Mpondo Landrace and its Heritage

Mpondo Landrace . . . From the coastal area we moved to the deep inland of Mpondoland. Valley of Mzintlava river in the area around the border of the Ntabankulu and Flagstaff municipalities. Area of the Mpondo landrace.

Rural area of hundreds of valleys, green rocky mountains crossed by the Mzintlava river. The place where the landrace Cannabis is farmed for generations by local people. The same people who have been heavily oppressed in the past, when their fields and homesteads were systematically sprayed with herbicides by police to dismiss their farming activities. Even these days, almost four years after  SA Cannabis decriminalization, these farmers are still subject to illegal activities. Non-licensed cultivation is an issue for the government. Yet, it is a large part of income for whole communities, as well as their traditional way of living.

Once we got into the valley, we could set eyes on hundreds of various-scale fields carved from foothills down to the river banks. Some fields are just sown, some ready to be harvested. All stages of Cannabis morphological development can be seen in one place. Narrow leaves landrace with short internodal stretch and good branching tendencies carry small flowers with strong pine and diesel scent.

The phenotypic variability of the plants is quite high, but some of the more dominant phenotypes can be observed and differ over locations, as the plant’s performance is changing slightly due to different agri and environmental conditions.

The centuries of natural selection alongside the farmer’s selective pressure play a big role in creation of a landrace perfectly adapted to the given geographical conditions.

Even though various degrees of uniformity are observable for some of the morphological traits, we have to assume the genetic diversity of the Pondo-ladrace to be very high to be able to facilitate further evolutional development.

It is of the highest importance to preserve and protect the landrace strains not only to maintain genetic biodiversity but also their cultural and economic values for rural farmers all over the world.

We are ready with a little support from some of Mpondo farmers to keep their fields genetically intact and preserve their landrace variety for future generations.