African Marmalade<\/a>, said the move marked a turning point for the indigenous and medicinal plant industry.<\/p>\n\u201cFormal recognition can attract much-needed investment, promote research to improve production and the storage and marketing of crops, encourage sustainable harvesting practices, improve market transparency, and help to develop new markets,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Sithole pointed out that unregulated harvesting is placing pressure on wild plant populations, threatening the survival of certain species. \u201cWith proper frameworks, we can ensure harvesting is done responsibly and that communities benefit equitably from the value chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Improving market access and standards<\/p>\n
Beyond conservation, the move could also improve market access and competitiveness by enabling the development of standardised quality controls and certification systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recognition of [indigenous and medicinal plants] might pave the way for their entry into the formal fresh produce market. Up until now, very few of these crops have made it to market, and those that have are often treated as inferior.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, morogo, sweet potato leaves, and cowpea leaves might simply be labelled as \u2018African leaves\u2019, whereas numerous distinctions are made for cabbages, lettuce, and other salad [greens],\u201d Sithole said.<\/p>\n
Market access should also be accompanied by good packaging and storage practices to protect product quality. \u201cSome of these crops need to be kept in cold storage to maintain quality, and some have a short shelf life. They need to be handled correctly to ensure a consistent, good standard,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Traceability, transparency, and production standards are also needed to ensure the products comply with food safety and environmental requirements, especially if they are sold onto the health market.<\/p>\n
Need for formal industry organisations<\/p>\n
Sithole said she hopes the recognition will promote knowledge sharing and stimulate more research into the production of these crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch into indigenous and medicinal crops is highly fragmented, and we often have to google production guidelines when we want to farm them. Unfortunately, very few of these resources are based on South African conditions, which leaves huge room for costly mistakes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The indigenous and medicinal plant industries also currently lack formal associations or organisations to represent their collective interests, although a few bodies exist for specific crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve become the go-to person when people talk about indigenous and medicinal crops. Having formal associations or organisations would help producers to better structure themselves, share knowledge, and present industry needs to government and the market,\u201d Sithole said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adding indigenous crops and medicinal plants to the list of declared agricultural products could formalise and unlock the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[163,85,46,482],"class_list":{"0":"post-134504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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