The Trustees and the Phiri Award for Farm & Food Innovators, and the members of Muonde Trust announce with great sadness today the passing (following a massive stroke) of the master himself, the great spirit that was Zephaniah Phiri. He will be buried September 3rd at his home in Mapanzure (Runde). Born in 1927 Zephaniah …
The Passing of Zephaniah Phiri, September 1st, 2015 Read More »
The era of maize in Mazvihwa seems to have ended in 2010 (see the graph of crop yields as collected by the Muonde local team over the last thirty years). But what is surprising is that it is not bulrush millet (mhunga) that has replaced it (mhunga was the dominant crop since the 1930s to …
Indigenous Seeds: 2015 Statement of Program Rationale and Outcomes Read More »
The people involved in Muonde have been concerned with the fencing issue since the 1980s when the late Mathou Chakavanda and others promoted the local experimentation which was then going on with live fencing using indigenous and other species (like sisal and cactus). This was because the community started measuring how much Acacia woodland in …
In common with many other semi-arid regions the ancestral agricultural system in Mazvihwa was not based on extensive dryland farming but instead focused around the intensive use of natural wetlands – makuvi or dambos in the hills and majeke riverbank gardens in the plains. Elaborate systems of trenches and furrows were dug by hand with …
This historic film is from one of the pioneers of video for development in Southern Africa, Dan Ticehurst, and was made at Mr Phiri’s farm in 1988/89, and recently in 2014 generously rediscovered and shared by him.
The first Phiri Award ceremony was held on October 24th, 2014 at the Baraza Pavilion in Harare, in the presence of its Patron, Mr. Zephaniah Phiri, his wife Constance and eighty guests. The day went admirably – ably MC’d by Tsitsi Choruma – with guest of honor, distinguished rural development thinker Rev. Peter Baka Nyoni, …
Stone Walling written and photographed by Alice Ndlovu and the Muonde Team The stone wall journey started in Madzoke valley, a community which is surrounded by mountains and hills. This community has a very great access to stones because it is situated between mountains. However, the same mountains prey a lot of animals which destroys …
Mr. Zephaniah Phiri’s Lifetime of Planting Water: a Record of Achievement Invitation to the Lifetime Achievement Award (PDF) Program for Mr. Phiri Lifetime Achievement Award (PDF) Chapter 1: The Man and His Awards [pl_accordion name=”accordion”] [pl_accordioncontent name=”accordion” number=”1″ heading=”Overview & Introduction by Ken Wilson” open=”no”] Dr. K.B. Wilson On the Occasion of his Life Time …
The following text was extracted from the justification of the Phiri Award by the Phiri Award for Food and Farm Innovators Trust because it speaks in an interesting way about the importance of innovation in the context of food sovereignty. The Role of Farm and Food Innovators All the time everywhere, small scale farmers and …
Advancing Indigenous Innovation and Food Sovereignty in Zimbabwe Read More »
Below, Frank Loewen describes the making of his film, The Rainwater Harvester. Mr Phiri’s experience in Improving Dryland Management, featuring Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, Cleopas Banda, and Julious Piti “With a background in forestry, I have been working for many years in rural development projects dealing with environmental restoration and the promotion of integrated natural resource …
