Like in almost any society, Zimbabwe has some sex workers
Whole country started to see food shortage/a famine/third party takeover of farmland,
So prostitutes want to be paid directly in crops either because of a recent food scarcity development / because they’re… Starting their own farms! Yippee!
The way it’s phrased is that they added an additional payment method, not that people are turning to prostitution to eat.
Could just be that food is all the Johns have to pay with.
I imagine it’s as follows:
Maybe they’re radical anti-capitalists doing what they can to move their economy to a barter and trade system?