A warm welcome to the 2023 Bikita Seed and Food Fair, which takes place today, 12 September, at Chamas Communal Garden, in Gangare Village, Bikita, Zimbabwe. This is the most important event on EarthLore’s calendar of celebrations of the Year of Millets. The theme of the Seed Fair is “Our Diverse and Robust Traditional Seeds provide Better Nutrition and Resilience to Climate change.”
Three millet seeds are being celebrated and showcased at the Bikita Seed Fair: Pearl millet (mhunga), Finger millet (rukweza) and Barnyard millet (svoboda). Each of these tiny, robust, generous seeds has a unique and special story to tell of its role in reweaving the basket of life for the Bikita farmers and their communities since 2015. This is the year the revival of millet started in Bikita. Millets soon became the main crop in the area, replacing unreliable hybrid maize that had been the staple for many decades, despite bringing hunger and disappointment year after year. The stories of Pearl, Finger and Barnyard will be featured on the EarthLore website and social media during the next couple of weeks following this joyful period of celebration and festivities in Bikita.
The Bikita Seed and Food Fair brings together the farmers who EarthLore accompanies in Bikita and in Venda and Mpumalanga in South Africa; as well as farmers from our SKI partners and friendly organisations from within Zimbabwe like PELUM, PORET, CELUCT, ZIMSOFF, and Caritas; and from further afield in Africa, namely (Kenya), Buliisa (Uganda) and Avrankou (Benin) who represent the Earth Jurisprudence collective.
More than 300 Bikita farmers from the villages of Chiroorwe, Gangare, Mamutse, Masasire and Mutsinzwa and some farmers from neighbouring communities are exhibiting at the Seed Fair. Distinguished guests have been invited from each of these five communities and include the chief, the councillor, extension officer and the Environmental Management Agency representative. The new Member of Parliament for Bikita East constituency has also been invited.
The last time we celebrated a large, combined seed fair was in August 2019. For the next three years, COVID restrictions limited the number of people who could gather, leading to some communities holding their own community level seed fairs. People are very excited to be part of a large event again this year and are ready to celebrate. Farmers and guests have been asked to wear traditional clothing and a wide variety and range of outfits are expected that will be an interesting feature of the celebrations.
There will be an opportunity for visitors to view the seeds and a wide variety of other produce and crafts on display, and to interact with the exhibitors who are eager to share their knowledge of indigenous/ traditional/ local seeds, traditional foods, and farming practices. Many farmers are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about wild plants, insects, birds, and wild animals and this is deepening their ecological understanding and connecting them to the wider landscape. Other activities during the day include stories of seed and traditional food, storytelling for children, dancing and singing, and speeches by dignitaries and visiting farmer organisations who will be introducing their work.
We wish everyone a joyous and memorable day.
