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THE rapid expansion of the hectarage planted to traditional grains, up 63 percent this year, is a positive development largely driven by the Government decision to encourage those in areas marginal for maize, to switch to these grains, and very importantly to provide the guaranteed market through the Grain Marketing Board.

We probably still need to do more work on ensuring that the modern processing machinery for these grains is available more widely, and that the marketing drive that is now recording successes is accelerated, with every more attention paid to consumer tastes and preferences, as well as innovations in processing.

Traditional grains are precisely what they are called. They are the grains indigenous to Africa and the vast range of varieties and types are the result of hundreds of generations of African farmers selecting seed that would grow reliably in their areas and tasted good to eat.

Up until the 1920s, the traditional grains were the staple diet of almost all Zimbabweans. Maize, a central American species, had crept up the trade routes from the coast long before colonialism, but was largely eaten as a special vegetable, roasted green mealies, still a popular convenience food in Zimbabwe.

It was the advent of the colonial farmers and colonial markets that started the switchover. For a start maize processed for sadza was easy to grind with simple machinery in a single operation, while traditional grains needed either double preparation or a different and more expensive grinding mill. So early mechanisation of grinding tended to favour maize.

Secondly, most of the research for several decades was put into maize, finding types and varieties that would grow well, at least on the Highveld white farming belt, and produce high yields. This included the switch to hybrids. So traditional grains lost out.

A third problem was the unfortunate fact that some of the best yielding traditional grains did not have the best taste.

This did not worry the commercial white farmers, who were keener on producing traditional grains for livestock, but made their sale for family cooking a bit harder since people needed to look for the types and varieties that they wanted to eat.

Cultural patterns changed. Families switching to maize as a staple diet tended to lose that knowledge built up by generations of grandmothers on what types should be planted and how each type should be prepared, along with the scores of recipes.

All this has changed in recent years. A couple of companies have gone to respectable lengths to build up a whole range of meals prepared from several types of traditional grain, and using several processing techniques, including the option of malted grains, popular in South Africa.

Those who see traditional grains as something “only the poor eat” need to visit upmarket supermarkets in northern Harare, where the poor do little shopping, and where they will find a wide range of products made from traditional grains. This contrasts with the display for the maize products, just two, standard roller meal and standard super-refined meal although from several millers.

We still have a curiosity that it can be easier to find complex dishes made from traditional grains on the menu of the restaurant in a five-star hotel than in a downtown eatery, or even in a very average suburban kitchen.

A lot has been done more recently to track down and preserve many traditional recipes before no one knows any more how to make proper old-style African food, and First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa made this a major campaign, both to help people appreciate their heritage and to live a healthier lifestyle.

But perhaps that knowledge still needs to be spread further, if we have lost in some families a generation or two of people passing down traditional knowledge.

At the same time some top Zimbabwean chefs have been taking traditional dishes far more seriously, and going far beyond “sadza and something”, both drawing on the past and developing new dishes.

Again this helps push up demand, but again we need to get the recipes, old and new, into general circulation, so that the option becomes a                                  reality.

The companies that have taken the lead in processing the traditional grains, and in offering such a wide range of grains, could perhaps start printing recipes on the back of their packs rather than assuming buyers have retained family knowledge or picked up the recipes from what they see their friends do.

In other words we need to accelerate the progress we are now making towards making traditional grains an exciting and preferred ingredient in many dishes, rather than something that must be used when there is no maize, rice or wheat.

Of course we need to accept that modern families in a modern world like to have a wide range of dishes and experience a wide range of tastes, but this range should include traditional and modified traditional dishes, along with new ideas from chefs.

We could even build up some interesting exports, into the “foodie” markets.

Recent years have seen for example a far wider range of rice varieties appearing on developed world supermarket shelves, and have seen some new South American grains now becoming more common, moving from something eaten by a Bolivian small-scale farmer to something starring in a television recipe show.

Our traditional grains, or at least the best varieties backed by the best processing, could join that global market.