inBUSINESS Issue 15

HEALTH
Cancer Therapy In the
Sands of the Kgalagadi
Research into indigenous crops that have been used by BaSarwa and other inhabitants of Kgalagadi is
unveiling secrets of survival that inhere in the nutritional potency and medicinal properties of plants
that grow naturally in the deep sand beds of the desert, writes ARNOLD LETSHOLO
To a student of the history of
BaSarwa of the Kgalagadi Desert,
the fruit kgengwe is associated
with these ancient nomadic
people and has served them
well as a thirst-quencher. It is people like
BaSarwa, more than others, who know that
as human beings evolved with time, demand
for food plants grew, as did demand for
plants as sources of medicine.
The melon kgengwe and other indigenous
plants of the Kgalagadi were identified, many
of them for both purposes, in this process.
As research into this fruit shows, kgengwe
has the potential to be added to the growing
list of exports from this country that heaves
under a burdensome import bill made
up mainly of food stuffs. Understandably
propelled by the need for food security,
economic diversification and employment
creation, heightened research into more
indigenous plants is currently underway.
To that end, the Southern African Centre
for Climate Change and Adaptive Land
Management (SASSCAL) is one of several
organisations that are involved in this work.
SASSCAL has injected P2.7 million into
a four-year research programme titled
“Cultivation, Value Addition and Marketing
of Climate Smart Emerging Crops to
Improve Food Security in Botswana” and
has put together a team of researchers from
the Botswana University of Agriculture
and Natural Resources (BUAN) that has
identified kgengwe or Citrullus lunatus
for cultivation. Other plants that the team
is working on include morama (Tylosema
esculentum), mungongo (Schinziophyton
rautenenii) and mogose (Bauhinia
petersiana). The team leader is Dr Rosemary
Kobue-Lekalake, who is filled breaming with
optimism that the research will bear fruit.
This is what she told inBusiness at BUAN’s
Food Science Processing Laboratory that
is situated at Sebele just north of Gaborone
recently: “As agricultural production
intensified over the years, these indigenous
resources have experienced high levels
of exploitation due to land degradation,
deforestation, overgrazing and bush
encroachment. Research and development
regarding how to reverse the situation,
as well as look into domestication and
cultivation of indigenous plant species, is
limited.”
Several factors are to blame for this, among
them lack of policy on domestication,
cultivation and conservation of indigenous
plant species, as well as lack of knowledge
and information on the proper use of
components of plants. Dr. Kobue-Lekalake’s
team is made up of Ompelege Matenanga,
who is a food scientist and the project’s
research assistant; Kholwani Bagayi, an
MSc student at BUAN who tackles the
project’s pest issues; Thebeyame Makoyi, an
environmental scientist who is responsible
for the project’s maps and GIS issues; and
Goitsemodimo Makati, who looks after the
greenhouse and seedlings in it.
Said Makati: “A woman in Tlokweng has
expressed a burning desire to do business
with kgenwe. We encourage people to grow
their own crops for investment. My role
therefore is to keep stock
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www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 15 | 2017