DEPUTY minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Development, Davis Marapira has emphasised the need to revitalise Africa's rich food heritage locally to address malnutrition in the wake of worsening climate change impacts.
Addressing farmers at the National Botanic Gardens in Harare during the Seed and Food Festival recently, Marapira said food systems ought to adapt to climatic changes to meet the needs of an ever-growing population.
“In these challenges lie opportunities for innovation and resilience. Embracing our traditional food systems can provide pathways to sustainable practices that not only honour our past but also forge a sustainable future,” said Marapira
“My ministry in its drive to transform agro food systems in Zimbabwe, has also prioritised a heritage based food systems approach, which entails utilising local resources, traditional knowledge and practices for economic development."
The seed festival, which ran under the theme "Celebrating the diversity and resilience of Zimbabwean food", offered a platform to celebrate the country's diverse traditional seeds and foods as well as the sharing, exchange and trade in them.
This year’s celebration, attended by farmers from neighbouring countries, also served as a chance to showcase a wide array of resilient local foods, at a time when the country is reeling from the effects of an El Nino-induced drought that affected the 2023/2024 farming season.
In an interview with NewsDay, Zimbabwe Small Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF) National Chairperson Delma Ndlovu said:
“We are pushing for agroecology to move forward; this event is an advocacy of pleading to the government to also see what we are doing and for the law not to suppress us, thus being here is a way of showing what we are doing in the fields,” he said.
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“Agroecology is basically taking back people to practise the type of farming that was being used a long time ago by our forefathers (who) would dig holes and plant a variety of crops and they would harvest a lot. Now that we have brought it back, small scale farmers have saved money and also created their own market of organic seeds, which are drought resistant."
Mushimbwa Bevis (47) from Zambia practising agroecology since 2020, utilising organic manure and local seeds had increased his grain yield from 0.6 tonnes to 1.3 tonnes per hectare.
"My visit here in Zimbabwe, where we are celebrating the seed and food festival, has actually impacted or given me an opportunity to actually learn more."
“There are a lot of lessons that I have learnt here, one of them is the Pfumvudza type of production," said Bevis, adding that African governments should support local seeds and channel more funds to finance agroecology.
Meanwhile, the ministry of Agriculture is currently reviewing the Draft Agroecology Promotion Policy and Strategy, which seeks to promote sustainable production through agroecology.
