Our vision is to see Food gardeners creating self-reliant, sustainable local food systems across South Africa.
Our mission is to Support food gardeners to grow more food for themselves and their community by improving access to seeds
Seed Share SA 2025
VEGETABLE SEEDS AS A PATH TO FOOD SECURITY
Enviro Solutions Centers' (ESC) flagship program "Seed Share SA" distributes vegetable, herb and flower seed packs at a subsidized price (R20 per 10 pack of seeds) to groups of food gardeners working together enabling them to “Grow More Food” and host a Community Food Market. We do this through a community representative (or Seed Distributors). This person is responsible for: submitting the information we need to register their group, coordinate gardeners, host monthly meetings and community markets.
Growing out of the Swellendam Food Security Initiative (2023- 2024), SEED SHARE SA has supported thousands of backyard gardeners across South Afrika have better access to vegetable seeds, peer to peer support and market access.
How to participate?
Select 1 person from a group of gardeners to act as Seed Distributor. This person will be responsible for gathering names, address and contact numbers of gardeners in the group and get everyone to agree to 3 conditions:
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Buy seeds as a group paying for seeds and postage via PAXI
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Meet once a month for 6 months: September 2025 to February 2026 to discuss
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How to support each other
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How to support new gardeners
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How to start a Community Food Market
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All gardeners agree to participate in 3 Community Food Markets in November, December 2025 and January 2026
A Multi Pack is sold for R20 and is made of 10 packets of different seeds, enough seeds for a garden of 50m2
Please note this is not a job opportunity.
Seed distributors are supported on WhatsApp with:
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Support group made up of Seed Distributors from all over SA
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Videos and documents for training on Coordinating your group, Training your gardeners & Starting a Market
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Assisting with the setup of WhatsApp Business to sell directly to your network.
Application process:
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Read all the information about Seed Share SA 2025.
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Complete the gardener registration form.
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Send your completed form to Steph will number of multipack your group wishes to purchase
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Be added to the Seed Distributors WhatsApp group (this is a Admin only group so you will not get messages from everyone)
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Receive a confirmation Invoice of seed pack order on WhatsApp from Steph.
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Make a payment to the Seed Share SA bank account and send your proof of payment to Steph.
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Send your Paxi Store Number to Steph.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Community Gardening project participate?
Yes! You will need to order many packs as each pack is suited to a 50m2 backyard food garden. The size of your community garden will determine the number of seed packs you should buy (speak to us we can help you work that out)
Can Organizations Participate as Seed Distributors?
Yes! Organizations are welcome to participate. We encourage them to get a local community members to lead the process to ensure it is Community Owned and Operated.
Where does Seed Share SA happen?
We support groups of gardeners in all 9 provinces of South Afrika. For groups to receive seeds they must have access to the Paxi service which operates nationwide through Pep stores, Pep Home, Pep Cell and Tekkie Town.
How much does it cost?
Each pack of seeds is provided at a highly subsidized price: R20 per 10 packets of different seeds.
In addition to the seed packs each batch of seeds is also invoiced at R60 for postage. This amount is shared by the members of the gardening group (If you have 10 gardeners then each person pays R6 towards postage)
What kind of seeds are shared?
Seed packs vary between summer to winter to suit the growing season, this summer we will be distributing:
Carrots, Lettuce, Kale (or Cabbage), Beetroot, Spinach, Tomatoes, Pumpkin or butternut, Mustard, Coriander and Sunflowers.
Winter 2026 still to be confirmed will consist of:
Carrots, Lettuce, Onions, Kale, Beetroot, Spinach with a Winter selection of herb and flower seeds
We buy commercial NON GMO, open pollinated seed in bulk so they are not organically certified and treated to prevent pest damage
Why so many different seeds?
Our aim is to encourage gardeners to “Grow More food” organically. We promote Biodiversity as an organic pest and disease management tool.
How many seeds are in each packet?
The number of seeds in each packet varies according to the amount of size each plant needs in the garden, the number of plants that can be grown and the type of plant. Together there are enough seeds to fully plant a garden of up to 50 m2.
When does seed share happen?
We distribute seed packs twice a year aimed at supporting our gardening groups with relevant seeds for the two growing seasons in SA (Summer and Winter).
Summer Seed Share starts in August and ends in November.
Winter Seed Share starts in February and ends May
Where is this project going?
Seed Share SA is still in its infancy but we have big plans. Some groups have been with us since the start in 2023 and we are always getting more gardeners onboard.
Through the regular meetings we encourage peer to peer network formation and knowledge sharing. Once groups have become well established and skilled in growing food, working together and hosting markets, we then start to provide training and support for gardeners to start saving their own seeds and sharing it amongst each other.
We also encourage garden groups to join the PGS system if they want to produce and sell “certified” organic vegetables,herbs and flowers.
Why not “Certified Organic Seeds”
ESC has reached out to a number of certified organic seed producers in SA, either their seeds are too expensive or they cannot supply the bulk quantities we ask for
ESC is currently looking for a farm where we can grow our own organic seeds. Once we are able to grow our own seed we will switch to certified organic seed through the PGS organic certification process.
