GreenCape is a not-for-profit company that drives the widespread adoption of economically viable green economy solutions from South Africa.

We work with businesses, investors, academia and government to help unlock the investment and employment potential of green technologies and services, and to support a transition to a resilient green economy.

We are a not-for-profit company established in 2010 to support the development of South Africa’s green economy.

What do we do?
We work at the interface between business, government and academia in order to identify and remove barriers to economically viable green economy infrastructure solutions in developing countries, thereby catalysing their replicable and large-scale uptake to enable each country and its citizens to prosper.

Sustainable Agriculture

Our work aims to drive the greening of agricultural value chain in the Western Cape in two ways:

• Growing the market for green technologies, systems and processes in agriculture and agri-processing.
• Developing sustainable and competitive agricultural value chains

The biggest opportunities for farmers, green technology manufacturers and service providers are in:

Alternative energy sources and energy efficiency
Opportunities in energy audits and greener technologies for Western Cape’s 22,574 agriculture sector facilities, including packhouses and cold stores.

• Energy efficiency market: Estimated market for SA agriculture and agri-processing is R45.5 million, with significant scope for growth. In the wine sector, savings of up to ⅔ of energy costs has been realised.
• Solar PV in agriculture: Investments to date total R97.8 million with market size for solar-powered irrigation at R2.9 billion. With plummeting technology costs and municipalities allowing grid feed-in, the market potential is significant.

Water use efficiency technologies in irrigation

• Precision agriculture optimises farming inputs with savings of 30% in water using drip irrigation.

Conservation agriculture (CA)

• 70% of grain producers in Western Cape practice CA, with significant scope for expansion in other agriculture sectors.
• Market for manufacturing of no-till machinery is worth R1.14 billion, with opportunities for local manufacturing and export to the rest of Africa.

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA)

• CEA involves controlling the growing environment of a crop or animal through the use of technology (from netting to computerised systems).
• There are opportunities for local manufacture of CEA components and systems; private and equity finance; specialised skills.
• The market for CEA in the Western Cape is valued at R600 million with 15% growth per annum predicted.

We support Sustainable Agriculture through GreenAgri and the support we provide through the agriculture sector desk – market intelligence, advocacy and networking opportunities to investors, businesses and farmers in the agriculture sector. For more information, see the links on the left.