PELUM challenges mothers to control indigenous dishes

BY STEVE EPHRAEM

PARTICIPATORY Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe has urged mothers to take control of their family’s food choices and promote indigenous dishes. This call was made at a Bare Foot Guide training workshop held in Harare on February 13, 2025.

The workshop aimed at equipping facilitators, particularly mothers and youth, with the knowledge to educate their communities on the importance of cultivating and consuming locally adapted food.

Addressing the delegates, Bertha Nherera, PELUM’s My Food is Africa coordinator, and also Secretariat to My Food is Zimbabwean Alliance, emphasised the need for women to champion indigenous foods over foreign alternatives.

“Let’s eat food that does well in a specific season in order to avoid depending on chemicals to fight pests. If we are not careful, we end up poisoning ourselves than feeding the families. We must eat what grows well in our environment.

“One advantage of eating indigenous food is that we can control our menus and have sovereignty of what we eat. Much dependency on foreign food, we are killing market for local food and there is nowhere the youth can find jobs if we kill our own food systems.

“Abandoning foreign food entirely might be impractical but let’s start incorporating African dishes into our home, school, and commercial menus. We also need to be creative and bring innovative ideas for our menus,” she said.

During the workshop, mothers highlighted the need for increased awareness in their communities about the benefits of promoting indigenous cuisine.

By promoting indigenous and agroecologically grown foods, My Food is Zimbabwean Alliance aims at support local food systems, create job opportunities for youth, and foster a healthier relationship between communities and their environments.