The trend for eating more healthily has seen rural farmers creating a number of innovative nutritional meals as well as drinks.

Despite the dangers of obesity, many people consider fast food -chips, fried chicken and hamburgers- their favourite food. However, for some farmers in Makoni district, meal times have become a whole new affair with beans fritters, groundnut bread, roasted yams and millet bread served with tomato jam being part of the menu.

“Instead of the conventional bread, we are making millet and groundnut bread. This has been done after the realisation that we can innovate with our foodstuffs. The foodstuffs are a hit with my family,” said Ms Martha Mashinga, a farmer.

“I grow a lot of tomatoes and after realising that many were going to waste I decided to make jam which is used on bread,” another farmer, Ms Maud Magombe said.

“From soya beans, we are making soya meal and this is a healthy alternative as it also contains milk,” Ms Senzi Muradzikwa said. To wash it all down, there are drinks derived from beetroot, sweet potatoes, as well as pumpkins.

The farmers are taking the nutrition game seriously as talking to them highlights that they have the knowledge of the nutritional values of the food and drinks they partake in.

“We are making drinks from pumpkins as well as beetroot. We are being taught to grow bio-fortified crops and hence the nutritional value derived from these is very high,” another farmer, Ms Lilian Murangariri told zbc.co.zw.

While the food the women are producing may not be as well packaged as those found in fast food outlets, it is abundantly clear that with proper marketing, these can claim a fair share of the market.

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