Farmers turn to drought-resistant wild rooibos

7 Feb 2012

The world has an ever-growing taste for South Africa's rooibos tea, mainly because of its perceived health benefits. Rooibos contains a wealth of minerals, such as zinc, copper, calcium, magnesium and potassium and its proponents say it can act as a digestive aid and an anti-viral.

This proved a rare lifeline for residents of the harsh Suid Bokkeveld region where it grows, BBC News Online reports. Poverty and unemployment are high in the region, making tea farming one of the few sustainable industries. This labour-intensive industry is providing about 4,500 jobs with a lot of work done by hand mainly by non- or semi-skilled workers. "I'm able to make my own money now and take care of my children. I don't have to worry about where my next plate of food will come from," says local worker Drieka Kortze, 50.

For the past seven years, Jan Fryer, 53, has been growing rooibos as small-scale farmer on a communal farm. Despite growing tea for more than 20 years, Fryer says the new climate rhythm has made him something of a novice in the field. "The temperatures are definitely getting hotter and because of this is it more difficult for the rooibos plant to grow," he says, adding that the soil becomes too hot and the root of the plant burns and dies making the seedlings wilt and die before they even get a chance to become proper plants. "We've had to change how we plant because of this." Rooibos has become increasingly difficult to work with in recent years and, as a result, the planting season has changed from June-July to November, says Fryer.

In 2003 the Rooibos farming community in the area was hit by a severe drought, which lasted three years. According to BBC News Online, more than half the cultivated rooibos was destroyed; it was the wild plants which helped sustain the industry. During the drought farmers had to learn to shift their focus from farming cultivated rooibos to wild rooibos, which proved more resilient to drought and changing conditions, says Noel Oettle of Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG), based in the Suid Bokkeveld's main town, Nieuwoudtville. Today environmentalists warn that a similar drought is on the cards in the next few years. They say the future of this herbal brew is squarely in the hands of the farmers.

Read the full article on www.bbc.co.uk.