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Outcome Of Training To Establish Grapevine Nurseries In The Saron And Ebenhaeser Communities
Danie van Schalkwyk, ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch
Key words: Technology transfer, grapevine, grafting, nurseries.
One of the priorities of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is to provide training to resource-limited producers in order to address skills development, job creation, income generation and poverty reduction. The Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) programme was launched during 1995 for this purpose. The goal of the programme is to enhance food security of resource-limited households in South Africa through the development of appropriate food production systems as well as post-harvest and processing practices.
In order to fulfil this goal certain critical objectives were identified. One of the objectives is the adaptation of technology, experimentation (on-farm) and training with and for resource-limited producers in food production, post-harvest and processing practices.
During 1995/96 an unexpected shortage of grafted grapevines occurred in the rapidly growing grapevine industry. The limited number of nurserymen as well as a shortage of suitable rootstock material restricted the supply of grafted grapevines. The SRL programme of ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij identified two communities within the South African wine producing regions with the intention of presenting training in vineyard grafting and the establishment of nurseries to selected members of these communities. This was done in order to create possible business opportunities for these community members as well as to address the shortage of grafted grapevines. The two communities identified were Ebenhaeser in the Olifants River region and Saron in the Swartland region in the Western Cape. Both areas are situated within wine or table grape producing regions. Resource-limited farmers at Ebenhaeser and Saron have traditionally been farming with vegetables and lucerne. However, many of the community members are presently working or have been working for commercial grapevine farmers. No commercial grapevine nurseries - that sell their vines directly to the commercial farmers in the region - are situated within the Olifants River region and farmers of this area have to travel approximately 340 km to Wellington to purchase grafted vines. It was therefore envisaged that the establishment of nurseries at Ebenhaeser should be able to supply some of these commercial farmers with grafted vines on their doorstep. The establishment of these nurseries would therefore also create extra job opportunities as a great deal of manual labour is needed to graft vines and the management of a nursery is very labour intensive. It was also envisaged that this venture would improve the financial welfare of people in the community, should it be successful. With the average success rate of 45% for South African grapevine nurseries, it is possible to generate a relatively high income on a relatively small piece of land. A gross income of R550 000 to R600 000/ha-1 at average 2005 prices, could be possible.
During 1995/96 farmer associations within Ebenhaeser and Saron were consulted and people interested in establishing a grapevine nursery were identified. The target groups in Ebenhaeser and Saron included both men and women who had an interest in farming and grapevine production, especially grapevine nurseries. Previously disadvantaged farmers in these communities farm on community land and do not have land ownership. They are mostly vegetable farmers and the land they cultivate varies from about 1 000 m2 at Saron, to 3 hectares and more at Ebenhaeser. Some farmers cultivate this land on a full-time basis, while others are only part-time farmers who are employed elsewhere to provide sufficient financial support to their families.
The result of this consultation led to the establishment of a project during 1996 with the aim to train resource-limited people in these two communities in grapevine grafting skills and the establishment and management of a grapevine nursery. In addition to this, a rootstock foundation vineyard was planted in each of these communities that would enable them to establish a grapevine nursery industry. This could have supplied the industry with more grafted vines while the livelihoods of the community could also be improved.
With the financial assistance of Winetech, the support of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture and the Matzikama Municipality, the project commenced during October 1996. As none of the people with whom the nurseries were established had the necessary infrastructure for commercial grafting, grafting methods had to be adapted according their circumstances. It was decided to train the people in the long-whip grafting technique (Photo 1) as it is the most commonly used by commercial farmers and they did not have the facilities and financial backing to apply warm callusing. A grapevine graft and nursery management manual was compiled describing the complete procedures for grafting and establishment of a grapevine nursery (Van Schalkwyk & Le Roux, 1997) in order to enhance the training.
Due to the lack of sufficient capital, callus trays, grafting and callus facilities, the available means in the communities were utilised for these purposes (Photo 2). In the case of Ebenhaeser they are very far away from most of the material needed during the grafting process and it was decided to use available material such as wheat or bean straw as callus medium (Photo 3). This did not produce good callus results as the straw tended to dehydrate too fast and did not have the same water absorption properties as untreated sawdust. Untreated sawdust was hereafter sponsored by Lelienfontein Nursery in Wellington and used as callus medium. With the untreated sawdust, good callus results were achieved. During training a technique for callusing grafted grapevines without using callus boxes or trays was developed. Grafted vines were initially stacked 50 to 60 cm high against the warmest wall of a room in one of the available buildings or structures that has been darkened. The entire stack was then wrapped in plastic sheeting to prevent the vines from dehydrating (Photo 4). Problems with the humidity control within the stack were initially experienced and some vines at the bottom and sides of the stacks tended to dehydrate and did not callus. Hereafter, the height of these stacks was reduced to 40 cm which produced excellent callus results as the resource-limited nurserymen mastered the humidity management and disease control within the callus stacks. However, this method is restricted by the fact that only small amounts of grafted vines can be callused in the available space.
Although one of the aims of the project was for the participants to produce certified grafted vines, ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij supplied 10 000 uncertified rootstock graft canes and scions to each nurseryman for training purposes at the beginning of the project. This also gave them the opportunity to generate some income from selling these vines and therefore enabling them to purchase their own certified graft material. As these people were originally unskilled in grafting techniques and nursery management practices, the success achieved with their nurseries varied from 0% to 79.4% certifiable grafted vines lifted from their nurseries (Photo 5). During the duration of the project, approximately 70 people in the Ebenhaeser and Saron communities were trained in the long-whip grafting of grapevines for nursery purposes (Table 1). Most of these people also participated in the callus and nursery management training. The skills they acquired during this training could therefore enable them to seek working opportunities at commercial nurseries. Although many setbacks in the establishment of a nursery industry within these two communities were experienced, one nursery at Saron and two at Ebenhaeser were registered with the Vine Improvement Association for producing certified grafted grapevines. Only the two at Ebenhaeser proved to be sustainable and should be able to continue on their own. The socio-economic circumstances of the resource-limited nurserymen changed over the period of the project and some of the potential nurserymen dropped out of the training programme, after which replacements were recruited. With the termination of the project only the Ebenhaeser Nursery at Ebenhaeser was still operational.
During 1996 Vititec established a one-hectare Richter 99 rootstock foundation vineyard at Saron. It was envisaged that this vineyard would produce sufficient rootstock graft material to resource-limited nurserymen in Saron in order to establish their own grapevine nursery industry. This venture proved to be unsuccessful due to the fact that insufficient soil preparation was done. Poor weed control was also applied, with the result that this vineyard never produced suitable graft canes according the regulations of the Vine Improvement Association (VIA) and the vineyard was withdrawn from the scheme. During 2001 DEVCO provided finances to establish a 0.65-ha rootstock foundation vineyard at Ebenhaeser and to purchase 10 000 certified rootstock graft canes and scions for each of the resource-limited nurseries. Land on the Ebenhaeser Unit Farm was prepared by means of a D9 Caterpillar and the chemical status of the soil was rectified during the preparation. Certified rooted rootstock plants were obtained from Vititec and 750 vines each of Richter 99 RY 179 and 101-14 Mgt AA 219 were planted in a foundation vineyard (Photo 6). This number of vines should, if correctly managed, produce approximately 100 000 graft canes. The vines were fenced-in to prevent damage from roaming animals. The workers on the Unit Farm were trained in the management practices of a rootstock foundation vineyard and due to good management practices this vineyard produced 49 000 graft canes during 2004 that were utilised for establishing the two nurseries in Ebenhaeser. Additional labour was acquired to assist with the harvesting of the canes and the cutting of the graft shoots (Photo 7). Thus one of the project's aims, to create jobs, was achieved.
Table 1. Statistics of human resources developed/people trained in the establishment of a grapevine nursery.
Locality Year Number of
nurseries established Training in
long-whip grafting Plant of a
grapevine nursery Nursery
management Lifting and
grading of vines for certification 1997/1998 3 9 8 3 10 1998/1999 3 7 4 4 11 1999/2000 2 8 3 4 5 2000/2001 2 13 3 3 11 2001/2002 2 9 9 7 7 2002/2003 2 10 7 8 9 2003/2004 2 8 7 7 7 2004/2005 2 8 6 4 Project
concluded 1997/1998 1 11 4 1 5 1998/1999 1 13 5 4 7 1999/2000 1 13 5 2 5 2000/2001 1 5 3 3 3 2001/2002 1 5 1 3 2
As the training continued the trainees gained more skills and most of the nurseries were able to achieve success at one stage or another, producing high quality vines that were sold to commercial farmers in the Lutzville, Koekenaap and Malmesbury regions. The financial assistance of DEVCO, which was used to purchase certified graft material and selling the vines they produced, contributed considerably to the fact that most of these nurserymen were able to purchase their own certified graft material. The production of their own rootstocks at Ebenhaeser also eliminated the costs of buying and transporting rootstock material from sources in Wellington or Paarl. However, they still have to purchase their scion material from one of these Vine Improvement suppliers.
The workers trained at the Ebenhaeser Unit Farm are exceptionally skilled in grafting and disciplined in managing a nursery to produce high quality vines. At the termination of the project both the nurseries at Ebenhaeser can be deemed to be successfully established and should be able to continue on their own (Photo 8).
References
VAN SHALKWYK, D. & LE ROUX, D.J. 1997. Vestiging van kwekerye. Handleiding vir Kleinboere. ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Private Bag X 5026, Stellenbosch 7599.
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Photo 1. Mr John Miggel from the Ebenhaeser Unit Farm applying the long-whip grafting technique.
Photo 2. Mr Petrus Hahn standing at an old farm cooler that was originally used to callus his grafted vines.
Photo 3. Vines stacked in straw that was originally used as callus medium.
Photo 4. Mr Thomas Jarvis of Saron stacking grafted vines against the warmest wall of a room in a shack at Saron.
Photo 5. Ebenhaeser Unit Farm busy lifting vines from their nursery.
Photo 6. Rootstock foundation vineyard at Ebenhaeser Unit Farm.
Photo 7. Resource-limited workers at the Ebenhaeser Farm cutting rootstock graft shoots harvested from their rootstock foundation vineyard.
Photo 8. Mr John Miggel from the Ebenhaeser topping vines in one of the more successful nurseries.
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