logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2020
28m 37s

Zimbabwe's Food Crisis: Can Old Crops Fi...

BBC Radio
About this episode

Every day people dig into sadza, a maize based meal, but there’s a problem. Zimbabwe’s getting much drier and maize can’t cope. Crop failures have partly contributed to food shortages this year leading to more than 7 million people needing food aid. The economic crisis has made the situation more serious and things will only get worse as the climate heats up. How can Zimbabwe feed itself? It turns out grains like millet and sorghum could hold the key. Unlike maize, these small grains are indigenous to the region. For In Business, Charlotte Ashton meets the remarkable business people fighting to put them back on Zimbabwean plates. From convincing smallholder farmers that traditional crops are the way forward, to advertising the health benefits of small grains to busy parents, this is a campaign for hearts and minds as much as full bellies.

Presenter: Charlotte Ashton Producer: Phoebe Keane

Picture Credit: BBC

Up next
Sep 2020
Still in Business
For the final programme of the series, John Murphy returns to a selection of businesses that have come through this far. A fabric and haberdashery shop, a fruit farmer and a micro-pub. What’s their story of survival, what did they change and what of the future? The potential diff ... Show More
27m 51s
Sep 2020
Building Back Better
The pandemic and the resulting recession have led to widespread calls to recognise that we now have a once in a generation opportunity to re-think how we put the economy back together again. Research shows we can help our economy flourish again by prioritising spending on environ ... Show More
27m 46s
Sep 2020
Wine, Widgets and Brexit
As Brexit talks between the European Union and the UK got under way earlier this year, before anyone was using the word “pandemic”, Caroline Bayley began following two companies which both export to Britain– one in France, one in Germany – to see how they were planning for trade ... Show More
28m 18s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2023
Tackling the global food crisis in 2023
The new president of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, Alvaro Lario tells us why the pandemic, war in Ukraine and climate change have created a perfect storm for global food security and what can be done about that. The BBC’s Frey Lindsay hears f ... Show More
18m 32s
Oct 2021
Can economic growth tempt Zimbabweans home?
Zimbabwe once sat as a powerhouse alongside Africa’s biggest economies. Over the past two decades though, Zimbabwean’s have been on an economic rollercoaster, experiencing crashes, strikes, hyperinflation and unemployment. Millions of people left the country in search of guarante ... Show More
15m 1s
Jul 2021
Why is money worth so little in Zimbabwe?
How many bills do you need to buy a loaf of bread? The dollar isn’t taking Zimbabweans as far as it used to: life is getting more and more expensive. The central bank has introduced a new bill worth 50 Zimbabwean dollars, the highest banknote going around. But this alone has brou ... Show More
15m 21s
Aug 2023
Zimbabwe's worker exodus
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.Last year Zimbabwe was the third largest source of foreign workers for the UK, behind India and Nigeria, and ahead of the Philippines and Pakistan, which hav ... Show More
27m 29s
Mar 2024
How do you keep food cold?
Up to 40% of food in Africa and India is wasted because of a lack of what's called "the cold chain" - the infrastructure keeping food chilled and fresh, from farm to fork. Many small-scale farmers have no access to any kind of refrigeration, meaning they're losing income and wast ... Show More
18m 26s
Apr 2022
False banana: A new superfood?
As the spectre of food insecurity grows and climate change threatens lives and livelihoods, could enset play a part in assuaging hunger? Elizabeth Hotson delves into the many and varied properties of a crop consumed mainly in parts of Ethiopia and she asks how it might be possibl ... Show More
18m 36s
Apr 2023
Is it time for white Zimbabwean farmers to return home?
“For me to leave a place of security, a place that’s been good to me and my family, to go back and get harassed - I’m not prepared to do that.” In the early 2000s, at least 4,000 white Zimbabweans were kicked out of their farms to make way for their black counterparts. Robert Mug ... Show More
16m 44s
Jun 2021
Is cannabis Africa’s next big crop?
The age of cannabis has begun – or has it? Morocco has become the latest country in Africa to allow farmers to grow cannabis for medicinal and industrial use. Entrepreneurs say there’s good money to be made by exporting the crop to the rest of the world. But how big is this oppor ... Show More
14m 26s
Dec 2022
Why does Africa import a lot of food?
2022 has seen record food prices. Many African countries have been badly hit because they import their staples – wheat, rice and oil. A lack of infrastructure and capacity in some countries means that food grown in Africa is often not processed into packaged food products, instea ... Show More
27m 22s