Two horticultural tunnels at Oosrand Commerce and Entrepreneurship School in Reiger Park, east of Johannesburg, are producing more than vegetables. They are giving learners practical experience in crop production while introducing them to farming, entrepreneurship and opportunities across the agricultural value chain.
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Established by the Shoprite Foundation two years ago, the tunnels have enabled agricultural studies learners to move from predominantly theoretical lessons to hands-on production. The school has harvested approximately 5,000 units of spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, green peppers, chillies and eggplant over the past two years.
Agricultural studies educator Joyce Ngcobo says the school now produces enough to supply the wider Reiger Park community and neighbouring Ramaphosa informal settlement, with spinach proving particularly popular.
The tunnels can accommodate all 42 learners in her class during practical lessons, compared with the smaller tunnel previously available to the school.
From classroom to crop production
The practical programme is also extending beyond the school grounds, with learners taking their knowledge home and growing seedlings in their own yards where space allows. Some sell their produce to neighbours.
Revenue from the produce is used to buy gardening resources, including compost and seedlings, while some of the harvest is used to supplement the school's feeding scheme.
The school has about 2,200 learners, with meals provided to around 90% of them.
Ngcobo says the agricultural lessons have also influenced families, with parents learning from their children about growing vegetables and watering gardens in the evening rather than during the heat of the day.
For Ngcobo, who has been an educator for decades, teaching agriculture has also challenged her own assumptions about who can become a farmer.
She hopes to encourage more young women to consider owning farms, pursuing careers in agriculture and contributing to food security and job creation.
“You can’t live on someone’s salary. You need to do something for yourself,” she says, describing the message she hopes learners will carry into their futures.
Building agricultural skills
When agriculture was introduced to the school's curriculum, former natural sciences and life sciences teacher Farida Beckweitz was quick to take up the opportunity to teach it.
The 40-year-old, who is also an alumna of the school, and Ngcobo recently qualified as occupational trainers, enabling them to help learners develop practical skills aligned with workplace standards and technical expertise.
The programme also allows learners to pursue qualifications in plant production. In its first cohort, nine of 10 learners graduated with Level 1 and Level 2 crop production certificates.
More than 1,700 learners have undergone practical agricultural training since 2024, with the school hoping eventually to extend the training to unemployed parents in the surrounding community.
For Beckweitz, the tunnels have changed how learners experience agricultural education.
“There’s nothing that can take away that feeling of having your hands inside the soil, getting them dirty,” she says. “Seeing their (learners) pride when the vegetables are still small, and then next time we go they see the progress, how they’ve grown, and they know they had a part in that.”
Learners have also begun experimenting with simple growing projects, including regrowing onions from cut-off tops in water or soil.
“They’ve come back to me and said, ‘Ma’am, my plant is growing!’”
More girls choosing agriculture
The programme has deliberately recruited mostly girls, helping challenge perceptions about who belongs in farming.
“We were biased and we chose our learners – mostly girls,” Beckweitz says.
She recalls encountering scepticism herself about women working in agriculture, including the question: “‘You are a girl. What are you doing as a farmer?’”
She says there was a prevailing belief that “a male will know better”.
Girls now outnumber boys in the programme, providing an opportunity to challenge those stereotypes while introducing young women to agriculture as a potential career and business pathway.
Beckweitz hopes the programme will eventually include an on-site processing facility where learners can pickle chillies, carrots and other produce and sell the products under the school's name.
“It’s all positive, seriously,” she says. “Sometimes I just walk around and smile because I don't recognise where we were and where we’re headed.”
Growing food and enterprise
The Shoprite Foundation says the tunnels have demonstrated the value of combining practical education with agricultural production.
“What these horticultural tunnels have achieved in just two years shows the lasting impact of practical education,” says Maude Modise, director of the Shoprite Foundation.
“Beyond the harvests, we’ve seen learners gain confidence, while the school and surrounding communities have benefited from fresh produce. Educators like Joyce Ngcobo and Farida Beckweitz are at the heart of that success, inspiring more young people, especially girls, to see agriculture as a career with potential.”
The programme is also producing examples of how agricultural skills can be applied beyond the school.
Former learner Sello Mokena, 20, from the Ramaphosa informal settlement, says the programme developed his interest in farming. He has since transformed his small backyard into a vegetable garden and donates the produce to a local school.
“I fell in love with agriculture and it’s my passion to help people,” he says, adding that he hopes his farming skills can help address food insecurity in his community.
The programme's development from classroom-based agricultural studies to crop production, community supply, qualifications and potential agro-processing reflects the broader opportunities that practical agricultural education can create for young people.
