An exhibition of local traditional seeds that are produced by farmers in Mwenezi at the Mwenezi Good Food and Seed Festival held at PELUM Zimbabwe member, Mwenezi Development Centre (MDTC). Picture by Deltahcuti Dube/David Seth Foundation

Over the last decade, climate change and unsustainable farming practices have destroyed the environment, leaving families and communities adversely affected by food insecurity and on the brink of starvation.

Farming communities in Mwenezi district, Masvingo province have begun popularizing local seed and food festivals where farmers are learning about traditional seeds and crop varieties as climate change adaptation as well as seed and food sovereignty strengthening mechanisms.

To this end, Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe member and Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) Partner, Mwenezi Development Training Centre (MDTC) hosted a district food and seed festival in Mwenezi on 18 October 2023. The festival brought together farmers and various stakeholders from across Mwenezi to share, exchange and trade seeds and the accompanying knowledge.

Shanangu Matutu (53) is a small-scale farmer from ward 4 in Mwenezi who has been taking part in the decentralized food and seed festivals. She also took part in the 2023 festival and says the festivals have played a big role in shifting mindsets of the community towards traditional grains.

“It’s so great to see everyone coming together to learn and share. These events have greatly changed my life, our community’s attitudes towards traditional grains have begun to shift positively. We eagerly look forward to the festival every year,” says Shanangu.

Simbisai Machava (60) is another a small-scale farmer based in Mwenezi. She has been working with MDTC for many years. She says the festivals play a critical role in strengthening the capacity of farmers to adapt to climate change.

“It is amazing to see so many people engaged and interested in these ideas. The festival felt like a real turning point for our community. The participation is really higher than before. Farmers are learning climate adaptation mechanisms for improved food security through such platforms,” says Simbisai.

Denhere Jamtious (49), district Agronomist in Mwenezi district says the festivals provide clear evidence of the benefits of Agroeoclogical practices and the community is beginning to realise them.

“The increased attendance at the festival was a sign of how the ideas being promoted are starting to take hold in the community. People are beginning to see the benefits of sustainable farming practices, both for their own livelihoods and for the environment,” says Denhere.

The PELUM Zimbabwe coordinated Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) holds annual decentralized festivals in an effort to facilitate sharing, trade and exchange of farmer seeds and to promote Agroecological farming practices as well as the consumption of traditional foods.

Callisto Nhamo (32), a youth from Nhamo village in Bikita, Masvingo province says after spending eight years working in towns, he resolved to go back home to start farming projects and he is now practising Agroecology after attending a training workshop organised by PELUM Zimbabwe member, SCOPE Zimbabwe. Photo: David Seth Foundation

By Calisto Nhamo

When I completed my secondary school, I was like many youths who grow up in rural areas, eager to leave my rural home and head for the city, where I would get a good job and make it big in life. So, in 2007 I left my rural home in Bikita and for eight years I worked for different companies in Mutare, Harare and Bulawayo, the three biggest cities in Zimbabwe. However, after those eight years of working, I realised that I was not ‘making it big in the city.’

In 2015, with much disappointment, I decided to move back home to establish some farming projects as a way of supporting my family. However, the only farming I knew was the conventional system. I began growing cash crops such as maize, tomatoes and potatoes using synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

This quickly put a big strain on my finances because synthetic fertilisers and hybrid seeds are very expensive. For example, at the shops close to my home, a 50kg bag of Compound D cost US$50 and Topdressing fertiliser costs US$65. I ended up spending money I didn’t have on inputs and could never really make any meaningful profits so I found myself struggling to make a living again.

After seven years of this struggle, I participated in a workshop that was organised by Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme (SCOPE) Zimbabwe to teach smallholder farmers about agroecology. It was at that workshop that my eyes were opened and I learnt about the problems that arise as a result of applying synthetic fertilisers and chemicals on the soil. I learned that there was another way, a much cheaper and more sustainable way of enhancing the fertility of my soil, by using organic fertilisers.

SCOPE Zimbabwe took us through a training on making these organic fertilisers and after the training, I was very inspired and made the decision to start practicing agroecology. I have been practicing Agroecology since that training in October 2022 and I have realised its potential not just in the money I can save by no longer buying synthetic fertilisers and hybrid seed but also in the diversity and quality of my produce.

I want to thank SCOPE Zimbabwe for introducing agroecology methods of food production. I want to practise it on the ground and I want to be an agroecology ambassador in my community.

Time & Location

01 Oct,2020, 15:00 SAST – 03 Oct,2020, 19:00 SAST

Facebook @TOFFZim and @playafrikatv

About the Event

The Traditional and Organic Food Forum brings you the 3-day 2020 Virtual Zimbabwe Good Food and Seed Festival  running from 1 to 3 October (3pm – 7pm Central African Time). The event which has been traditionally held at the Harare Botanical Gardens will be celebrated virtually this year due to COVID-19  restrictions. The virtual event will feature cooking demos, talks on critical issues such as agroecology, nutrition, indigenous knowledge and climate change mitigation and urban agriculture, stories from smallholder farmers, children’s activities including stories, cooking and traditional dance. Celebrate with us on facebook @TOFFZim and @playafrikatv

Time & Location

29 Sept,2021, 14:00 SAST – 30 Sept,2021, 18:00 SAST

Facebook @TOFFZim and @playafrikatv

About the Event

PELUM  Zimbabwe is inviting you to the 2021 Zimbabwe National Seed and Food  Festival. As has been the tradition, the celebrations will run over  three days. However, to reduce the risk of COVID-19  spread at the celebrations, the first two days of the festival (i.e. 29  and 30 October 2021) will be held virtually. It will be live streamed  on Facebook Pages  @TOFFZim and @playafrikatv  from 2pm to 6pm CAT. The last day of the festival will be held physically at the Harare Botanical Gardens on Saturday 02 October 2021 from 9am to 3.30pm. 

Join  us as we celebrate Zimbabwe’s diverse Food and Seed. On the programme  we have music, drama, dialogues, cooking demonstrations, stories from  the field, seed swapping and trade, children-oriented  activities and many

Time & Location

29 Sept, 08:00 SAST – 30 Sept, 08:00 SAST

Harare, 53X3+7C7, 30 Sandringham Dr, Harare, Zimbabwe

About the Event

The 2023 Zimbabwe Food and Seed Festival coordinated by PELUM Zimbabwe and Bio Innovation Zimbabwe will kick start on 29 October and end on 30 October 2023 at the Harare Botanical Gardens.

The Festival is running under the theme, “Celebrating the wonder of Zimbabwean Millets”.

The PELUM Association will join in the celebration by supporting more than 20 participants from eight African countries to participate in the Food and Seed Festival.

Multi-stakeholders are expected to join in the celebrations as we promote healthy eating and support scale-scale farmers to trade and exchange diverse farm-saved seeds of high quality and seed knowledge.

Join us as we celebrate our indigenous seeds and traditional foods!

Judith Matiashe (23) is a young woman from Matiashe village in Chimanimani district who has been inspired to begin her own Agroecology business. Judith says working with PELUM Zimbabwe member, Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust has helped her to understand how post-harvest losses and off-season shortages of fruits and vegetables are a viable business opportunity. Photo David Seth Foundation

Sustainable agriculture is something I had never given much thought to, growing up in my village in Chimanimani district, my parents practiced conventional farming and for me it was the correct way of food production.

It was only when I was engaged by Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust as an intern in the Monitoring and Evaluation department that I was exposed to sustainable agricultural practices, and as I interacted with Chimanimani farmers, I began to understand the dangers posed and perpetrated by conventional farming and the advantages of the sustainable farming model called Agroecology.

As I did my work, I met many farmers but one particular farmer made a lasting impression on me. His name is Jacob Mukunukuji (28), a young man from Marumauta village in ward 13 of Chimanimani district.

Before Jacob started working with TSURO Trust, he really struggled to provide for and support his family. Jacob was somewhat like me; he was not really a farmer and got most of his food requirements from shops and local producers.

Jacob’s story and lifestyle however began to change in 2015 when he began practicing Agroecology as a result of participating in workshops held by TSURO Trust. Jacob was trained on food processing of black jack, rape, honey, bananas, sugar cane, mangos and groundnuts.

After the training TSURO Trust further supported him with a solar dryer to enable him to dry his produce in a way that preserves nutrients and maintains good hygiene. TSURO Trust also provided machines for honey processing and peanut butter processing.

Jacob used the machinery, knowledge, and skills he had acquired to start a profitable Agroecological business. He began value addition of fruits, vegetables and honey and it transformed his life. His customer base has really grown because his products are of high quality and he has moved from earning around USD$75 -150 monthly when he first started in 2020 to approximately USD$280 from peanut butter processing and USD$400 from honey processing net per month. In addition, Jacob has employed three workers from the community. His business has not only turned his life around but also benefited his community.

Jacob’s success as a youth is what has really inspired me. I now have a full picture of what agroecology is all about. I now understand the importance of producing food without using unsustainable means. I have made it my goal to learn as much about Agroecology as I can before my internship with TSURO ends because I plan to set up my own agroecology system where I will be producing healthy foods for household consumption or for sell

Purity Chenjerayi (34) from Ndoorwi village in Gutu District, Masvingo province says water harvesting features have increased soil moisture and contributed to increased yields. Photo: David Seth Foundation

I grew up in Ndoorwi village located in Gutu district in Masvingo province which is about 230 kilometres south of Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. Gutu district is a very hot and dry area and water scarcity has always plagued the district.

Often, families are hungry, have poor diets and struggle to get meaningful income as crops wilt in the fields. Growing up in that situation, I thought this was our curse and we could do nothing to escape it until I met Nelson Mudzingwa. Nelson is a small-scale farmer who lives in Shashe community, about 150 kilometres from Gutu district in Masvingo province.

Shashe is an area very much like Gutu, plagued by poor rainfalls and high temperatures, but unlike my community, this did not seem to affect Nelson and other farmers around him because they were successfully growing crops, eating a balanced diet and having enough to sell despite the harsh climate. I was very eager to learn how Nelson and other farmers in his vicinity had managed to do this.

I eagerly participated in a learning visit around Nelson’s field. During this visit, I learned how Nelson and other farmers around him are implementing water harvesting techniques that capture rainfall and runoff, allowing more water to sink into the ground and thereby keeping the ground moist for longer.

Nelson showed us his water harvesting structures and explained how they harvest water and enabled even distribution of water in the field to create good growing conditions for all plants. During the visit, we had a practical session where we constructed some contours that were 50cm wide by 1m deep. The aim of the group work was to ensure that we had mastered the concept so that when we get back home, we would implement what we had learned.

After the exchange visit, we went back home to start implementing everything that we had learned. I completed digging some water harvesting features at my homestead before the start of the rain season. When it started to rain, I observed that a lot of water was collecting in the contours, there was no runoff out of the fields. When I started planting, I noted that soil moisture was sustained for a longer period after the rains. That year, there was an improvement in the quantity of my yields.

This has motivated me and other members of the group that went for the learning visit and we have continued to construct more water harvesting features at our fields. I am happy that the knowledge I gained from the exchange visit is contributing positively to my farming operations.

Barnyard Millet also known as Svoboda, it can be parboiled, dehulled, cooked and consumed in a similar way to rice. The grain can also be processed into flour for the preparation of various foods. Photo: Collins Chirinda/PELUM Zimbabwe.

The damage caused by the “green revolution” to African food systems is almost too deep to fathom completely. To make matters worse, the disconnect between the young and the elderly, fuelled by and coupled with globalisation, colonialism and modernisation has added fuel to the fire.

Elders who were traditionally regarded as holders of knowledge and wisdom are now looked at as unlearned people and in some instances as witches and wizards. As a result, many elders are dying with their knowledge, leaving the young generations to wander around, without effective or applicable solutions to modern day challenges such as climate change as well as food and nutrition insecurity.

PELUM Zimbabwe partners EarthLore Foundation and Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers’ Forum (ZIMSOFF) have been working to address both the effects of the green revolution and the divide between the elderly and the young in Bikita district.

Method Gundiza (49), the Director of EarthLore says was in the course of this work that it was discovered that an elderly woman affectionately known as Mbuya Mukondo (now late) was in possession of a millet variety known as Svoboda (Barnyard Millet) which had become a lost variety.

“She had planted it over the seasons and it had slowly diminished over the past years until she had almost forgotten about it, till the discussion on lost seeds came up. She had very few seeds with her stored in a clay pot in her storeroom, and it was when she was left with a handful that she remembered and showed it to us, that’s when the work to revitalize and advocate for svoboda began,” explains Method.

“With the help of EarthLore and ZIMSOFF Mbuya Mukondo sat in dialogues with farmers from her community, telling stories of svoboda and giving out small quantities from the little seed she had left. Farmers quickly began multiplying the seed, spreading it to communities in Bikita and Gutu,” added Method.

Bhuraki Machinduka (54), one of the farmers who has benefited from Mbuya Mukondo’s seed work says he is now growing and selling it.

“I have managed to grow it in my field and I can happily harvest at least a tonne from my field, I am also making money through selling the surplus I get from my field,” says Bhuraki.

Tanga Pasurai (51), a small-scale farmer from Gutu says svoboda boasts of many benefits.

“When one has an allergy or reaction to their skin (munyaviri) you can bathe with water soaked overnight in svoboda and you’ll start to see changes, and it also heals wounds in the mouth by eating the stem, it’s easier to harvest and grind unlike other millets , and it’s also cost-effective because you don’t need a lot of money to grow and maintain it, it’s good for drought because it does well in areas where there is low to no rainfall, and besides birds, pests and diseases rarely attack it both in the field and in the store room,” says Tanga.

Oliat Mavuramba, a farmer from ZIMSOFF commends how much you can harvest from svoboda especially when there is adequate moisture.

“If you harvest the crop as long as there is moisture it will continue to shoot and grow and it takes 3 months to ripen, Svoboda is very rich in nutritional value, and it’s one of the earliest-maturity crops also, one can harvest it three to four times from one plant and it can shoot out about 20 shoots.” After the initial harvest, this means a family can be able to sustain itself for months to come even in times of low rainfall,” he says.

Method says the work that EarthLore and ZIMSOFF are doing is pertinent for Zimbabweans if we are to successfully adapt to the changing climate and ensure nutrition security.

“We need to change the diets, increase acreage and bring traditional food, diet influences what type of food is produced, and as the drastic shift from maize to millets changes the diets and diversity of meals, we need to continue with the agenda for our future ones and give hope to our smallholder farmers, we need to balance our taste buds and make people realise that millets are food too and we should continue to create a platform for this traditional food and millets,” says Method.

Exhibitors at the Bikita 2023 food and seed festival interact with farmers from Tsholotsho district [on the right]. The majority of exhibitors and visitors were women, which is evidence of the central role they play in food systems as custodians of seed and food. The Bikita festival was a youth-centred event, with school children from various schools taking part in different ways in an effort to “catch them young.” Photo: Deltahcuti Dube/PELUM Zimbabwe

Thembi Gumbo (53), a small-scale farmer from ward 2 in Tsholotsho district, Matabeleland North, says participating in the Bikita district food and seed festival has fully convinced her that Agroecology is the only path to food and nutrition security.

Thembi started farming in 2002 using conventional methods but could never harvest enough to feed her family or to provide them with adequate nutrition. She says it was attending the Bikita Seed and Food Festival in October 2023 which showed her that it is possible to produce adequate nutritious food sustainably.

“I left the Good Food and Seed Festival inspired and motivated to make a change in my community. I realised that traditional grains could make a difference in people’s lives especially when it comes to nutrition and food security. Agroecology is the way to go and I encourage more farmers to practice it,” she says.

Thandiwe Tshuma (41), another small-scale farmer from Tsholotsho district says attending the Bikita food and seed festival opened her eyes to the nutritional value of millets.

“Before I participated in the Bikita food and seed festival, I had limited knowledge on how traditional grains are rich in nutrients. I have learnt that the traditional grains like millets are gluten-free grains, making it a good option for people with celiac disease,” says Thandiwe.

From being barely able to feed her family to harvesting surplus for sale and being able to easily afford school fees of her children, Thandiwe says she has fallen in love with traditional grains.

Thembi and Thandiwe are part of a group of 12 small-scale farmers and Agricultural Extension officers from Tsholotsho district who participated in the Bikita festival, hosted by PELUM Zimbabwe member, Schools and Colleges Permaculture (SCOPE) Zimbabwe as part of a learning visit organised by PELUM Zimbabwe for farmers and stakeholders working under the Markets and Seed Access Project (MASAP).

MASAP is an initiative coordinated by PELUM Zimbabwe’s strategic partner, Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT) and other organisations to strengthen production, consumption and marketing of traditional grains in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Tembi Mungani (65), Schools and Colleges Permaculture (SCOPE) Zimbabwe project officer, says he was impressed by the high level of attendance by farmers from different parts of Zimbabwe which made for rich discussions and dialogue.

“I was very impressed with the level of participation we received on our decentralised festival. We learnt a lot from the farmers who came from the different districts in Zimbabwe as they brought their traditional seeds to the festival and shared different ideas,” says Tembi.

The Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) is partnering with the Markets and Seed Access Project (MASAP) to build capacity of small-scale farmers and stakeholders from Tsholotsho and Mudzi districts to organise and host effective district food and seed festivals.