Farmer lobbies Agritex Officer to promote open pollinated maize

Open Pollinated Maize harvest belonging to Peace Nyakazeya (43), a lead farmer from Chimanimani district, Zimbabwe. Peace is a smallholder farmer in the Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) working with Programme partner and PELUM ZWE member, Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust. Peace is a strong advocate for farm saved seeds and has successfully ‘planted a seed’ in the heart of local Agritex Officer and her community. Photo: Peace Nyakazeya

Peace Nyakazeya (43) is a lead famer working with Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) partner, Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) Trust in Chimanimani district, Zimbabwe. Peace says her farm saved seed is of high quality and always guarantees her a good yield. She planted farm saved seed during the 2018/9 farming season and harvested sufficient food for her family despite receiving very little rainfall.

“Others planted hybrid maize while I planted open pollinated varieties (OPV) which I had saved from my previous harvest,” says Peace.

Sadly, the hybrid maize germinated poorly. When other farmers saw that germination in Peace’s crop-field was good they asked her where she had bought her seed.

“I save my own seed and I have more stored in my seed bank,” she replied.

Many neighbours and friends asked Peace to sell her seed so that they could buy from her. Those who did not have money volunteered to work in her crop-field in exchange for seed but Peace had a different idea. She decided to share her seed free of charge. Her aim was to raise awareness and change the mind-set of farmers who depended on hybrid seed. She also wanted to convince the Agricultural Extension Officers (Agritex Officers) that farm saved seeds were of high quality.

“I set a date and told everyone who wanted seed for planting to come to my home. I also invited the Agritex Officer who was notorious for denouncing farm saved seed. When the Agritex Officer saw me giving out OPV seed he was curious. I took him to my crop field where he witnessed good germination. I explained to him that farmers wanted to grow my seed because it was of high quality,” says Peace.

The Agritex Officer was impressed with Peace’s crop-field and wanted to learn more about her farming practices and how she had managed to get a high germination rate as compared to other crop-fields where germination was very low.

“I carefully select and monitor my seed from germination until I harvest the seed. I then select the best seed for storage in my seed bank. I grow my crops using manure. I never apply fertilisers,” says Peace.

Peace says after showing the Agritex Officer her crop-field, the Officer also asked for some seed because like other hybrid maize growers he had experienced poor germination. Today, the Agritex Officer encourages farmers to carefully select, store and grow OPV maize.