About Shiriki
The organisation behind the
work
Our foundation
Vision, mission and values
Vision
A resilient African food system where indigenous crops, ecological stewardship, and inclusive agripreneurship drive nutrition, livelihoods, and climate adaptation — from household to continent.
Mission
To catalyse sustainable agripreneurship ecosystems by convening stakeholders, piloting regenerative production and processing models, and enabling youth and women to participate meaningfully in value-added food systems.
Ecology first
Indigenous crops carry generations of ecological intelligence. We work with soil biology, not against it — building systems that restore rather than extract.
Mission
To catalyse sustainable agripreneurship ecosystems by convening stakeholders, piloting regenerative production and processing models, and enabling youth and women to participate meaningfully in value-added food systems.
Viability always
Good intentions do not sustain farming systems. Every Shiriki programme is designed to be financially viable for farmers, for partners, and for the organisation itself.
ABOUT SHIRIKI
Shiriki is an African social enterprise repositioning indigenous African food crops at the centre of climate-resilient agriculture and inclusive food value chains.
Operating from a farm in the Muldersdrift and Krugersdorp area of Gauteng, Shiriki works at the intersection of food systems, ecological restoration, and smallholder economic development. Through seed systems, cultivation, processing, market development, and knowledge-sharing, the organisation is building the infrastructure required to make indigenous crop production viable at commercial scale.
The name Shiriki is drawn from the Swahili word for collaboration with purpose. It reflects the organisation’s founding belief that Africa’s food system challenges can only be addressed through coordinated action between farmers, researchers, institutions, businesses, and communities.
THE CONTEXT
Africa has lost more than 90% of its cultivated crop varieties over the past century. This decline was driven not by climate limitations, but by policy and investment decisions that shifted attention away from indigenous food systems and toward a narrow range of non-native commodity crops.
The consequences remain visible today: food insecurity, declining dietary diversity, soil degradation, and the near-complete exclusion of indigenous crops from formal markets and agricultural support systems.
Yet many indigenous African crops remain exceptionally well suited to contemporary challenges. They are often more drought-tolerant, nutritionally dense, ecologically restorative, and culturally significant than the crops that replaced them.
The challenge is not the crops themselves. The challenge is the absence of the systems that support them — reliable seed supply, processing infrastructure, technical support, market access, and consumer awareness.
WHAT SHIRIKI DOES
Shiriki addresses these barriers by developing practical, commercially viable solutions across the indigenous food value chain. The organisation works to strengthen seed systems, support cultivation, develop processing capacity, create market opportunities, and reconnect consumers with nutrient-rich African crops.
By rebuilding the infrastructure surrounding indigenous foods, Shiriki aims to contribute to a more resilient agricultural future — one that supports livelihoods, restores ecosystems, and strengthens food security across African communities.