WINDHOEK – What started some 16 years ago as a small-scale project with the humble Hoodia plant could by early next year blossom into an international export industry, providing jobs for hundreds of unemployed residents of the sleepy hollow of Hoachanas, and establish Namibia as a vital supplier of medicinal and cosmetic products made from indigenous plants.
Spearheading this ambitious project with the assistance of the University of Namibia’s Science Department and the marketing skills of a close friend, is Molly Kaderi of Farm Vredelus in the Hardap Region. Kaderi has also brought on board a pharmaceutical research giant from Germany to ensure the unique Namibian products hit the international market by 2015.
When Kaderi and her partner John Bassinghwaithe arrived at Vredelus in 1995, they were fascinated to learn that the San and Nama (Khoi) people have been using the Hoodia (known as !Khoba by the Nama people) and other plants on their long hunter-gathering trips for various purposes, amongst which are their medicinal qualities and appetite and thirst supressing properties.
Witnessing the struggle of cattle and sheep farmers in that harsh, arid area, she started experimenting with plants as she realised the plants can easily survive in the Kalahari on the huge underwater reservoirs and hence are not dependent on rain.
“In fact, these plants don’t like water. They thrive in stressful conditions, yet some of them have proven to be excellent stress relievers and are in high demand in America and Europe – our main export markets,” Kaderi tells New Era.
She says she has also witnessed the degradation of the Hoachanas community of some 3 000 people of which 99 percent are unemployed. “I am surrounded by nine resettlement farms on which owners struggle to keep their heads above water with livestock farming in extreme conditions, and the poverty in Hoachanas is just unbearable where alcohol rules amongst the men and husbands, and women and wives suffer in silence,” she says.
“I and my marketing partner, Susanne Hoff, want to turn this around by providing jobs and a steady and reliable income for these people. The plants are there, we will train the people to grow them, and we have established the export business over the years. We will buy their harvests and provide them with a decent life in this forgotten area,” Kaderi says.
“It is now time to go big and change the face of the Kalahari landscape for ever,” she says with the same confidence that has seen her achieving remarkable things in the community.
“You only need a fraction of the space to get the same income as from cattle in that area. Hence, it would be the ideal crop for all resettlement farmers in the area, so that they can make a livelihood from the allocated piece of land, which is arguably too small for livestock farming,” she notes.
Starting with Hoodia and being the chairman of the Hoodia Planters Association, Kaderi has been producing and exporting various products from her medicinal plants, which are all indigenous to Southern Africa.
The two-women team are in the process of starting a venture with the University of Namibia, which will conduct test planting and carry out various chemical tests on the plants to underpin their medicinal qualities.
“This is just the start of much bigger things. It is our aim and vision to start a whole industry with this. With the assistance of a German company, we also have had some plant material tested and in about a year from now we will hopefully have the first cosmetic series based on this plant in the market.
“We don’t need rainwater, we don’t need irrigation, we need some local funding to supply the infrastructure of the new producing facilities. We need willing and able people and we need wheelbarrows and shovels. We will supply the seeds and the income. It’s as simple as that,” Kaderi says.
Farm Vredelus specialises in medicinal plants, which are grown without the use of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in their natural environment. Vredelus is a fully certified exporter by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and is registered with the US’s Food and Drug Administration.