Sukoluhle Ndebele tackles the challenge of massive post-harvest food waste in the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Through a low-cost process, combining traditional preservation methods and modern techniques, she saves perishable fruits and vegetables.
Traditional knowledge and modern techniques
Sukoluhle founded a small business that is now a growing brand called USIKO, loosely meaning “culture” in the local language. Her initiative blends traditional African preservation techniques, such as sun drying, with modern equipment and packaging.
Seasonal fruits, like mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and oranges are dried through this low-cost process, turning the shelf life of the dried fruit from days to months. This is especially beneficial during peak seasons when surplus would otherwise go to waste. In this way, the process significantly reduces wastage and carbon dioxide emissions from decomposition.
Sukoluhle is proud that her approach both celebrates local cultural heritage while delivering high-quality products that meet today’s standards. It also encourages others to help tackle the massive food waste at Bulawayo’s marketplaces.
“This brand came about through my participation in the Urban Futures-sponsored Green Skills training,” she said. “Given the pressing climate and food waste challenges, this project is an innovation to reduce this problem and the greenhouse emissions from decaying fruits and vegetables.”
Green and social innovation
Sukoluhle’s inspiring story of innovation and enterprise development earned her the 2025 Urban Futures Agriwomen Connect “Leading Woman in Value Addition and Processing” award.
Green businesses like USIKO also raise awareness so communities realize that food wasted is food lost. Lost effort, lost nutrition and of course, lost income. They are also a prime example of the social innovation and sense of enterprise among young people when given support to explore new ways to combat high youth unemployment in cities like Bulawayo.
