Zambia's government has promised to back traditional seeds, crop diversification and women farmers as the country fights for control of its own food system. Zombe Sikazwe, Senior Seed Officer at the Seed Control and Certification Institute, made the pledge during the Zambia Traditional Seed and Food Festival held on 30 October, according to LusakaTimes.com.
The message was loud and clear: Zambia must stop depending on maize alone and expensive foreign farm inputs, and start trusting the crops and knowledge that our own soil and our own grandmothers gave us.
Government shifts from maize obsession to real diversification
Mrs Sikazwe said government is moving its agricultural agenda away from a narrow focus on production toward sustainable, resilient and inclusive farming. The Eighth National Development Plan and the National Agriculture Policy both name agroecology as a pathway to sustainable agriculture, she said.
The Ministry of Agriculture is now promoting practices that restore soil health, conserve water and encourage indigenous seed varieties, cutting dependence on costly external inputs. That is money that stays in Zambian pockets instead of flowing out to foreign agrochemical giants.
Through the Comprehensive Agriculture Transformation Support Programme, government is pushing crops such as soybeans, sunflower, groundnuts, cowpeas, sorghum, cassava and high-value horticultural crops. Livestock and aquaculture are being folded into farming systems to create jobs and shield households from climate shocks.
Women carry more than 60 percent of farm labour
Mrs Sikazwe did not mince words on women. They contribute more than 60 percent of farm labour and hold household food security in their hands, she said. Government is prioritising women-headed households through the Farmer Input Support Programme, better access to finance and land, and women-focused extension services.
Efforts are also underway to bring women into seed systems and agricultural value chains, where they have too often been shut out.
Father Mapulanga: our seeds are our sovereignty
Gabriel Mapulanga, representing a consortium of civil society organizations, called for increased investment in traditional seed systems. Indigenous seeds like sorghum, millet and cowpeas help communities withstand drought, he said, and losing them threatens Zambia's agricultural heritage.
When traditional seeds disappear, we also lose the knowledge of how to grow, preserve, store and prepare our own foods, Father Mapulanga warned. Women, whom he called key custodians of the country's food systems, are the ones preserving that knowledge.
He pointed to foods like sorghum, millet, cowpeas, bondwe and wild fruits such as masuku as vital sources of nutrition that are being pushed aside by processed foods, with dietary diversity shrinking and nutrition-related health problems rising.
Traditional seeds should not be seen as outdated, Father Mapulanga said. They are practical answers to climate change because they withstand harsh weather and carry real nutritional value.
Farmers must keep the right to their own seed
Father Mapulanga called for investment in farmer-managed seed enterprises, affordable technologies for rural women and policies protecting farmers' rights to save, exchange and sell traditional seeds.
Seed sovereignty is national food sovereignty, he said. No foreign certificate, no imported packet should tell a Zambian farmer what seed she may plant on her own land.
He urged policymakers to integrate gender-inclusive agroecological approaches into national strategies and asked the private sector, universities and research institutions to work with women-led cooperatives so economic value stays in local communities.
Women farmers speak: we are leaders, not beggars
Women farmers' representative Esther Mumba delivered the sharpest message of the festival.
Women are not merely beneficiaries of agricultural development but key leaders, innovators and custodians of traditional seed and food knowledge, Mrs Mumba said.
She described how women select, preserve and exchange seeds and pass farming knowledge from one generation to the next. Through vegetables, legumes and small grains, women remain the backbone of household food security.
But the challenges are piling up: unpredictable rainfall, declining soil fertility, rising input costs, more pest attacks and unreliable markets. Mrs Mumba said the severe drought of the 2023/2024 season exposed how fragile Zambia's food system becomes when it leans on a handful of crops.
She named indigenous vegetables like bondwe, chiwawa, kalembula and katapa as pillars of dietary diversity and part of Zambia's food heritage. Some indigenous varieties carry traits suited to dry environments, exactly what our changing climate demands.
What women farmers are demanding
Mrs Mumba called for support to farmer-managed seed systems, community seed banks, seed conservation and seed exchange among farming communities and young people. She urged government to invest in agroecology, practical extension services, water harvesting, small-scale irrigation, soil restoration and affordable equipment.
Women farmers are already doing compost making, crop rotation, intercropping, mulching, tree planting and water harvesting, she said. Combining that traditional knowledge with modern research can raise productivity while cutting dependence on expensive external inputs.
She also demanded land, finance, training, technology and decision-making power for women, including young women entering agriculture.
Why this matters for Zambia
This festival put on record what many Zambian farmers have said for years: our food security cannot be built on imported inputs and a single crop. The drought of 2023/2024 proved it. Traditional seeds, women's knowledge and local control are not nostalgia; they are strategy.
The commitments from SCCI, civil society and women farmers now await implementation. The next planting season will show whether the words spoken at the festival translate into seed in the ground and money in farmers' hands.