Sharing knowledge on the use and conservation of water for food production

This page is designed to help you find the information you need about any rainwater harvesting and conservation activity or practice that you might be interested in. Please consider the following criteria when selecting the appropriate resources:

1. Scale of farming

Some categories refer to the scale of faming you are interested in or working in. We have divided farm scales into three main categories:

Scale 1
Garden / homestead

Subsistence level production

This is the smallest scale band and includes homestead gardens and shared community gardens, with the focus very much on production for own use, although with potential for sharing, barter, and limited sales. Can include

Scale 2
Field

Small-scale commercial production

This mid-scale band includes larger shared community/co-operative gardens, and dedicated arable plots, with the focus on production for income generation, with some for own use, sharing and bartering.

Scale 3
Farm

Full commercial production, differing levels of livestock production

Focused on production for income generation with little, if any, for own consumption. Some fresh produce, but also produce grown for mass processing. This can include production of crops not consumed locally, for

2. Technology, skills & understanding, cost and maintenance

Info cards below summarise some of the key information in the table and include a list of ‘other factors’, where you will find an indication of the levels of technology, skills and understanding, cost and maintenance needed. These cards are designed to help you quickly assess which solutions are best suited to your needs on resource availability, expertise, and ongoing upkeep.

Low

Technologies:
Basic gardening equipment

Skills & understanding:
as required for basic gardening

Cost:
R0 – R1000

Maintenance:
None, one or two days a year, simple repairs

Medium

Technologies:
Simple testing or measuring kits, tanks, pipes

Skills & understanding:
as required for small-scale business

Cost:
R1000 – R10 000

Maintenance:
regular but infrequent checking/repair, 7 – 10 days/year, technical repairs

High

Technologies:
Simple testing or measuring kits, tanks, pipes

Skills & understanding:
as required for professional specialists

Cost:
> R10 000

Maintenance:
essential regular and frequent checking and repair, up to 50 days/year, complex technical repairs

3. Types of skills needed

The tutorials are categorized according to the type of skill you might be looking to learn:

1.
Catching rainwater

Activities or practices that help us bring more rainwater into our cropping areas and hold it in the soil for longer

2.
Storing rainwater

Activities or practices that help us store rainwater for later use

3.
Using rainwater

Watering (Irrigation)
Practices: Activities or practices that help us use the water we have stored more efficiently

4.
General skills

Activities or practices that are generally used to help prepare for the main RWH&C practices

Rainwater Harvesting and Conservation Practices

Each skills tutorial consists of a diagram, it’s own unique downloadable handout, info card summary and page numbers for relevant resources to download.

Catching and Holding Rainwater
  • Mulching

    Scale: 1, 2

    Level: low

    The practice of spreading organic material like compost, straw, manure, dry leaves, grass clippings or wood chips onto the surface of the soil.

  • Trench beds (deep trenching, fertility trenches)

    Scale: 1, 2

    Level: low

    Trench beds are 1m wide and 2m long. They are dug to 1m deep then packed with dry grass/leaves, compost, manure and soil.

  • Diversion furrows (run-on ditches, run-on or ex field RWH)

    Takes rainwater runoff from gullies, grasslands or hard surfaces (such as paths or roads) to a cropped area or to a storage tank.

  • Gelesha / infiltration (ripping)

    Practice of turning the ground ready to catch and hold the rain before planting.

  • Tied ridges (in-field RWH, cross-ridges)

    Built along the contour at 3m spacings. Crops are planted on either side of the ridge.

  • Swales (bunds, contour ridges, berm ‘n basin, contour ditches)

    An earth bank constructed along the contour with a furrow on the up-slope side – this is filled with dry leaves, compost and soil.

  • Stone bunds (stone lines, stone banks, contour banks)

    Rows of tightly packed stones built along contour lines.

  • Terraces (benches)

    Used in home gardens and smallholder fields. Mainly used in steeper-sloping areas for cropping and orchards.

  • Fertility pits (banana circles, circular swale)

    Catch and hold runoff water in 1m deep pits that are filled with organic matter such as compost or manure.

  • Greywater harvesting (recycling, re-use)

    Using non-toilet wastewater from a household to water the root zone of the soil.

  • Roofwater harvesting

    Collecting water from roofs for household and garden use, widely practiced across South Africa.

  • Ploegvore (pitting)

    Digging many small, well-formed shallow pits or “imprints” in the soil that collect rainwater runoff, seed, sediment and plant litter.

  • Dome water harvesting (rock catchment)

    Catch and direct rainwater runoff from rock domes into a reservoir, or directly to a field where the water is held in the soil.

  • Saaidamme (wadi floodwater system, flood spate)

    Taking floodwater from non-permanent rivers through ditches or channels into a series of low flat ‘basins’ which are used for cropping.

Storing Rainwater
  • Roof tanks

    Relatively small-scale water storage for domestic use or irrigating small to medium cropping areas.

  • Underground tanks

    Scale: 1, 2, 3

    Level: low

    Relatively small-scale water storage for irrigating small to medium cropping areas.

  • Matamo/ipitsi (homestead ponds)

    Scale: 1, 2

    Level: low

    Small-scale storage ponds to catch and store surface run-off. Water used for watering (irrigating) crops or livestock.

  • Dams

    Scale: 2, 3

    Level: low

    Generally fairly large-scale storage ponds from which water can be taken for either watering crops (irrigation) or used directly for livestock.

Using Rainwater
  • Sponge lines and string lines

    Scale: 1, 2

    Level: low

    Water-saving. A trickle irrigation system, using sponge or string in the holes in the pipes to reduce water flow.

  • Spaghetti lines

    Scale: 1, 2

    Level: low

    Water-saving. Small pipes taking the water from a central pipe to the plants. For orchards or vegetables.

  • Buried pipes

    Water saving. Takes water to crop roots. Mainly used in small-medium scale vegetable production.

  • Drip/trickle irrigation

    Scale: 1, 2, 3

    Level: low, medium, high

    Water-saving. Puts water directly onto the plant root area, most useful for orchards and other long-term crops, but can also be used for vegetables.

General
  • Calculating water needs

    Estimation of crop water needs. Complex calculations for estimating water needs.

  • Calculating water storage needs

    How to work out how much rainwater storage is needed. Detailed calculations of storage volume needs.

  • Calculating rainfall

    How to calculate the amount of rain falling on the land. Fairly simple methods for rainfall calculations.

  • Calculating slope (using an A-frame)

    Simple method to calculate the slope of the land.

  • Identifying soil types

    How to identify the right types of soil for different rainwater harvesting practices. Fairly simple methods for assessing soil types.

  • Constructing and using a line-level

    How to identify points of equal height (elevation) using this simple tool. How to make the tool, set levels and help mark out contours.

  • Constructing and using an A-frame

    How to identify points of equal height (elevation) set levels and mark out contours across a slope or hillside. How to make and test this simple tool.