Government Boosts Medicinal Plant Development, Conservation and Farmer Linkages

by Ayurveda Admin

The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush has implemented ‘Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants’ throughout the country.

Project-based support will be given under the scheme for:

* In-situ conservation through development of Medicinal Plants Conservation and development Areas (MPCDAs).

* In-situ/Ex-situ resource augmentation.

* Ex-situ conservation through establishment of herbal gardens.

* Livelihood linkages with Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) / Panchayats / Van Panchayats / Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) / Self Help Groups (SHGs).

* IEC activities like Training / workshops / Seminars/ Conferences etc.

* Research & Development.

* Promotion of marketing and trade of medicinal plants produce.

* Forward and backward linkage in supply chain of medicinal plants.

Till date, Ministry of Ayush had released as a central share an amount of Rs. 15.85 crore and supported 12,551 hectare area under cultivation of medicinal plants, in Madhya Pradesh under medicinal plants component of National Ayush Mission (NAM) from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21.

Besides, NMPB has approved a project entitled Forward and backward linkage in supply chain of medicinal plants at Khandwa district in MP’ to the State Medicinal Plants Board, Madhya Pradesh for Rs. 119.95 lakh during the financial year 2024-25 under Integrated Component to raise the planting material for distribution to the farmers for medicinal plants cultivation and establishment of infrastructure for post-harvest management and marketing.

NMPB, under its ‘Central Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants’ is providing project-based support for the conservation of rare and endangered of medicinal plants to State Forest Departments including State of Gujarat for Resource Augmentation/ Plantation of medicinal plants in forest areas through in-situ resource augmentation, plantation outside designated forest areas through ex-situ resource augmentation and Support to (JFMCs)/Panchayats/ Van Panchayat/SHGs/BMCs etc. for setting of local cluster for value addition, drying, warehousing and augmenting marketing infrastructure etc. and generate livelihood to these forest fringe communities. During the last five (5) years, the NMPB has supported a project entitled “in-situ Resource Augmentation of medicinal plants in Kutch Circle, to Gujarat.

To ensure price transparency and increase the income of the farmers, NMPB has launched “e-CHARAK” mobile application as well as web portal for the promotion and marketing of medicinal plants/herbs for trade of Medicinal Plants & easy market access, The “e-CHARAK” is a platform to enable information exchange between various stakeholders mainly farmers involved in the medicinal plants sector across the country. The “e-CHARAK” application supports different local languages and it also provides fortnightly market price of 100 MPs from 25 herbal markets across India.

The cultivation activities are not supported under the Central Sector Scheme. However, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has supported projects under Forward and Backward Linkage in Supply Chain of Medicinal Plants (Integrated Component) of existing Central Sector Scheme from the F.Y. 2023-24, wherein project based support is provided for Infrastructure for Quality Planting Material to raise the planting material of medicinal plants for cultivation, Information Education Communication (IEC) activities for farmers, Infrastructure for Post-Harvest Management and Marketing to increase the marketability of the medicinal plants, adding value to the produce, increasing profitability and reducing losses, Quality Testing and Certification of raw material.