Devil’s claw tuber diggers plead for fair payment

 Victor Sibanda

HWANGE- In a bid to overcome food insecurity in drought-prone Jambezi, villagers are making a living by digging and selling ‘Inkunzane’ tubers  to local buyers amid threats to the environment and allegations of meagre  payment for the product by buyers, Community Podium can reveal. 

Inkunzane or chimanangombe (Nambya language) is known as harpagophytum procumbent scientifically and is commonly known as devil’s claw. It is a native species in most parts of southern Africa. The plant bears a lot of hook like projection fruits and the tubers of the plant have various medicinal functions when processed such as  the treatment of fever, pain, arthritis,among other ailments.

 The buyers resell the tubers to foreign countries where they are processed into formal medical drugs.

Residents said that they embarked on digging Inkunzane tubers due to food insecurity in the entire Jambezi area as the area  predominantly falls under Natural Region 5 in which rainfall patterns are erratic and the region is prone to poor agricultural produce. Problem animals such as elephants also terrorise villagers by destroying their crops.

” Hunger has forced us to dash into forests looking for Inkunzane. Both males and females spend hours in forests looking for the tubers. We sell the tubers but the buyers are not  paying us well. Currently the buyers are buying   2 kilograms of the tubers at 40c, which is too low and is not commensurate with the labour involved in extracting the tubers underground. I implore the buyers to up their buying price,” said one seller Mr Godfrey Mathe at Maphucula Business  Centre who had two 50kgs  of tubers waiting for collection by buyers. 

Mr Mathe went on to say that to extract the tuber, one has to dig two or more metres deep.

 ” I dig two or more metres deep to get to the tubers and and a further one metre on the sides to trace lateral roots for more tubers. The exercise is taxing hence our call for an increase in the cost per kilogram,” added Mathe.

The plant is not easy to access as it is slowly getting depleted in the Jambezi forests due to massive harvests since the extraction process involves destroying the entire plant. 

” We travel long distances looking for the tubers. Inkunzane is now scarce because most of us are now involved in the extraction. It is our ‘gold’ in these paths. We  dig and extract tubers and at times a single shrub can yield about 20kg of tubers. We do not entirely destroy the plant because we leave the tape root for revegetation although the plant may take  time to regenerate. In a way we are conserving the environment,” said Zondiwe Ngwenya a resident of B.H. 83 in Jambezi.  She added that tuber extraction is cumbersome hence her plea to buyers to revise their payments.

Pride Ncube an environmentalist with a non-governmental organization in Victoria Falls called on those digging up Inkunzane tubers to exercise restraint and not  to completely destroy the plants as this may result in species extinction. 

“I know that they are eking out a decent living but they should conserve the plants. If they are not uprooting the plant completely they are doing well to allow  the shrubs to regenerate. Others dig out the tubers and leave open pits in the forests and this results in land degradation. Conservation of our ecosystem is vital,” said Ncube.

Community Podium  contacted  a Mr Munanayile , one of the buyers of the tubers but he said he was out of Victoria Falls and will contact this reporter in two weeks time when he comes back. Questions which were sent to him on his mobile phone were not answered by the time of going to press.

 According to the villagers, buyers allegedly pay tuber diggers paltry amounts yet they profiteer by selling the produce to companies in foreign lands. Residents said that the  tubers from Jambezi area are taken to Indlovu Shopping Centre where they are prepared for resale.

Meanwhile, Headman Mr Simon Mazhanga pleaded with villagers to desist from invading other people’s fields to dig up the plant without permission. He said some tuber diggers leave behind a lot of deep pits in the fields. 

” I have tried a number of cases where some tuber diggers have been arraigned before this court  for harvesting Inkunzane from fellow villagers’ fields. It is imperative that the owner of a field is consulted to avoid conflicts.

 My subjects are making a living from the tubers to cushion themselves from food insecurity and a lack of jobs although they are complaining about low payments from buyers. Buyers need to increase payments because a lot of work goes into the digging and preparation of the plant,” said the traditional leader.