page, even if it didn't involve developing the actual food storage design. before today I had a sense that the social scientist students had no firm grasp of what design is, how it happens and what it can do. The same can be said for most of the farmers I'd met...

UJ sponsored us a ride and off we went, dropping each group at their individual sites. I was now better acquainted with the social scientist students as this was the third time we were meeting .

A bit disappointing on my arrival at Siyazenzela... Only two out of the seven farmers were present, Earl (picture below) and Phumlani. This was the first time I'd met Phumlani out of the four times I had visited the site. All the farmers I had so far met at Siyazenzela were highly motivated, committed and willing to share their say. Phumlani had started working at the site in March this year and seemed more timid than the other farmers. I explained the project to him and asked for his participation. A bit unsure of what it would involve, he agreed. Earl enthusiastically took us around the farm to show us progress on the new seedling and crop development. It had been three weeks since the last crop rotation and progress was looking good!

I began asking specific questions about food storage and Earl explained that they have access to a small fridge and they use crates to carry their produce from their site to various points of purchase. He went to one of the classrooms that they use for general storage to bring us the crates that they use for transporting stock.

Earl explained how the crates stack and how he fills them with different produce. He explained the process of carrying the full crates to local vendors, household customers and street-walking customers. Points of difficulty and limitation were highlighted... He also mentioned that an excess of produce becomes a problem because his small fridge has limited space. approx. 20% of produce is given away to the school and approx. 15% is used for the compost heap. This excess in produce surely varies between sites and would otherwise go to waste. Earl: "we do not waste."

Earl explains that he often has three crates stacked upon one another and he has to lift the lop ones to access the produce in the bottom crate. He mentioned difficulty in carrying the full crates long distances. Phumlani remained neutral...

Before the meeting progressed, I felt it was necessary to explain design, the process and the possibilities. I prepared a rough example of a project and showed the group pictures of the different stages. The project was a wheel chair design. I explained the process very simply, from the beginning: There is a problem that some people can't use their legs, or don't have legs, and so they couldn't get from A to B. It is the job of a designer to fix the problem, but the solution can only come after the problem and context is properly understood. I said that this is the stage we are at with the storage project. I then explained general concepting up until refinement. I said that any designer can lock themselves in an office and start and finish a project by this is not that. This is co-design and that means we are all designers now and in order to get the best result from this project we all need to make a 'dent' in the design. At the end of the wheel chair project, the disabled people can now get from A to B. The aim from here on is to find the problems so we can solve them.

Up until this point, Phumlani hadn't said a word. I wanted to familiarise everyone so I took out my play-dough and Lego. Ever so slightly, Phumlani started to engage. The atmosphere became a little more light hearted and my team members also started to play with the mediums.

I planned for everyone to use the toys to communicate their ideas, but things don't always go as planned. Everyone much preferred communicating their ideas verbally. I gave a brief explanation of different types of storage. (cool, dry, humid,air tight, dark, etc.) there was interest around how each type worked so i explained evaporative cooling, vacuum sealing, drying etc. Earl was very interested in which type of storage was best for which types of produce. I explained that freezing is only appropriate for some types and can do damage to other types. There was interest regarding more storage space in order to increase production and income and therefore the area of the farm. I could sense that there was a bit of confusion in the air so I used the mediums to present a visual description (image below). I roughly modeled their existing small fridge (pink clay on left). The toothpick coming out the back symbolises a wire and that it takes electricity. (The farmers are not happy to pay any excess electricity. Many farmers I interviewed buy small amounts of limited electricity like airtime.)

The colourful model on the right is the storage that I am proposing, based on the current, familiar stacking system that Earl was using. It represents all the things that were mentioned in the meeting up until this point. Each block represents a module of different storage type. The discussion about transporting produce to markets and other points of purchase is resembled by the Lego base with attached wheels. The ownership and user interface is resembled by a very well modeled, pink handle held up by toothpicks. This suggests the farmer can push and pull their produce wherever they like. There is no wire attached and this suggests that it is off-grid. originally there was a yellow block in place of the second pink block (far right). It was changed to pink after Earl said,"what if i don't want the dry storage." It was noted that the system had to be customisable to what was being grown on each particular farm. and also allow the farmer to have as meany modules of different kinds, that would fit onto a trolley frame. They could choose which ones to transport and leave some on the site. I said,"you can have three blocks while another farmer has four, or you can have two blocks of cool storage because you have a lot of spinach."

I drew a rough map of the farm, vending corners and market on a piece of paper and suggested that the unit can be moved on the roads between these points. Earl was engaged, but Phumlani might have dozed off for a moment :O

The model was used in a scenario type situation. We were trying to find problems in packing, transporting and selling activities.

Earl expressed that he would like space between the modules so he can get his hand inside to access the food. He would also like the customer to have visibility. For this, angled Lego blocks were used as well as a basic side view sketch (below). An issue was raised of bruising vegies while the unit was in motion around town.

Nearing to the end of the meeting, I make a rough sketch that represents all that was spoken about up until this point. I gave the sketch to Earl, with a pen, eager for him to make some marks. I tried to encourage him to ruin the drawing. I could see he was conservative with a pen but he made some small scribbles in at the points of his concern.

This sketch, by no means, will dictate the form of the product yet, as it was mainly done on the spot as a means of communication, But it was necessary in order to understand some of the initial concerns of a farmer. Earl circled the handles asking if he can push and pull well. This suggests that I must consider all user-interface aspects. He made a scribble lower down on the unit suggesting mechanical advantage and comfort issues. For now, I represented the accessibility and visibility of each level by adding a space between modules. The approach to this will still be widely explored. The wheels were discussed verbally. Earl said that he wants four wheels. This might suggest that the unit looked unstable. stability, durability and cost will be explored regarding this.  two flanges were added instead of wheels in order to symbolise this concern for now.

The introduction helped put us on the same page. The playful approach to visual representation assisted the flow of conversation and moved the concept forward somewhat. What I originally thought would be a stationary unit to be used purely for storage on the farm site has now transformed. The major themes at this point are TRANSPORT-ABILITY, MODULARITY, ACCESSIBILITY, VISIBILITY, DURABILITY, COST, USER-INTERFACE, VERSATILITY, CUMSTOMISATION, OFF-GRID and over-all the design needs to be APPROPRIATE!!

During the meeting, I asked Earl that, If he no longer had storage problems, and therefore no food to give away to the school, would he still give food to the school instead of make income off that food? He said he would still give it because of the relationship, but other farmers might not feel the same.In hindsight, this may be an issue with my technology. I do not want to cause a problem while solving a problem. The context is incredibly complex but possibly the increase of land used, leading to an increase on income, will allow for the school to have a dedicated section of the farm and so everybody still wins. its a tricky one but will consider this further !...

field trip. 6 August 2014.

 After the pilot interviews and further desktop research (specific to SA) I confirmed my project in the direction of off-the-grid food storage. It became clear how the storage technology, designed appropriately (for use in the local market), could assist in narrowing the gap between commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. It would serve to promote the community's economy in a way that is at least measurable.

This was the first time we went into the field with our prearranged groups of social scientist students. With some new desktop knowledge and a couple background and preparation lectures we were ready to visit the farms again. The day began at the RDFF monthly meeting in Tladi. In the meeting we introduced ourselves in relation to the technology we were developing.The upcoming farmers' market (2 Sep) was discussed and farmers were stating what types of goods they would bring to the market. The farmers admitted having low stock and were advised to increase their produce and prepare stock for the market and invite all other community gardeners to sell their produce. At this point it became apparent that a key element of the storage unit would be transport-ability and all other operations linked to a market scenario. There would now be two users of the product, farmer and consumer, and the design would have to satisfy both users.

The gardens at Tladi were closed with no gardeners in site. We moved swiftly onto the next site.

 A familiar site, 'Sekakalame Molepo' food gardens, Soweto, helped to familiarise the social scientists with the context (image below).

some of the crops were neglected, resulting in wilting and thus post-harvest losses. This also attracted more rats. earlier harvesting would help the situation.

It was good to see expansions on the site as well as a group of community volunteers helping the elderly farmers with the more physical and laborious activities (below image, far left). Jomari was allocated this promising site as there are many farmers here that are dependent on seedling methods.

On my return to Siyazenzela, I was impressed at the progress from our last visit. The new produce was growing well two weeks after crop rotation. The farm's seedling factory was at half capacity. So far the farm contained many varieties of spinach, spring onions, mustard, chili and various herbs. With the turn of the new season, the farmers look to plant summer crops such as tomatoes, brinjals, etc.  

The area under the second greenhouse structure was being prepared (below image).

 The irrigation (pump and sprinklers) had been recently fixed and is now up and running! Mulch covered every square metre!

Shelter on site, with various experimental plants.

 I thanked Earl and Sakhile for accommodating us and look forward to our following months of collaborative work.

All images taken by Social Scientist student, Jane Cherry, used with permission.

Pilot interviews. 29 April 2014

Based on my previous farm visits and desktop research of small-scale farming issues, the two directions I formulated were a multipurpose hand-held farming tool and a low-tech food storage unit. Prior to these interviews, I presented two of my main ideas to two members of the RDFF (Region D Farmer's Forum). Although both projects would address relevant problems, and the RDFF members were more keen on the storage idea, this was not enough for me to commit to one of the two ideas.Connecting with one of the more successful small-scale farmers in Soweto, Sakhile, gained us access to many local farms where we could carry out our interviews...

we began were we left off last time, at Sakhile's site, Siyazenzela. He openly spoke of his successes, struggles available resources, long and short term visions. Three Farmer's are responsible for the site. Currently the farm has several seedling beds (figure below), JoJo tanks, a small indoor shed, a well built greenhouse structure with failing plastic sheet covers, a significant amount of unused land, an irrigation system and is paid visit by local stray dogs and hungry thieves.

A spontaneous visitor to Sakhile's site, Kelvin, and 'coach' welcomed us to their nearby garden after we explained our project to them.

Kelvin claimed he was an amature compared to Sakhile, but his garden was nothing less of impressive. Without any farming background, Kelvin along with some friends and family members managed to elbow grease their way into a spiffing garden. Just across the street from their house, they took the initiative to clear the rocks on the hilly land that was not being occupied (view outskirts in image above). They cleared the equivalent area of a football field, extending all the way to the local church (not shown in these images). Such results were achieved by trial and error. We gave them farming tips, like how to use mulch and inter-crop in exchange for their future contact. We also shared a sack of naartjies with them to thank them for their time.

Coach claims that expanding further is only a matter of time (below image).

Sakhile took us to a nearby location, in Phiri, to show us his friend's farm.

we saw many goats.

but Sakhile couldn't find his friend...

It looks like a goody from the sneak-peak we got, We would have to come back another time.

Our last, visit truly gave us the most valuable information. It involved many farmers tending to their own pieces of land on the site of a school garden. (location to be provided soon).

 Peter, Jomari and I explained our project and the farmers were more than keen to let us interview them. we adapted to a semi-structured procedure. We had one main respondent, who had the most experience, with occasional input from the other farmers. We each interviewed for about one hour, using recorders and notepads. The information we received is not the kind that would be found on any search engine!

afterwards the farmers welcomed us to the back of the site, which was more than double the area of the front.

A lot of the land was still unused and needed to be cleared for future used.

A piece of ingenuity that captures the creativity of the farmers. 

make shift insulators were used to protect the growing vegetables. Any extremity that stuck out of the insulation didn't fare well.

This experienced farmer showed us her discoveries and applications of Permaculture. It is an advanced way of designing a farm that she shares with fellow farmers that are interested.

The need for sustainable, long lasting hand tools became increasingly clear. Tools are brought from from home if available but most often used communally between the farmers. 

more broken tools...

 ...

A wasteful way of irrigation.

 available sprinklers...

We thanked the farmers and assured them that we will update them on our progress. 

a fiery site on the way home...it seems the theme of the day was 'moving with the wind'.