Aloe, a traditional natural treatment for skin care and burns, is used by pharmaceutical groups throughout the world.

"Food doesn't grow well here, so we grow aloe to buy food," said Elizabeth Komen, who tends an aloe nursery in her backyard about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the equator. "This is its natural habitat."

The opening last month of Africa's first aloe-processing factory in Baringo district has introduced aloe farming as an alternative for cattle herders and maize farmers struggling to survive the effects of cyclical drought.

Just two weeks ago, the UN World Food Programme said it still needed 44 million dollars (35 million euros) of its 225-million-dollar drought emergency operation to assist three million people in northern Kenya.

"These are the poorest areas of the country," said Kavaka Watai, coordinator for aloe research at Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI). "And, because of drought, we're having high crop failure and livestock deaths."

Since 2004, KEFRI has been training people in Baringo, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northwest of Nairobi, on how to properly harvest the spiky green plant with spongy leaves and medicinal sap.

In the last year, the number of domesticated aloe plants in Baringo has tripled from 300,000 to 900,000, Watai said.

At full capacity, the new EU-funded factory can produce 50,000 tonnes of crude aloe gum for export. It will also manufacture a range of aloe-based products such as lotion, soap and shampoo.

The factory was funded by the European Union, which has been criticized by fair trade groups and aid agencies for ignoring development in Africa, most recently during trade talks in Kenya last month.

In a 2005 EU report, farmers in the northern districts of Kajiado and Samburu identified aloe as a better alternative to wheat and livestock because it can tolerate drought, requires little tending and has a ready market.

The report highlighted aloe's "immense value" to the cosmetic and drug industry and its potential to "provide an alternative livelihood, reduce poverty, create jobs, and also reduce illegal aloe trade".

Trade in wild aloe was banned in Kenya in 1978 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) because the plant was being over-exploited.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has developed trade policies which would lift the ban, but the CITES proscription is still largely ignored, Watai said.

An estimated 300 tonnes of aloe bitter gum are exported illegally out of the country each year, making Kenya the second-biggest exporter of aloe in Africa behind South Africa, where aloe exporting is legal.

And, as Kenya makes its official debut in the 80-billion-dollar (64-billion-euro) legitimate global aloe market, one of its neighbours may be following suit.

In November, Kenyan officials will travel to Uganda to advise President Yoweri Museveni on plans for an aloe processing factory in the northeast district of Karamoja.

Meanwhile, Kenyans are discovering by-products of their new cash crop.

The low drone made by thousands of bees can be heard on Jane Chepkonga's 20-acre (eight-hectare) aloe farm in Koibatek, where she harvests and sells honey produced in 40 beehives from the nectar of aloe flowers.

Aloe advocates are even predicting the plant will bring peace to a region plagued by conflicts over livestock.

Phillip Ngetich, chairman of an aloe cooperative in Baringo, said "thousands and thousands" of cattle in the region died in the most recent drought, leaving desperate herders to fight over what was left.

"But if aloe farming can provide an alternative livelihood," he said, "livestock will no longer be their only source of income and cattle rustling will be reduced."

Related Links
The latest farming technology and science news
The Economy