Tamil Nadu - Salem   

Government to fix price for medicinal plants

SALEM: The State Government will take steps to fix a price for different medicinal plants in order to encourage farmers to take up the cultivation of such plants at a larger level, Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam has said.

Inaugurating a State-level seminar on the cultivation of medicinal plants and exhibition held here on Thursday, the Minister has said that efforts would be taken to announce a minimum support price (MSP) for different types of medicinal plants.

If the prices in the open market go below the MSP, steps will be taken to procure the medicinal plants through the government’s Medicinal Plant Farms and Herbal Medicine Corporation Limited.

The country has a huge demand for medicinal plants. Currently, the demand is estimated to be around 3.20 lakh tonnes per year.

The size of the world market for medicinal plants is around Rs. 3,000 crore and it is growing fast.

The country exports medicinal plants to the tune of Rs. 1,250 crore, he pointed out. Earlier, the medicinal plants were taken from the forests. As a result, a number of varieties of medicinal plants were on the verge of extinction.

The best alternative method to protect the rare varieties medicinal plants was to cultivate them properly.

This would also help farmers enhance their income from farming, he said.

Medicinal plants were being cultivated in over 10,000 hectares of land in Tamil Nadu.

A majority of these plants were exported to other countries, he said and called upon the farmers to adopt modern methods for the cultivation of medicinal plants.

Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare S. Gandhiselvan said that the country was ranked second after China in the export of medicinal plants.

With the alternative medical system getting popular in the country and abroad, the demand for medicinal plants had increased several-fold.

Farmers should take advantage of the opportunity and start the cultivation of medicinal plants at a large level. A sum of Rs. 1 crore was allotted for the cultivation of medicinal plants in Salem district.

A sum of Rs. 1 crore was allotted for Namakkal and Rs. 2.5 crore for Erode, he added.

Steps are being taken up for the establishment of super-specialty hospitals in Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli in the State, he said.

Later, over 1,000 farmers were given loans with subsidy to the tune of Rs. 1.44 crore during the function.

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