Poverty can be alleviated using science-based agricultural approaches. With symbiotic legumes, however, effective nodulation and higher levels of N2 fi xation are key to robust plant growth and increased yields. Unlike Honeybush tea, which is inoculated in nurseries, there is still no commercial inoculant for Rooibos tea. Thus, greater tea yields could be stimulated with a super inoculant Figure 3: Interactive effects of developed agri-technologies for community
empowerment via SMMEs
Local/Regional Economic Development Marketplace
Rooibos Tea Co. Ltd.
Honeybush Tea Growers Association Product development
and evaluation
■ Culinary
■ Flavouring
University as a technology station
Farmers
Stakeholders:
■ Small-scale farmers
■ Rural communities
■ Commercial farmers
■ Regional economy
■ Institutional technology stations
Extension
biological/engineering technologies
strain of Rhizobium. Research funding towards identifying a high N2-fi xing Rhizobium could potentially double Rooibos tea yields and create wealth for both commercial and emerging tea farmers.
Another constraint is the serious lack of funding for indigenous food crops, especially legumes. Strategic funding of research into ecologically-adapted indigenous food grain legumes (e.g. cowpea and Bambara groundnut), medicinal plants (e.g. Buchu) and other plant species with newly discovered commercial value (e.g. Hoodia gordonii) should be undertaken by Government in order to promote their commercialization by emerging farmers in rural communities.
There is also a strong absence of a central body (such as a National Bio- Intelligence Centre) for co-ordinating and monitoring the commercial utilization of indigenous fl ora and fauna as food, nutriceuticals, and medicines both nationally and internationally. The existence of such a body could reduce bio- piracy and bio-prospecting, while promoting benefi t-sharing of profi ts from bio- products from rural communities, the true owners of all indigenous knowledge and the fauna/fl ora.
Another challenge to the empowerment of emerging Black farmers and the elimination of poverty in rural communities is the lack of tangible material support provided by government and commercial farmers to small farmers, in terms of assisting them with management skills, fi nances, experience, and technical knowledge in the particular area of agri-business. There is therefore the need to identify, through a tender process, genuinely committed NGOs who would form NGO/Government Partnerships (with a 1:1 fi nancial commitment) in order to undertake and promote commercial production of “new” crops, and indigenous medicinal plant products (e.g. Buchu extracts) for sale in the market place using emerging farmers in the rural communities.
Government should also actively support initiatives such as Pick’n Pay’s Organic Freedom Project (OFP) which aims to boost the local production of organic foods, as well as increase the cultivation of organic crops for bio-fuels, and in so doing, massively create jobs in rural South Africa (Anon, 2007). To further create more jobs and alleviate poverty, Government should make funds available for the production of organic crops and medicinal plants in rural areas under the supervision of the Pick’n Pay OFP technical staff in order to ensure quality for guaranteed purchase of the produce by Pick’n Pay and Woolworths.
In so doing, skills will be transferred as a bonus to the rural farmers involved in these projects. Clearly, Government support of OFPs and Government funding of OFP-style production of organic foods by rural communities in South Africa, with a guaranteed market by the likes of Pick’n Pay and Woolworths, is a productive proactive and progressive route to poverty alleviation.
Furthermore, there is a lack of credible and functional agricultural credit facility for emerging farmers in rural South Africa. The granting of agricultural
FOCUS ON YIELD ISSUES FOR SMALL-SCALE FARMERS IN AFRICA
fi nance to emerging farmers through the Land Bank, for example, could lead to a doubling of agri-businesses, the creation of more jobs, and a reduction of poverty in rural South Africa.
REFERENCES
Anon (2007). Retailers enter battle for high ground in GM foods. Business Report 23/04/2007. In:Parker Review, Issue 146: 1-12.
Dakora FD, Lawlor DW and Sibuga KP (1999) Assessment of symbiotic nitrogen nutrition in Morama bean, (Tylosema esculentum L.) a tuber-producing, underutilized African legume. Symbiosis 27:269-277.
Dakora FD and Mvalo MG (2004) Exploring the biological potential of indigenous African legumes for developing agri-technology amd SMMEs to alleviate poverty in rural communities. In: Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation: Prospects for enhanced application in tropical agriculture (Ed; Serraj R.). New Delhi: Oxford and IBM Publishing, pp 261-265.
Hoodia-Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodia) 2007/06/11.
Morton JF. (1983). Rooibos tea, Aspalathus linearis, a caffeine-less, low-tannin beverage.
Economic Botany 37:164-173.
Petereit F, Kolodziej Hand Nahrstedt A. (1991). Flavan-3-ols and proanthocya.nidins from Citrus incunus. Phytochemistry 30:981-985.
Robak J and Gryglawski RJ. (1988). Flavonoids are scavengers of superoxide anions.
Biochemical Pharmacology 37:837.
Snykers Fa and Salemi G. (1974). Studies of South Africa medicinal plants. Part I.
Quercetin as the major in vitro active component of Rooibos tea. Journal of South African Chemical Institute 27:5-7.
Yoshikawa T, Naito Y, Oyamada H, Ueda 5, Tanigawa T, Takemura T, Sugino Sand Kondo M. (1990). Scavenging effects of Aspalathus linearis (Rooibos tea) on active oxygen species. In: Antioxidants in therapy and preventive medicine (ed; Emmerit I). New York: Plenum Press,pp171-174
Achieving some of the Potential of Achieving some of the Potential of
‘clean’ sweet potato in small-holder
‘clean’ sweet potato in small-holder farmers’ fi elds in Zimbabwe
farmers’ fi elds in Zimbabwe
Ian Robertson
Agri-Biotech and University of Zimbabwe