Appendix 1b: Traditional healer questionnaire

A. POPULARITY

Producing medicinal plants for the market requires that a grower have some understanding of the demand for plants. A farmer will produce plants that he or she knows will be easy to sell. We need to find out how large the demand is for certain medicinal plants. If you think that there are other plants that are important as they are becoming scarce, then add them to this list.

1. Which medicinal plants have you sold the most of in the last year? This is the number of times that the plant has been sold. (Tick only).

Name of medicinal plant	High sales	Moderate sales	Low sales
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

2. Have the sales of these medicinal plants changed or not in the last five years?

Name of medicinal plant	Increased	Decreased	The same
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

3. Please give reasons why you think there have been changes.

4. Do you think the demand for these medicinal plants will be high or low in future?

1. Demand will remain high
2. Demand will remain the same
3. Demand will decrease
4. I cannot tell

5. Give reasons for your answer?

6. Which times of the year are these medicinal plants in the greatest demand?

Name	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

7. Why would you say the medicinal plants are demanded in certain seasons?

Name	When plant can be found	Time when illness is common	Harvesting ritual	Other reasons
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

8. What level of medicinal plants would you like to stock?

Name	Higher stock level	Medium stock level	Lower stock level
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

9. What determines the level of stock that is desired?

Name	Reason (cost, demand, irregular supply, etc)
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

B. SUBSTITUTABILITY

Before growing medicinal plants for traditional healing purposes, it is important to know whether the plants can be easily substituted with other plants. For example, if unukani can be substituted with undlangwenya or umkhondweni, then it may not be worthwhile to grow unukani. We therefore need to understand the substitutability of the plants.

10. Do these medicinal plants have any substitutes? Please give name of substitute/s if the answer is yes.

Name	Yes	No	Name of substitute/s
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

11. What is causing substitution to take place?

12. Do you accept the substitutes as being effective?

Name	Readily Acceptable	Acceptable	Not Acceptable
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

13. Is the use of plants changing over time?

Name	New uses/ treatments	New plant part used	Smaller size used
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

C. USAGE

A farmer must have some idea how many plants he or she can sell to the market every year. We therefore need to get some indication of how many medicinal plants were sold in the market in the last year.

14. What unit of measure do you use for selling the medicinal plants?

Name	Unit (cup, handful, etc)	Weight	Size (thickness of bark or bulb)
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

15. How often do you sell these medicinal plants in a month?

Name	Number of times a month
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

16. How long can you keep the medicinal plants before they loose their healing properties?

Name	Shelf life (months, etc)
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

17. Who do you buy these medicinal plants from (gatherers, street sellers, muthi shops etc)? Where do you buy these medicinal plants (the name of the place) and how often do you buy per month?

Name	Seller	Place	Per month
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

18. How do you package the medicine you sell?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

19. Where do most of your customers come from?

1. Within town
2. From other provinces
3. From out of town
4. Do not know

20. Do your customers ask for the medicinal plants by name or do they describe their problem and ask you to prescribe the appropriate medicine?

1. Customers ask for a specific medicine by name
2. Problem is described and prescription given

21. Why do customers come to your shop instead of visiting clinics? Indicate your level of agreement/disagreement to the following reasons why your customers might visit your shop instead of a clinic.

		Disagree Strongly	Disagree	Do not know	Agree	Strongly Agree
1.	Customers want a traditional medicine	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]
2.	Customers could not be cured at the clinics	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]
3.	There are no clinics close to where the customers live	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]
4.	Other medicines are too expensive	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]
5.	Other reason	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]

22. Do you think your customers are comfortable coming to a traditional healer?

1. They are uncomfortable
2. They appear comfortable
3. I do not know

23. How readily do your customers accept price?

1. They bargain with you
2. They accept your prices
3. They leave if your prices are too high for them

24. If the medicinal plants the customers are looking for is not available, would you say customers would:

1. Settle for an alternative
2. Leave the shop and look elsewhere
3. Not sure

25. Would you say customers are concerned about quality?

1. Not concerned
2. Do not know
3. Very concerned

26. Are your customers (tick the appropriate block):

Male	[ ]	female	[ ]
Well dressed	[ ]	poorly dressed	[ ]
Literate	[ ]	illiterate	[ ]
Speak English	[ ]	don't speak English	[ ]
Poor	[ ]	wealthy	[ ]

27. How would customers react if traditional medicines were sold in modern packaging?

1. They would buy less
2. They would buy more
3. They would not change their use

D. PRICES AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS

If medicinal plants are going to be grown for the market, then farmers need to have some understanding of their prices and variations that can be expected in the market To determine whether growing these plants will be profitable or not, we need to compare the costs of producing the plants and the prices that may be received in various places within the market. For example, a farmer would need to know what prices could be expected at different times of the year, in different regions, and from different buyers.

28. What are the selling prices for the medicinal plants listed below?

Name	Unit	Price
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

29. Kindly recall how prices have changed in recent years. How much did you buy the various medicinal plants for in 1985, 1990, and in 1995? (Remember to quote prices for the same unit sizes.)

Name	Unit	Price in 1995	Price in 1990	Price in 1985
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

30. Have the prices of the substitute medicinal plants also changed or not over the years?

1. Prices have changed just like the original medicinal plants
2. Prices for substitutes have not changed at all
3. Other

31. Are there any price variations in the different areas you buy your medicinal plants from?

1. Prices differ depending on where you buy from
2. The prices tend to be the same in different areas
3. I do not know

32. Indicate whether or not there are differences in the prices of the medicinal plants during different times of the year.

Name	Large seasonal variations in prices	Small price variations	No price variations
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

33. What reasons would you give for the price variations?

E. INFORMATION ON CULTIVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

An important factor in the marketing of medicinal plants are the attitudes which users will have towards cultivated plants. We need to understand how traders, traditional healers and other users feel about cultivated plants to assess the potential for cultivating these plants.

34. If these medicinal plants had to be cultivated, would you accept them or not?

Name	Accept them	Not accept them
Isibhaha
Indungulo, Isiphephetho
Igibisila
Umathunga
Unukani
Ikhathazo
Umlahleni
Inguduza
Umathithibala

35. If you answered 'not acceptable' to any of the plants above, please explain why?

36. How would you recognise a cultivated medicinal plant compared to a plant that has been harvested from the bush?

37. What would you use if certain wild plants are no longer available?

______________

38. Would you be interested in buying cultivated plants from the growers?

1.

Yes

2.

No

3.

I do not know

F. GENERAL QUESTIONS

39. Which of the age categories do you belong to?

1.	15-25	2.	26-35
3.	36-45	4.	46-55
5.	56-65	6.	66+

40. Gender

1.

Male

2.

Female

41. (It is not necessary to answer this question)
Which category best describes your monthly income?

1.	<R200	2.	R200-R500
3.	R500-R1000	4.	R1000-R2000
5.	R2000-R3000	6.	>R3000

42. What support would you

1

2

3

4

5

43. How many patients do you treat per day?

44. What is the average cost of a treatment per patient?

R

45. How many people work at your practice?

46. How many people gather plants for you?

47. How many sacks of muthi do you buy per month?

48. How do you package muthi?

1.	newspaper	2.	plastic/checkers
3.	bottle	4.	other (specify)

49. When buying plants, would you prefer:

1. hygienically packaged	[ ]
2. as they are	[ ]

50. Would you be prepared to buy bark that has been already ground if people had been trained to do it properly?

1. Yes	[ ]
2. No	[ ]