Bindura is fast becoming the face of Zimbabwe’s wheat revolution, as students and teachers take the lead in unlocking the hidden potential of the country’s bumper harvests.
At SOS Hermann Gmeiner High School, the TAAT-Wheat Value Addition Workshop kicked off this week, equipping learners, educators, and farmers with hands-on skills to transform wheat from a raw crop into profitable, nutritious products.
The three-day training, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Wheat Project under its Feed Africa Strategy, is being coordinated by the Directorate of Research, Education and Specialist Services (DRESS) in partnership with SOS Hermann Gmeiner High School.
For organisers, the programme represents a turning point in how communities will view wheat not just as grain, but as a gateway to new livelihoods.
Dr Dumisani Kutyawo, DRESS director said the program is aiming young people so that they are caught young as they will go into the world well equipped with knowledge needed to survive.
“Catch them young. If we teach students early about the potential of wheat and its value addition, they carry these lessons into their communities and future careers. Young people are not only the future they are already part of Zimbabwe’s agricultural transformation,” he said.
During the workshop, 30 students and 20 teachers are being trained to produce a variety of high-value wheat-based products including bread rolls, doughnuts, samoosas, fortified moringa buns, baobab cookies, and rosella muffins.
But it goes beyond baking, participants are also receiving lessons in branding and marketing to help them become entrepreneurs.For smallholder farmers, who make up the backbone of Zimbabwe’s agriculture, such initiatives are expected to have long-term impact.
Jairos Masawi, who is a CIB wheat breeder said, “Smallholder farmers own 96 percent of Zimbabwe’s arable land. By empowering youth and women through this project, we are changing lives, creating jobs and strengthening livelihoods.
Masawi also added that as Zimbabwe consolidates its food security gains, Bindura’s young innovators are proving that the next frontier lies not only in producing wheat, but in turning it into opportunities, businesses, and national pride.
One student expressed her gratitude about the program saying to blends so well with the education 5.0.
“We used to think agriculture was just theory. Now we see it as our future.”
