Ruth Butaumocho African Tapestry
Climate change continues to wreak havoc across the world and in Zimbabwe, impacting rural areas negatively.

Most rural communities depend on agriculture-based activities for their livelihood.

To mitigate the effects of climate change, there have been calls for the production of traditional grains, such as sorghum, millet, and rapoko in addition to maize production to enhance food security.

Suffice to say, over the years, the calls have been drowned by a litany of challenges resulting in a production decline of these crops.

Most farmers can attest that growing traditional grains has not been easy for the farming community in Zimbabwe’s drier areas, even though the crops are better suited to the environment and are excellent sources of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals.

While accessing high yield seeds has not been easy, the major challenge has largely been that of perception, where traditional grains have been regarded as a waste of time and resources owing to their poor pricing.

Production costs have also been high, while good quality seed has been in short supply. As a result, farmers over the years have had to rely on exchange return seed or had to recycle the same seed the following season, resulting in poor yields.

After the crops have matured, the farmers also had to contend with a labour-intensive harvesting process, due to the lack of machinery.

However, all the glitches will soon be a thing of the past, after the Government recently gave farmers of traditional grains a new lease of life by increasing its selling price to $7 260.

In announcing the new pricing model, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the agreed price by Cabinet of traditional grains — generally millet, rapoko and sorghum — at $7 260 a tonne would help promote these grains in the face of climate change and health challenges related to the consumption of maize-meal.

The latest development comes hard on the heels of the Government’s decision to avail more than 15 000 tonnes of traditional grains for free to farmers who were willing to grow them.

Free disbursement of traditional grain seed resulted in a marginal hectarage increase to 390 000ha from 380 000ha in the last cropping season.

The decision by the Government to promote traditional grains should be embraced by all, by ensuring that all people in the value chain — from the seed producers to farmers, processors and consumers — benefit.

Of immediate concern to the farmers would be easier access to improved varieties of traditional grains, to ensure that planted hectarage produce high yields.

In light of that, research is critical so that seed varieties are matched with relevant soils, regions and temperatures to ensure maximum yields.

Already, traditional grains are being produced in arid regions of Matabeleland and Masvingo provinces, where they have proved to be amenable to the weather conditions there.

Replicating the concept to other regions which receive good and average rains would require extensive research to ensure that farmers get the proper varieties.

If anything, the research should edify what is already on the ground because several farmers were slowly gravitating towards various traditional grains  — though at a small scale to ameliorate the effects of changing weather patterns that have seen a reduction in the rains.

The decision to include traditional grains in the mainstream crops was long overdue, considering that the crops themselves were already sustaining a lot of communities across Zimbabwe.

What the Government needs is to work on giving policy direction on value addition on the newly embraced grains basket, for the benefit of the farmer.

It is not a secret that all over the world, value-added agriculture generates several billions of dollars for some of the globe’s huge economies, which now invest money in value process chains of a product, right up to the shelf.

In fact, the economic impact of adding value beyond the farm gate is usually several times the value of agricultural production at the farm gate alone.

While there has been slow uptake of producing traditional grains at national levels, both consumers and retailers were already way ahead in promoting millet, rapoko and brown rice as healthy traditional dishes.

Seeing huge opportunities to sell the traditional grains to locals and even for export to Asia and other African countries, middlemen were buying these crops from the farmer for a song, only to process them and price them beyond the reach of many.

Once processed, the same farmer would fail to buy the finer product.

This underscores the importance of value addition and how it can help farmers maximise benefits from the crops they produce.

Traditional grains are not new and have been in existence well before maize became the nation’s staple food.

Apart from their high nutritional value, traditional grains’ export potential is huge in countries like Namibia and Botswana, where they are predominantly popular as staple food.

The general feeling is that the national roll-out of traditional grains is long overdue and will definitely find takers from thousands of farmers, waiting for an opportunity to revive their waning fortunes in some crops because of depressed pricing and the effect of climate change.

Such a national stance would however need the support of a well-crafted policy framework for small grains that addresses value chain linkages, provide for interventions and regulations.

The traditional grains policy would need to be structured as a response to climate change and the need for food security in the country, while promoting exports.

Some farmers keen on traditional grains feel priorities for developing the policy must be derived from a sense of the structure of supply and demand for these grains.

The policy must also reflect an understanding of how grain policies, infrastructure, and technology affect incentives for production and consumption.

During the consultative processes, the voice of the farmer — who ironically is the most strategic partner — is key in defining the future of traditional grains in Zimbabwe.

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