Ngoni Chikowe (51), a smallholder farmer from Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe says the National Seed Fair is a critical platform for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe to exchange diverse seed, network and learn. Ngoni made these remarks at the 2019 Zimbabwe National Seed Fair hosted by the Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP) and held at the Harare Botanical Gardens on 13 September. “We are fighting to have what is called seed sovereignty, to be able to exercise full independence over our seed, being able to control it, to choose, to grow and to access it at the time when we need to plant,” says Ngoni.
Ngoni says he grows indigenous seeds but the law regards his seeds as grain because it has not undergone the certification process.
“[The law says] the seed we grow is called grain. It is regarded as [standard] seed used by smallholder farmers to grow food to feed their families. This is contributing to the loss of some varieties so our coming here helps us to find such varieties. For those who may have lost their seed, they can get it through exchange with other farmers here,” says Ngoni.
Smallholder farmers like Ngoni are advocating for the protection and promotion of farmers’ varieties to grow, exchange and save indigenous seeds.
“We desire to have a law that protects our seed and farmer managed seed systems. As it stands the law favours hybrid seed that is certified and registered,” says Ngoni.
For Ngoni, the National Seed Fair is a platform for sharing and exchanging of seed and the seed knowledge that comes with the seed.
“We are seeking to achieve food sovereignty. We often hear about food security but when we are talking about food we say that security is not enough. We need to be sovereign over the food systems in our country. That is why we save our seed and promote diversity of those seeds for adequate nutrition because a man is what he eats,” says Ngoni.
Ngoni says many diseases come from the food we eat. “We end up pumping large sums of money for health services because we are not eating properly,” adds Ngoni. “So this is what we are looking for from this forum as we meet year after year, exchanging, discussing and guiding each other. This is what we will be looking to achieve,” he says.
The 2019 Zimbabwe National Seed Fair ran under the theme, “Promoting consumption and Marketing of Healthy Oils from Zimbabwean Traditional Seeds”. The event is part of the 3-day Good Food and Seed festival and this year it attracted approximately 250 people including farmers, civil society organisations, government departments, private organisations, media and participants from other countries such as Benin and Malawi.
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