An indigenous farming community in South Africa applies agro-ecological practices to produce rooibos tea from the Aspalathus linearis plant in an environmentally sustainable way. The community formed a cooperative to promote and export their organic rooibos. Through participatory research with scientists, farmers documented traditional ecological knowledge and identified ways to increase the resilience of wild rooibos populations and their farming systems under climate change. These efforts help sustain livelihoods while caring for the local biodiversity.

1. Sustaining livelihoods, caring for the
planet: An agro-ecological approach
to rooibos production
Contribution to the Special Session
“Agroecology as a powerful tool for the
development of drylands”
Noel Oettle
Environmental Monitoring Group, South Africa

2. At the northern
extremity of the Cape
Floristic Region, in the
arid west of South
Africa an isolated
farming community
descended from the
‘first people’ applies
agro-ecological
approaches in
producing a tea from
indigenous Aspalathus
linearis, or rooibos

3. Woman farmer Tempes Fortuin with a
sheaf of her freshly harvested rooibos

4. Small-scale farmers of the Suid Bokkeveld joined
together in 2001 to form a co-operative that promotes
and exports their product as an ecologically-sound
product made in the traditional manner

5. Processing the green rooibos on the tea court: natural
enzymes transform the tea from green to red before it is dried

6. Spreading out the transformed rooibos to dry in the sun

7. Developing market-linked ecological
agriculture
• Identification with nature and tradition pre-disposed
these farmers to ecological approaches
• Market incentives for organic products via the Fair
Trade market promoted ecological agriculture
• Certification, knowledge sharing and education
enhanced the understanding of ecological processes
in rooibos production

8. Promoting Heiveld Rooibos Tea at the BioFach
Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany

9. Social context: marginalised people who have experienced
multiple poverties since colonialism dispossessed their
forebears of land (land access is still severely limited for
people of indigenous descent)
Environmental context: richly biodiverse ecosystem whose
plant riches etc. are being depleted by modern, mono-cultural
agriculture

10. Biologically diverse and well-adapted endemic wild
rooibos has increasingly been replaced by plantations

11. Within a Participatory Action Research
context, farmers answered their research
questions with scientists:
• Can we verify that wild rooibos is more
resilient to drought and climate variability?
• How can we use the wild resource sustainably
and profitably?
• What can we do to increase the resilience of
our farming systems that produce cultivated
rooibos?

12. Following 3
years of
research on
management of
wild rooibos, the
outcomes of the
research were
condensed into
a farmers’
handbook

13. Heiveld members harvest their wild rooibos in accordance with
scientifically verified practices based on pre-existing local knowledge

14. Burning trial plots in old veld in autumn 2009

15. Wild rooibos seedlings emerge after the first winter rains

16. A mature wild rooibos plant re-sprouts after the fire: these plants
are far longer-lived than cultivated rooibos (>50 years vs. <5 years)

17. Surveys of species and plant cover are conducted annually
Blomfontein Burn Control Burn Control Limeum africanum *
Plot A (sw) Plot B (nw) Plot C (ne) Plot D (se) Lobostemon argenteus * * * * *
Species Apr 2009 2010 2011 Apr 2009 2010 2011 Apr 2009 2010 2011 Apr 2009 2010 2011 Lobostemon echioides * * *
Macrostylis squarrosa 1 * 1 1 1 1 * * * *
Adenogramma glomerata * * * * 1 * * * * * * *
Metalasia densa 1 * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Aizoon sarmentosum * * * * *
Metalasia fastigiata * * * *
Albuca cooperi *
Moraea fugacissima * * *
Anthospermum spathulatum * * * 1 * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Moraea cookii * * * *
Arctotis cf. bellidifolius * * * *
Moraea fugax * *
Aristea dichotoma * * * * * * * * * * *
Nemesia anisocarpa * * * * * * * *
Aspalathus linearis * 2 2 * 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1
* * * * Oxalis flava * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Athanasia cf leptocephala
Babiana engysiphon * * * * * * * * * * * Oxalis luteola * * * * * * * *
Babiana mucronata * * Oxalis obtusa * * * * * * * * * * * *
Centella tridentata * * * * Pelargonium coronopifolium * * * * *
Chlorophytum undulatum * * * * * * * * * * * Pelargonium longifolium * * * * *
Pelargonium scabrum * *
Chlorophytum viscosum * * * * * * * * * * * *
1 * * * * * * * * * * Pelargonium triste 1 1 * *
Chrysocoma ciliata
1 * * * 2 * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 Pentaschistis curvifolia * * * * * * *
Cliffortia teretifolia
Cotula nudicaulis * * * * * * * * Pentaschistis patula 2 2 2 1 * 2 2 1 * * * * * * * *
Crassula fascicularis * * * * * * * * Phylica rigidifolia 1 * * *
Crassula filiformis * * * * * * * Polpoda stipulacea * *
Cyphia dentata * * * * * * * Polycarena batteniana * * * * *
Diascia elongata * * * * Rafnia cf alata * 1 1 * 1 1
Dimorpotheca tragus * * * 1 * * * Rhus dissecta * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chenopodiopsis hirta * * * * * * Ruschia dichroa * * * * * *
Disperis circumflexa * * * * Ruschiella lunulata 1 * * * 1 * * 1 1 1 1 * * * *
Ehrharta thunbergii 1 2 1 1 * 1 1 1 1 1 1 Senecio sp * * * * * * * * *
Erica rigidula * * * Stoebe fusca 1 * * * 1 * 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2
Euclea lancea * * * * * Struthiola leptantha * * * *
Euphorbia tuberosa * * * * * * * * * Tetragonia hirsuta * * * * * *
Felicia dubia * * * * * * Tetraria cf. picta * * * * *
Ficinia bulbosa 1 1 * * Thamnochortus platypteris 2 * 1 2 2 3 3 * * 1 1
Ficinia indica * * * 1 * Trachyandra cf. falcata * * * * * *
Ficinia laevis * * * * * * * * * * * *
Trachyandra divaricata
Gladiolus alatus * * * * * * * * *
Trachyandra gracilenta
Gladiolus caryophyllaceus * *
Ursinia anthemoides * * * * * *
Helichrysum micropoides * * * * *
Ursinia sp (perennial) * *
Helichrysum moeserianum * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Wachendorfia multiflora * * * * *
Heliophila sp * * * * * * * * * *
Wahlenbergia sp nov (sp 3) * * * * * * *
Hermannia scabra * * * *
Wahlenbergia tenella * * * *
Hesperantha paucifolia * * *
Willdenowia glomerata 2 * 1 * * * * * * 2 2 3 3
Ischyrolepis gaudichaudianus 1 * * 1 1 1 1 * * * * Cannomois parviflora *
Ischyrolepis monanthos 3 * * * * 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 Microdon dubius *
Isolepis marginata * * * * * * * Zygophyllum pygmaea *
Lachenalia elegans * Schizodium flexuosum *
Lampranthus pakhuisensis * * * * * Ornithogalum cf thyrsoides * *
Leucadendron pubescens 1 * * * * * * * * * Pharnaceum cf lineare *
Leucadendron sheilae 1 1 dead Gymnodiscus capillaris *

18. Zygophyllum pygmaea
Microdon dubius
Pelargonium longifolium
Species previously
unrecorded on the
site subsequently
emerged

19. Long term monitoring of the fire trials provides
the basis for management decision-making

20. Farmer innovation in rooibos
cultivation and SLM
• Traditional practices have been enhanced by
knowledge exchange and practical
experimentation
• Combinations of direct seedling, sowing nurse
crops of cereals, retaining organic material
and establishing buffer strips have enhanced
production despite low and variable rainfall
(100 – 250 mm per annum)

22. Participatory scientific research
demonstrated that solitary bees
and wasps provide pollination
services to rooibos plants (and
wasps also control pests)
These insects
require specific
undisturbed
habitats (old
wood, wetlands,
etc)

23. Shelter belts of natural vegetation maintain biodiversity in cultivated areas,
controlling soil erosion and providing habitat for pollinators and predators

24. Keeping an eye out
for rodents: natural
control of problem
animals

25. Simple but effective
technology provides a perch
for the owls, and their scat
provides the evidence of their
contribution to controlling
rodent numbers

26. In conclusion …….
• The socio-cultural heritage of the farmers
predisposes them to agro-ecological agriculture
• The Co-operative has been a vehicle for
enhancing sustainable production practices via
market-facing incentives and capacity
development
• Participatory scientific research has verified and
enhanced traditional agro-ecological practices
• People’s identity, self-sufficiency, livelihoods and
sense of self-worth have all been enhanced

27. Thank you!!