Fare share — Wild Coast fruit guide tackles rural food insecurity and biodiversity

Prof Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, Institute for Natural Resources Director. (Photo: Supplied)

9 Mar 2025

The quest for food and nutrition security in southern Africa is slowly prising open the trove of overlooked and undervalued indigenous plants as viable sources of sustenance. More than 5,000 species with food and herbal medicinal properties have been identified as neglected and underutilised crop species in an ambitious push for sustainable food systems and biodiversity conservation. Now, research on traditional crops such as sorghum, amaranth and cowpeas is being complemented by an interdisciplinary project at the Institute of Natural Resources that picks the low-hanging fruit of the wild, literally.

This story has been updated post-publication to correct earlier inaccuracies and to acknowledge the various organisations involved - Ed.

A hands-on guide to promote the cultivation and domestication of plants that offer nutritional, health and utilitarian beneficiation in Pondoland, along the Wild Coast, struck an immediate chord with Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, director of the Institute for Natural Resources (INR).

Not only would the initiative bring home a food security intervention to a rural community, but the project would also help address the tricky collateral of biodiversity.

“There’s growing urgency to incorporate the imperatives of biodiversity and climate change into the food and health policy discourse,” said Mabhaudhi, who was speaking in his individual capacity and not on behalf of all the implementing partners and funders.

“The interdependencies of food and water security, biodiversity loss, human and environmental health and climate change demand an integrated approach, both at policy and implementation level.”

The maelstrom of cascading interests is deeply familiar territory to Mabhaudhi. As a professor of climate change, food systems and health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and leader of the Water-Energy-Food-Environment Nexus at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Mabhaudhi leverages linkages and collaborations in the quest for sustainable solutions at global and community levels.

To this end, the INR in Pietermaritzburg is well-placed to lead projects that require local knowledge and vernacular research, and connects science, policy and society, as in the case of the edible wild fruit guide.

food nutrition The pork bush, also fodder for livestock and a popular beekeeping plant, is a magnet for other pollinators and is heavily browsed by game, elephants and tortoises. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Mabhaudhi said the work forms part of the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems for Southern Africa programme, which is led by the University of KwaZulu-Natal and also implemented in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Read more: Transforming food systems: how a flexitarian diet can combat climate change and boost health

“Our role at the INR is to work closely with community partners to co-create solutions that promote the wise use of agrobiodiversity in pursuit of sustainability for the good of the environment and society,” he said.

The Pondoland focus brings home the message that Mabhaudhi is most concerned about: the project’s ability to physically put down roots.

“It’s an ambitious objective, to promote plants in the wild for purposes other than utilitarian applications. The first step is a guide that visually identifies trees and shrubs, rates their suitability and propagation guidelines.”

The guide is in an A5 ringbound format, each page – front and back – dedicated to the 32 trees and shrubs that met the qualifying criteria which include being indigenous and occurring in local biomes.

The catalogue is part of a GEF-funded project, implemented jointly by INR, Sustaining the Wild Coast, and Siyazisiza Trust.

Plants are evaluated on their food and medicine value, functional applications and contribution to the ecosystem. It’s not a score sheet, but rather a compendium of potentially beneficial plant sources, some familiar, others obscure, and a few surprises.

Some of the plants pack a nutritional punch on par with commercial crops. For example, the fruit of wild medlar (Vangueria infausta), Transvaal red milkwood (Mimusops zeyheri) and Natal milk plum (Englerophytum natalense) all contain as much vitamin C as an orange.

Some plants on the list are already known for their tasty fruit. The kei apple (Dovyalis caffra), Natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa), wild plum (Harpephyllum caffrum) and even the Cape fig (Ficus sur) all feature.

The reputed medicinal properties of other plants won them the cut. The misty mauve sprays of the ginger bush (Tetradenia riparia) do more than brighten up a dull winterscape and offer nectar to insects when other plants don’t, it also features in a host of potions to treat respiratory problems, coughs, stomach ache, diarrhoea, dropsy, fever, malaria and dengue fever, yaws, headache and toothache.

The similarly versatile pork bush (Portulacaria afra) appeals to humans, mammals, birds and insects for several reasons. The crushed leaves sooth skin ailments, insect stings, blisters and corns, while the juice quenches a parched throat, soothes sunburn and treats dehydration and heat stroke.

The pork bush, also fodder for livestock and a popular beekeeping plant, is a magnet for other pollinators and is heavily browsed by game, elephants and tortoises.

Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi. (Photo: Supplied)

Arguably the greatest ecological value is its hardiness, drought resistance and adaptability to any condition, especially in rehabilitating degraded land.

Ongoing research on the pork bush’s ability to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere highlights another, as yet unrealised, opportunity to propagate the plant en masse, especially in the benign Pondoland climate.

For now, Mabhaudhi’s focus is on popularising familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, plants to communities in the Amadiba area and beyond. Showcasing the benefits and uses of these trees in a robust hands-on guide represents the first tentative step forward, he said.

“By encouraging the cultivation of indigenous plants, we’re hoping to improve the quality of people’s lives and celebrate their heritage without detracting from the region’s unique ecosystems and ecological significance. We will do this working in partnership with communities, academia and government.” DM

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