Farmers abandon traditional food crops for a herb that is a quick money maker, writes CHARLES WANYORO

Resident of a remote location in Imenti North District are shifting from maize and bean farming to a herb used in treatment of malaria. They are putting tens of acres under Artemisia annua, an aromatic herb of Asian origin which grows in temperate regions and now a major ingredient in the latest malaria medicine.

The farmers from Ruiri have formed a group of 120 members in a pilot project sponsored by the Kenya Agricultural Productivity Programme (Kapp), a non-governmental organization.

They set aside a quarter of an acre each where they plant the new crop. “Initially we were earning about Sh3.000 from the crop annually. Now the returns have gradually improved and we are making a net profit of about Sh20, 000 from the quarter acre plots”, says Mr. Cyrus Mbaya a local farmer who last season harvested 105 kilograms of Artemisia.

A kilo of ground Artemisia sells for Sh140 but the price can shoot up to Sh900.

We want to learn how to add value to go down since the farmer will producing their own seeds instead of buying from dealers. The 60-year old farmer says since they started growing plant, mosquitoes in the area have drastically reduced.

“We were constantly sick with malaria. But it seems the frequency goes down when the crop is flowering. I cannot explain why but I think the plant has plays a role”, says Mr. Mbaya.

According to health officials at the Meru General Hospital, Ruiri is one of the areas where highland malaria is severe.

The regional Red Cross coordinator in Meru, Mr Mugambi Gitonga says the area is among several other parts of the country that were prioritized in disbursing mosquito nets. Those who suffered most were pregnant mothers and small children. “The scent of flowering Artemisia always drives mosquitoes away,” Henry Kiambati, a Meru-based herbalist who also doubles as the program service provider told Horizons.

Artemisia or sweet wormwood has been used by the Chinese herbalists for more than a thousand years in the treatment of many illnesses, such as skin disease and malaria.

“The plant’s extracts are used to treat resistant malaria”, says Dr Kiambati. The plant, he says, is also reported to have anti-cancer properties and is said to have the ability to be selectively toxic to breast cancer cells and some form of prostate cancer.

Mr. Mbaya says the plant is less labour intensive and easy to maintain since it does not require any chemicals or any extra attention.

“We don’t spray the plant since we were told that it can alter the medicinal contents. We only apply manure”, the farmer says.

The Imenti farmers now join others in the Rift Valley who have been cultivating the plant for the last few years. The Rift Valley initiative was kicked off by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis who are a major global supplier of malaria drugs that contain the ingredient artemisinin – which is extracted from this herb.

Novartis has established a close partnership with Kenya-based East African Botanicals (EAB) to significantly increase agricultural cultivation of Artemisia annua and extraction of artemisinin. EAB is expanding the cultivation of Artemisia annua to more than 1,000 hectares in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Due to recent dramatic increase demand of malaria drugs containing artemisinin, future demand for these drugs in general is anticipated to rise to several hundred million treatments over the next few years.

In order to produce these quantities, immense volumes of raw material extracted from Artemisia annua are required.

It is not clear what impact the development of synthetic artemisinin, now being done by several multinationals, will have on the cultivation of this plant in Kenya.

Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) published guidelines on the cultivation of the plant. It warned that not all artemisinin meets the required standards to produce quality medicines, hence it called for urgency in promoting best practices in the cultivation and collection of the raw material used to make the malaria drug.

WHO says that not all Artemisia annua plants necessarily contain artemisinin and in some places, depending on the quality of the soil and rainfall, the content may be very low and without industrial value.

Cultivation of Artemisia annua requires a minimum of 6 months and extraction, processing and manufacturing of the final product depending on the product formulation.