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Grace Mahora Features Writer

Throughout March, otherwise known as the women’s month, we celebrate the contributions of women in our nation, Zimbabwe.

While it is important to celebrate women’s history during the other 11 months too, during March, we can remember the sacrifices made by women to help make the world, and our country, a more inclusive place.

Traditional food crops have been the fundamental source of food and nutrition for indigenous communities since time immemorial, providing food security for local people.

However, with the introduction of modern cash crops, traditional crops have been marginalised and excluded by modern conventional agricultural practices.

Their value as food sources has declined as they have been superseded by commercialised hybrid food crop varieties. This has been accompanied by the stigmatisation of traditional foods, labelling them as “food for the poor” and a characterisation as inferior crops.

In a maize planted field, one may include several sown crops like spider flower (nyovhi), pumpkin leaves (muboora), cowpeas (nyemba), sweet reed (ipwa) which have high nutritional content.

Also present are self-seeding weeds including wild okra (derere renyenze) and black nightshade (musungusungu) that are allowed to grow with cultivated crops because of their food value as vegetables.

As it is known, a balanced diet should contain different kinds of foods in certain quantities and proportions so that the requirement for calories, proteins, minerals, vitamins and alternative nutrients is adequate and a small provision is reserved for additional nutrients.

Growing different traditional crops enables the provision of balanced nutrition, such as the supply of carbohydrates from cereals, vitamins and minerals from leafy vegetables, and proteins from legumes.

Traditional plants can also be used as herbs.

Their roots, leaves of blackjack also treat inflammation, hemorrhoids, fever, and gastric ulcers with reported pharmacological activities. Lilian Zambu, a farmer in Mt Darwin’s Pachanza Ward 11 in Mashonaland Central province, commented on how their traditional diet makes her stronger compared to modern diets.

“Some people living in towns are not healthy because they consume junk foods compared with us residing in rural areas,” she said.

Subsistence farmers rely on conservation agriculture, basing on permanent soil cover with living or dead plant material or organic manure, vermicomposting, mulching, thermal composting to improve the soil thereby making it cheap.

Pit holes are also used as a way of conserving water to help during times of dry spells or winter season when there is need for watering plants. In addition, traditional crops tend to be more resistant to witch weeds. They are less prone to pests, both in the field and during post harvest.

Local knowledge on traditional food crops and related agricultural practices are proven to be a source of local community resilience enabling residents to sustain their livelihoods.

There is also room to practice animal husbandry by subsistence farmers.

Benenia Jeche from Chiendambuya in Makoni District of Manicaland province, said to maintain a balanced diet, individuals should have small animal husbandry projects at their homesteads.

“I do crop cultivation and livestock production so that my family can maintain a balanced diet,” she explained.

Local farmers, especially females, have taken this challenge to produce different crops to ensure household food and nutrition security. Women in the rural areas derive their livelihoods from farming and other related rural economic activities.

Most subsistence farmers, especially women, have learnt to diversify by growing different types of crops as part of resilience efforts.This does not only increase chances of attaining food security, but also improves nutrition as they will have access to a balanced diet.

Farmers are also urged to take control measures to destroy pests and diseases that might destroy their crops at an early stage and the need for top dressing also taking advantage of the rains in a bid to increase crop yields, especially cereal crops.

Research has proved that most women in Zimbabwe of about (86 percent) live in rural areas and it is estimated that women account for 70 percent of the total agricultural labour.

It is time for women to rise and shine with products of their work during this women’s month.