Vegetables Australia January-February_2017

| WOMEN IN HORTICULTURE |

Important: The descriptions, illustrations, photographs, advice, suggestions and vegetation

cycles that may be presented herein are aimed at experienced professionals and are derived

from observations made in defined conditions on various trials. They are offered in all good faith,

for purely informational purposes, and shall not therefore, under any circumstances, be held to

be exhaustive, be taken as any form of guarantee of harvest or performance, prejudge specific

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local geographical conditions, his planned growing period, his soil, the means at his disposal (such

as technical knowledge and experience and cultural techniques and operations), his resources (such

as tests and control methods) and his equipment, and more generally his agronomical, climatic,

sanitary, environmental and economic context are suitable for the crops, techniques and varieties

that are presented herein. All the varieties illustrated in this publication were photographed

in favourable conditions and no guarantee can be provided that results will be identical under

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A French-Lebanese native, Lina Challita is a worldly and well-travelled woman who plays an active role in

the Food Ladder program based at Katherine in the Northern Territory. Food Ladder aims to increase the

consumption of fruit and vegetables in the local Indigenous community by providing an opportunity for

residents to actively take part in the growing process. Lina spoke to

Vegetables Australia

about the

community development projects currently being undertaken.

REMOTE AUSTRALIAN REGIONS CLIMBING THE

FOOD LADDER

off. The distance results in large travel miles and environmental

footprint from bringing in food, not to mention reduced quality

of the produce.

“Through the greenhouses, we work on community development

projects to train people on how to grow produce, where the

produce comes from, how to manage the greenhouse and how to

grow everything from start to finish.”

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The program’s first aim is to grow fresh produce that is accessible to

local communities. The second aim has a more nutritional approach

– to get people more involved in where their food comes from, and

encourage them to eat green vegetables.

“We’re also starting to get kids involved through the local schools,”

Lina said.

“For example, our project in Katherine has students from

Katherine High School come for regular field trips and they visit

the greenhouse. They help harvest and plant seeds. I personally

train them about how plants grow and what they need in order to

produce good quality veg.”

EMPOWERING WOMEN

In addition to her projects with children in both Katherine and East

Arnhem, Lina is working with the Katherine Indigenous Women’s

Association on how to run the Food Ladder program.

“We’re helping the Katherine Indigenous Women’s Association to

become a business. What I’m doing is working on the greenhouse

and training them to run it, as well as helping them with sales of the

produce and how to manage the finance linked to the greenhouse

– the much bigger picture,” Lina said.

“They are a wonderful group of ladies who are really motivated

and it’s getting them to run it all by themselves as a business.

Their vision for the project is to be that kind of educational

centre or community farm for people to come in and learn about

nutrition, learn about where food comes from and eventually buy

the fresh produce.”

Lina loves working in remote communities, particularly in areas

that typically require a permit for work purposes and therefore do

not allow tourists to visit.

“It’s such an experience. I get to go to places where most people

don’t have access to, be close to that culture and learn and connect

with those people who don’t really get to meet a foreigner – that’s

the most exciting part,” she said.

FUTURE VISION

Food Ladder’s aim for the Northern Territory project is to build

more greenhouses to create fresh food sources in those areas

and generate more community engagement in the process.

The program has already had a profound effect on these

communities.

“They are very proud of what they’ve achieved. I was there

throughout the whole first cropping season, working with a group

of 10 men who are participating in the community development

project,” Lina said.

“The greatest outcome is their enthusiasm. Those people who are

working on the greenhouse as part of the community development

project are encouraging other locals and their family members to

come in, check it out and try the produce. We’re handing out small

cooking recipes on how they can use the vegetables at home. Word

is spreading, and people are curious.”

According to the 2008 report,

Health and Welfare of Australia’s

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

, 15 per cent of

Indigenous people living in remote areas had no usual daily intake

of vegetables, as compared to their non-remote Indigenous

counterparts (two per cent).

Additionally,

Burden of Disease and Injury in Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander peoples 2003

attributed 3.5 per cent of the

total burden of disease in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

population to low fruit and vegetable consumption.

It is stark figures like these that have led to programs such as

Food Ladder to be established. Food Ladder is a Non-Government

Organisation that creates social enterprises for Indigenous

communities around the Northern Territory. At the moment, the

program is focusing on building greenhouses to provide fresh

vegetables in those communities.

A FRESH SOLUTION

Lina Challita is the Hydroponics Manager at Food Ladder, and her

role involves helping with the construction of the greenhouses,

managing the hydroponics system and providing greenhouse

training to various community groups.

“Food Ladder has so far worked in East Arnhem, where most of the

vegetables come from down south (for example, Adelaide) and they

have to be transported all the way up to Darwin,” she said.

“From Darwin, they are sent to the remote communities and by

the time the fresh produce gets there, it’s 2-3 days before it goes

For more information, please visit

foodladder.org.

INFO

Food Ladder Hydroponics Manager Lina Challita giving a lesson on

how plants grow to Indigenous girls from Katherine High School.