Teaching & Learning

What Molelwane Offers You: A Summary of Hands-On Learning

Molelwane is not a traditional classroom. It's a living laboratory in a rural setting where you learn by doing, solving real-world problems with communities. Here’s what makes it unique:

1. Immersive "Lived Experience" in Rural Development:

  • Context is the Curriculum: You don't just read about rural challenges—you live alongside them. Learning is embedded in the daily realities of water scarcity, sustainable agriculture, and community enterprise.

  • Community as Co-Teacher: You work directly with local farmers, entrepreneurs, and elders, valuing indigenous knowledge and building solutions with the community, not for them.

2. The "Hands-On" Cycle: From Theory to Dirt-Under-Your-Nails Practice:

  • Permaculture & Regenerative Agriculture: Design and plant food forests, build swales for water harvesting, manage organic vegetable tunnels, and practice holistic livestock management.

  • Appropriate Technology & Building: Get practical skills in building with earth (adobe, compressed earth blocks), installing solar PV systems, setting up rainwater harvesting, and constructing efficient rocket stoves.

  • Enterprise & Value-Chain Development: Participate in running on-site micro-enterprises (e.g., yogurt production, seed saving, herbal teas). Learn by doing: from production and processing to packaging, marketing, and sales.

3. Interdisciplinary, Project-Based Learning:

  • No subject is isolated. A single project—like establishing a moringa (drumstick tree) cooperative—integrates botany, nutrition, business math, marketing, and engineering (for processing equipment).
  • You tackle real projects from start to finish, developing problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptive management skills.

4. Focus on Resilience and Sustainable Systems:

  • Learn to design and manage closed-loop systems where waste becomes a resource (e.g., compost from food scraps, greywater for food gardens).
  • Understand and build social-ecological resilience firsthand, preparing for a world that requires adaptation and sustainable practice.

5. Personal Transformation & Leadership:

  • The immersive, communal living environment challenges you to develop resilience, self-reliance, and empathy.
  • You practice facilitation and participatory leadership by helping to run community workshops and stakeholder engagements.

 

Qualifications

 

In a Nutshell, Molelwane Farm Offers You:

A chance to swap textbooks for toolkits, to trade hypotheticals for tangible projects, and to develop not just knowledge, but wisdom and practical skill. It’s an education in how to build a sustainable future, with your own hands, alongside a community.

Ideal for: Students and practitioners of development, agriculture, environmental science, social enterprise, and anyone seeking an authentic, impactful, and skill-based learning journey outside the conventional academic path.

 

Postgraduate Students & Research

Key Features & Modern Practices

  • Research Integration: The farm is a living laboratory. Students and researchers conduct trials on:
    • Animal nutrition and feed formulation.
    • Genetics and breeding.
    • Pasture and veld management.
    • Reproductive efficiency.
  • Practical Training: It is essential for diploma and degree programs in Animal Science, Agriculture, and Pasture Science. Students get involved in:
    • Handling, dosing, and vaccinating animals.
    • Assessing body condition, pregnancy testing.
    • Feedlot management principles.
    • Slaughter and meat quality evaluation (possibly in collaboration with an abattoir facility).
  • Sustainability Focus: Emphasis on veld management principles to prevent overgrazing and ensure long-term productivity of the natural grassland biome of the North West Province.