Smallholder farmers from Bulilima, Gwanda, Mangwe and Matobo districts located in Matabeleland South province have become a working example of ways in which the contribution of farmers to agrobiodiversity can be recognised. These farmers worked with Practical Action, the Crop Breeding Institute and the National Gene Bank to conserve and maintain plant genetic resources for food and agriculture through Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB).
”3, 360 farmers were involved in the PPB work. These farmers worked with eight lines each of sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea and bambara nuts. They grew them, observing and evaluating their traits and behaviour over 3 seasons. Farmers rated the varieties and selected those with traits they liked best,” says Melody Makumbe (44), the Projects Coordinator for Practical Action.
“The main goal of the project was to enhance the adaptive capacity of the smallholder farmers and contribute to food and nutrition security through the selected underutilised crop varieties,” adds Melody.
Maureen is one of the smallholder farmers from Gwanda who participated in the project. She says her participation in the PPB project enabled her to study and understand which seeds would produce a better harvest at the shortest possible time.
Onismus Chipfunde, the Acting Head for Zimbabwe’s Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Institute says farmers’ rights and their contribution to agrobiodiversity has gained the limelight in international biodiversity, climate and agriculture discussions in recent years.
“Discussions on international platforms now are about recognizing, supporting and strengthening farmers’ contribution to the conservation and maintenance of these plant genetic resources for food and agriculture,” says Onismus.
“This is enshrined in Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture which articulates farmers’ rights and talks about the enormous contribution of farmers to food and agriculture,” he adds.
Onismus says farmers’ contribution to plant genetic resources diversity has gone unrecognised for decades while big multinational companies have been riding on and benefiting from their work. By being involved in the process, farmers in Matabeleland South who were facing perpetual food insecurity due to poor crop performance gained knowledge and skills on seed conservation, selection and production.
“We talk about monetary and non-monetary benefits. In this case the benefit to farmers is non monetary as we trained them on the entire seed production process,” adds Onismus.
Onismus says through the participatory plant breeding, farmers identified two varieties of cow peas that were of interest them. These varieties have been released and approved for multiplication by the seed regulatory authority and farmers in Gwanda are pleased with their contribution to the project.
“We are now known and recognised as seed breeders. We now have expectations to grow big as a group,” says Marietta, one of the smallholder farmers who participated in the project.
“We are now celebrity farmers in the village because of this work, after having achieved this with cowpeas we hope to do the same with a cereal. We dream of building a seed bank to allow us to keep and protect our varieties in the long run,” says Ntombizodwa, another smallholder farmer who participated in the project.
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