Mbeu Yedu: Seed is the new
Currency.

Mbeu Yedu translates to “Our Seed” in the Shona language and to say “Mbeu Yedu” denotes a sense of ownership and good farm workmanship. “Mbeu” is a word that transcends borders and cultures as its meaning can be easily understood in many dialects from south of the Sahara, for example Imbewu in Zulu and Mbegu in Swahili. The importance of Seed in Agriculture can not be overstated, that is why when you talk about Mbeu anywhere in this region, you are talking the people’s language.

In 2019, Chainda Mudenge traversed the plains of Masvingo at the peak of drought that year. Low rainfalls had been experienced nationwide leaving the generally luscious vast farming landscapes bare and arid. The effects of the drought were glaring, loss of livestock, low yields and shortage of seeds. Yet in the face of it all, it was the competitiveness of the smallholder farmers and their zeal to still come out winners that stood out as they believed that as long as they could find seed, then there was always hope.

It was at that moment that Chainda realised more could be done to complement the smallholder farmers’ resilience capacity to mitigate the effects of climate change. In his quest for solutions and answers, Chainda learned about a game-changing phenomenon at that time, and it was the Community Seed Banks (CSBs), that were being ingeniously and strategically established in a number of Rural Districts of Zimbabwe. Inspired by what the CSBs were doing for their communities, Mbeu Yedu was birthed.

With food and nutrition security adaptation being at the very heart of CSBs, Mbeu Yedu has developed mobile financial technologies that complement CSBs in ways that are designed to enhance the inclusion of smallholder farmers’ agricultural producers in market dynamics. Mbeu Yedu innovations include digital CSB services dispensation, agronomic information access, linkages to markets, mobile commerce, agricultural commodities tokenization with DeFi protocols, and a plethora of AgriVAS.