Giving Compass' Take:

• This Food Tank article explains how aquaponics (raising aquatic animals along with plants in a symbiotic environment) allows small farmers in South Africa with disabilities to make more money without excess physical labor.

• How could this program be scaled in other areas, whether elsewhere Africa or other challenging agriculture environments? How can we support more innovative practices in socially-conscious, sustainable agriculture?

• Here's what artificial intelligence can do for smallholder farmers.

Humanitarian organization INMED has received a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for expanding its Adaptive Agriculture program(AAP). The program integrates people with disabilities in the Free State Province of South Africa into the mainstream economy. INMED targets the interrelated issues that disabled citizens face, such as exclusion, food security, and nutrition by introducing aquaponics to small farmers and producers.

Free State is considered the bread basket of South Africa but also the province with the highest percentage of citizens with disabilities — 11 percent, or more than 230,000 people.

INMED South Africa and INMED Partnerships for Children will use the grant to update and install aquaponics systems for three cooperatives of farmers with disabilities in Free State. Each aquaponics system can produce approximately 26,000 kg of various greens, 4,000 kg of fruiting plants such as tomatoes and sweet peppers, and 1,900 kg of fish. The project aims at increasing the participation of the disabled in sustainable agricultural production and strengthening civil society organizations run by and for people with disabilities.

Read the full article on helping aquaponics in South Africa by Katerina Bozhinova at Food Tank