The Hindu : Karnataka News : Workshop on medicinal plants from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 18, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Workshop on medicinal plants from today

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 17. The Department of Horticulture and the University of Agricultural Sciences have organised a two-day workshop on "Prospects and potentials of medicinal and aromatic crops" from Friday for promoting sustainable development of medicinal and aromatic crops in the State. The event will be held at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, here.

The Director of Horticulture, G.K. Vasanth Kumar, told presspersons here today that the Indian systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha, had been gaining importance at the global level. The international market for medicinal plants, which had been growing at the rate of seven per cent, had a potential of over $ 60 billion a year, he said.

The Indian growers of medicinal and aromatic plants had been facing some problems, such as non-availability of quality planting material of genuine varieties and lack of extension support for cultivation and processing.

These should be addressed immediately and the Indian grower prepared for the global market, he said.

India had over 8,000 medicinal and aromatic plants. In the global context, India and China were responsible for 40 per cent of the trade in medicinal plants. Over 80 per cent of the population in the developing countries depend on traditional plant based medicines. Over 25,000 plant-based formulations were available under the indigenous medicine system and over 15 lakh practitioners were dependent on the system, he explained.

Dr. Vasanth Kumar said over 75 per cent of the herbs, belonging to various botanical families, used in indigenous medicine were collected from forests.

This meant collecting herbs would destroy forests in the long run. There would be ample scope for the cultivation of medicinal plants once the pending Biodiversity Act was enacted.

He said medicinal plants were now cultivated in 1,000 hectares, and aromatic and dye plants were cultivated in 3,000 hectares in the State.

The Government was planning to establish an Agri Export Zone for medicinal and aromatic crops.

For encouraging and augmenting medicinal and aromatic crops, the Department of Horticulture had launched many programmes, including supply of quality planting material, setting up of germplasm conservatories, organic seed production and plant propagation centre, and financial assistance, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka