Kakamega growers capture market with rare herbal plant

By Alice Muriranja

Kakamega,Kenya:A noble idea to get residents living around the endangered Kakamega forest into domesticating some plants with medicinal value has finally paid off, 12 years later.

More than 2,000 farmers are now in the practice from an initial 18. This has seen an annual increase in household income of Sh30,000 and expansion into regional market where the herb is enjoying impressive uptake.

The forest is home to endangered birds and trees including the last remnant of the ancient Guineo- Congolian rainforest that once spanned the continent. The communities have traditionally relied on the forest for their livelihoods through logging and grazing. With acute unemployment and poor soil, they drew their income from sale of timber, until the Government’s directive banning logging from Kenyan forests. Mondia whitei, locally known locally as Mkombela,  is a perennial, woody, rather robust and vigorous climber that grows from a large tuberous rootstock. The roots are aromatic and taste like ginger or liquorice and have an aroma reminding one of vanilla.

But an idea to transfer the indigenous medicinal herb of the mint family from the forests to the homes has now given over 2000 households sustainable income.  It has also cut the strain from the forest that has borne the brunt of illegal logging for years. Farmers who operate under the local farmers group The Muliru Farmers Conservation Group were advised by scientists from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe), and Kenya Forestry Research Institute (Kefri) to commercialise and add value to the medicinal herb.

They had traditionally used it to cure coughs, colds, snake and spider bites.  “We found that the major constituent of this plant is a compound called camphor. Camphor has been shown scientifically to be having medicinal properties. Mainly it relieves pain and also it is an anti-microbial - it kills germs.  Camphor has been used in various medicinal preparations such as Vicks, Robb, Deep Heat, but they use synthetic camphor,” said Wilber Lwande, a lead scientist from Icipe working with the farmers  on Mondia whitei. “So we thought that this was a good source of medicinal product which would actually be of natural origin.” With funding, the group has managed to put up a processing plant they now use to process aroma therapeutic balm and ointment dubbed Naturab. The community harvests the plant by cutting the stems of the plants at the base as well as pluck the leaves from the stems.

 The leaves are then transported to the processing facility. Farmers are paid Sh10 per kilo for the wet leaves, which are then dried for processing. Over 770 tonnes of on-farm cultivated plant have been supplied by the community.  In Rwanda for example, they sell over two million units every month “Natural products have been used and are well-known in the marketplace as natural products but they have always been consumed in their raw form. Our role as Icipe has been to add value to these natural products,” said Frederick Nduguli, a marketing consultant with Icipe. On average, a farmer makes Sh35,000-Sh40,000 cultivating the plant on a small plot, ranging from an eighth of an acre to half an acre.                                                                                         —FarmBiz Africa