HERB BRINGS NEW HOPE
HERB BRINGS NEW HOPE
Filipinos tendency to suffer from coughs and other chest
infections has prompted an unusual type of diversification
among some of its farmers. Susie Emmett explains
STEP inside a health clinic anywhere in the Philippines and the chances are that many of the patients seek treatment for similar complaints. Chest infections, coughs and other respiratory problems are among the most common conditions seen by healthworkers.
But now the traditional herbal remedy for these ailments may prove just the right tonic for the ailing agricultural economy of an island in the far south of the country.
From the air, northern Palawan – a narrow forested island that stretches for 250 miles between the Sulu and the South China Sea – looks green and productive. But looks can be deceptive.
Most of the five hundred families who till the mountain slopes and flat land beside the sea lack even the simplest of tools to make working the land easier and are unable to afford inputs to improve yields. Average farm incomes have reached an all-time low, prompting a local development organisation to look for alternatives for this potentially productive area.
"The prices of most agricultural commodities are controlled by big business. This is what has reduced the value of rice and is why we wanted to find another source of cash that farmers in northern Palawan can depend on." says Lawrence Padilla, executive director of the Palawan Centre for Appropriate Technology (PCART ).
Not only must a new crop have a good value but it has to be easily transportable. "The farming communities of Roxas are 140km (90 miles) from the main market in the islands capital, Puerto Princessa," explains PCART agricultural officer Beatrice Dioso "so perishables like vegetables could already be rotten by the time they had got to the market".
But a solution has turned up right on the doorstep, so to speak. Walk between traditional bamboo village homes and it is not long before you come across a straggly delicately-leaved shrub known locally as lagundi (Vitex negundo).
Convenient remedy
An infusion to treat coughs is prepared from boiled lagundi leaves and a more convenient remedy is marketed throughout the Philippines in tablet form. Now proven scientifically to be an effective and safe treatment for a range of respiratory problems, sales of the tablets are pushing up demand for dried lagundi leaf.
Farmer Bonifacio Navaroza speedily snips his way around a lagundi shrub and the leafy branches fall straight into a large woven basket. He manages the first lagundi farm, established to test how much each bush can produce and to interest farmers in the surrounding area in growing it themselves.
One of the main attractions is that to establish a lagundi plantation there is no need to completely clear the land. Ring weeding around each young plant is all that is necessary until it is well established and the first cut of leaves can be just eight months after planting and then every 4-6 months.
"I like growing a plant that is made into medicine," says Navaroza "but the main advantage to me is that it is not like other crops where you have to plant every season. This, you plant once and then just keep harvesting for years."
Fresh-picked leaves are taken to a central sorting shed to reject any that are damaged or diseased and then tipped on to large metal trays. Nick Aldridge, a British volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas, has brought his skills as a herb farmer in southern England to help PCART develop a hot air drier which has reduced the drying time from 48 hours to just 16.
Green dust billows
In each of three chambers 30kg of fresh lagundi leaves lose 50% of their weight and are ready for milling. Lower down the valley, in the new purpose-built semi-processing plant, a cloud of green dust billows out from the hammer mill. This pounds the dried leaves to a fine powder ready for shipping to the pharmaceutical company in Manila that will press it into pills. In the corner the first order of 100kg is packed and ready to go.
But even in the first flush of success the project team is under no illusion that it will be able to rest on its laurels. Although the company it supplies has offered to buy all it can produce, PCART is well aware that it has only a narrow advantage on farmers on neighbouring islands who are also interested in growing lagundi.
"Thats why we are looking into the commercial cultivation and processing of 27 medicinal plants," Mr Padilla explains.