Maize

Maize meal makes nshima – the stiff porridge Zambians eat almost every day; maize is the country’s most important crop.

Maize is an annual grass reaching 2–3 m, with a thick, solid stem and long, broad leaves. Tassels of male flowers grow at the top of the plant, and in the leaf axils grow cobs of female flowers wrapped in husks, from which long silks protrude. After wind pollination, rows of kernels develop on the cobs. The plant comes from Mexico, where it was domesticated several thousand years ago from a wild grass, teosinte, and today it is one of the world’s most important cereals.

Significance in the country

Maize is Zambia’s staple crop, and its prices and harvests are a political issue – the state Food Reserve Agency buys up grain and keeps stocks in case of drought. Nshima made from white maize meal (mealie meal) is eaten with the hands, with vegetables, fish, meat or beans.

Where it grows

Grown throughout the country, above all on the plateaus of the Eastern, Central, Southern, Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces – by smallholders as well as on large farms.

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