Indigenous Crop Production for Sustainable Livelihoods: a Case of uninga in the Rural Areas of South-Eastern Zimbabwe
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Indigenous Crop Production for Sustainable Livelihoods: a Case of uninga in the Rural Areas of South-Eastern Zimbabwe Tenson Muyambo 1
& Soul
Shava 2
Received: 30 September 2020 / Accepted: 3 November 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract South-eastern parts of Zimbabwe lie in drought-stricken agricultural region five, characterised by low and erratic rainfall patterns. To realise food security people in the region have resorted to growing drought resistant crops such as sorghum. The recent observations are that the success of sorghum as a drought resistant crop is accompanied by ambivalence as some people view the crop to be unsuitable as a staple food while others rely on it to cope with food insecurity. Some families have resorted to farming cash crops such as cotton and use the dividends to buy maize meal as the staple food. However, recently some farmers have started intensive production of uninga, an indigenous crop which had almost become extinct among the Ndau people (an ethnic grouping of Ndau-speaking) of south-eastern Zimbabwe. The production of this crop is under-researched and understudied in Zimbabwe. To fill this lacuna, we adopted a participatory case study research approach to explore the nature and scope of uninga production. An Afrocentric-postcolonial lens was employed to investigate the factors for its resurgence after decades of absence in the agricultural crop basket. We found that the crop which used to be largely cultivated by women in the past, had become a ‘must-plant’ crop for all gender owing to its high demand on the market, especially in Mozambique. Keywords Ndau community . Indigenous crop . Uninga . Cash crop . Drought resistant .
South-Eastern Zimbabwe
Uninga is a Ndau word referring to sesame (Sesamum indicum). In other languages like Zezuru and Karanga, uninga is known by the term runinga. Among the Ndau, this crop was traditionally a female crop planted by women among other crops such as sorghum, millet, rapoko, maize but not as the main crop. Women would then use it to flavour their meals. In most cases women would plant it on a very small-scale for domestic purposes only. No males were involved in its production since its uses were confined to the kitchen as a relish flavour.
* Tenson Muyambo [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
International Journal of Community Well-Being
Introduction The production of indigenous crops in Africa has been largely on a small-scale perspective. Rajasekaran (1993) notes that over 90% of Africa’s agricultural output is by small-scale (less than 5 ha) farmers who have for centuries sustained their food supply through a considerable wealth of indigenous knowledge on how to harness both natural and socio-economic factors of production. The production of indigenous crops has experienced a sharp decline in Africa due to colonisation which saw the introduction of exotic cash crops. Bell (2000) and Arthur (2003) observed that colonialism destroyed the essence of African food se
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