They Farm with Nature. They Just Don’t Call It “Organic.”
From the communal lands of Zimbabwe to the drylands of Namibia, from the highlands of Lesotho to the floodplains of Malawi and the small plots of Eastern Zambia, millions of smallholder farmers are practising organic agriculture every day.
- They save seeds from last season’s harvest.
- They feed their crops with manure from goats, cattle, and chickens.
- They intercrop maize with beans and pumpkins.
- They use neem leaves, chilli, or ash to keep pests away.
- They mulch with crop residues to hold moisture in the soil.
By global standards, they are organic.
Yet few people ever use that word, and because of that, these individuals are excluded from policies, markets, training programs and climate finance that could strengthen their impact.
This not an individual country’s story, it is a Southern African reality. It is largely invisible in official statistics but essential to food security, climate resilience and rural livelihoods across the region.
The “Organic Gap” Is Holding Back a Regional Food Revolution
Organic farming is already widespread in Southern Africa, but certification is not.
Take Zambia:
- Only 5,479 hectares are certified organic.
- But an estimated 5.9 million hectares are farmed using organic practices, by choice or necessity.
This pattern repeats across the region:
- In Malawi, over 70% of smallholders rely on saved seeds and compost but receive no support for transitioning to formal organic systems.
- In Zimbabwe, agroecological practices like pfumvudza (conservation agriculture) blend traditional knowledge with modern science yet are rarely labelled or valued as “organic.”
- In Namibia, communal farmers manage rangelands sustainably for generations but lack access to verification systems that could connect them to premium markets.
- In South Africa, emerging black farmers often practice low-input, biodiversity-rich farming but are excluded from organic value chains dominated by large commercial estates.
Why?
Because organic agriculture has been framed as a certification-driven, export-oriented model, not as a people-centred, climate-resilient way of life that millions already live.
The result?
- Farmers miss out on fair prices and market access.
- Governments overlook proven, low-cost solutions in national agricultural plans.
- Donor’s fund imported technologies while ignoring indigenous innovation.
- Climate adaptation programs bypass the very farmers who are already building resilience.
While Southern Africa spends billions on chemical subsidies (like Zambia’s FISP or Malawi’s AIP), it ignores the 5.9 million+ hectares already farmed without synthetic inputs, saving money, protecting soil and feeding families.
Solution:
Recognise, Validate, and Scale What’s Already Working
The good news
Southern Africa does not need to import a new farming system. The foundation is already here in the hands of women farmers, elders, youth groups and community seed savers.
What we need is a regional shift in mindset and policy.
1. Reframe Organic as “Farming with Wisdom”
Stop treating organic as a Western label. Instead, celebrate it as African knowledge meeting ecological science. Use local terms: clean farming, farming with nature, ancestral methods. This builds pride, inclusion and cultural relevance.
2. Replace Costly Certification with Community-Led Assurance
Most smallholders can noy afford $1,000+ audits but can participate in Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) peer-to-peer verification models already piloted by KHSA partners in Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.
As the PELUM Zambia Policy Brief 2021 states:
“Alternative organic assurance systems such as participatory guarantee systems should be given encouragement and capacity support”.
PGS is low-cost, transparent and empowering, perfect for communal and small-scale systems across Southern Africa.
3. Integrate Organic & Agroecological Practices into National Policies
From the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy to national agriculture transformation plans, governments must:
- Count uncertified organic land in official statistics,
- Train extension officers in agroecological methods,
- Redirect even 10% of input subsidies toward composting, seed banks and bio-pesticides.
4. Build Regional Markets That Reward Sustainable Farmers
Why should only export crops be “organic”?
- Include organic produce in school feeding programs (like Namibia’s or South Africa’s).
- Create Southern African organic labels for domestic and intra-regional trade.
- Support farmer cooperatives to process and brand products like baobab powder, moringa, honey and groundnut butter already listed in Zambia’s organic product portfolio.
5. Amplify Farmer Voices in Regional Dialogues
Through platforms like the Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Southern Africa (KHSA) in collaboration with its partners including PELUM Zambia, Namibia Nature Foundation, SAOSO, KATC, SFHC, Kusamala and other farmers, policies affecting them can be shaped.
The Organic Future Is Already Here Across Southern Africa
We do not need to wait for a miracle crop or a foreign technology to fix our food systems.
The solution is already growing in backyard gardens, in communal fields, in dryland plots and in the minds of farmers who have never heard the word “organic” but live its principles every day.
It is time we see them, name them, support them and scale with them because in Southern Africa, organic farming is not coming, it is already here and feeding the future.
Join the Southern African Organic Movement
This transformation starts with awareness and action.
Download the policy brief on Sustaining our Food System with Organic Farming by PELUM Zambia from the link below for more details.
Author: Rabecca Mwila
Rabecca Mwila is a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship. With a background in climate change and communications, she has spent years telling the untold stories of the realities of climate change, environmental and climate injustices and how they affect vulnerable communities in Africa and beyond.
