Care and Cultivation - continued

The plants are grown in non-vegetated strips, where they benefit from the lack of competition from other plants and an increased water supply. Due to these conditions, cultivated plants grow far more water-storage tubers than those in the wild, although both types of tuber yield just as effective ingredients.

Harvesting Devil's Claw is hard work. The secondary water-storage tubers grow deep in the desert and must be dug out extremely carefully to avoid damaging the primary tuber, which can be replanted.

On our farm the seed pods are broken open to gain access to the seeds. Not an easy job! Cultivated pods yield more seeds than those in the wild, but even then only 1 in 100 will germinate. These are transported to the farm.

Another benefit of cultivating in cleared strips is that the Devil�s Claw plants cannot be confused for anything else: there are many similar tubers in South Africa.

We are keen to ensure that the local children learn about their indigenous plants and their history, so the company and the scientists have initiated projects in local schools, where they teach the children how to grow the plants.

Bioforce/A.Vogel is also sponsoring a local family to enable them to start another Devil's Claw farm. This involves supporting them for at least the first four years as only then can the first crop of Devil's Claw can be harvested.

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