Lok Sabha Question No. 1525 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-10
Subject: Cultivation of Medicinal Plants
Ministry: AYURVEDA,YOGA & NATUROPATHY,UNANI,SIDDHA AND HOMEOPATHY (AYUSH)
Asked by: C. R. Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AYUSH

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1525 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10/02/2023

## CULTIVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

## 1525. SHRI C.R. PATIL:

Will the Minister of AYUSH be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  implementing  the  scheme  on  conservation,  development  and sustainable management of medicinal plants;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the achievements made by the Government to promote cultivation of medicinal plants under National AYUSH Mission (NAM) in the country; and
- (d) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to promote the cultivation of the medicinal plants among farmers in the country?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF AYUSH

## (SHRI SARBANANDA SONOWAL)

(a) & (b): Yes,  Sir.  National  Medicinal  Plants  Board,  Ministry  of  Ayush  is  implementing  a scheme entitled 'Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants.' Under the scheme project based support is provided for following activities on medicinal plants:

- (i) Survey Inventorisation, In-situ Conservation through Medicinal Plants Conservation and Development Areas (MPCDA) and Resource augmentation
- (ii) Ex-situ Conservation  /  Establishment  of  Herbal  Garden  (HG),  School  Herbal  Garden (SHG) and Home Herbal Garden (HHG)
- (iii) Support  to  Joint  Forest  Management  Committees  /  Panchayats  /  Van  Panchayats  / Biodiversity Management Committees / Self Help Groups for value addition activities like drying,  primary  processing,  storage  etc.  of  Medicinal  Plants  and  thereby  generate livelihood to these communities
- (iv) Research & Development
- (v) Information, Education and Communication (IEC) etc.
- (vi) Promotional activities such as establishment of nurseries.

Till date, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has supported 1498 no. of projects throughout the country under  Central  Sector  Scheme  for  Conservation,  Development  and  Sustainable  Management  of Medicinal Plants since its inception. Under the same scheme, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has supported

103026.32 hectare area under In-situ / Ex-situ Conservation and Resource augmentation, 24,000 herbal gardens, 1175 JFMCs, 233 seminars / workshops / conferences / buyer-seller meets / trainings and 57 no. of nurseries. Beside this, NMPB has developed 'e-CHARAK' application to provide a platform for trade of Medicinal Plants & to provide easy market access and developed a NMPB helpline in collaboration with CDAC Hyderabad. The details of activities supported and achieved under Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants is given at Annexure - I .

(c) Ministry of Ayush, Government of India had implemented Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Ayush Mission (NAM) to promote the cultivation of medicinal plants from the financial year 2015-16  to  2020-21.  Under  its  'Medicinal  Plants'  component,  market  driven  cultivation  of  140 prioritized medicinal plants in identified clusters/zones was supported and implemented in a mission mode  through  selected  State  Implementing  agencies  throughout  the  country.  As  per  the  scheme guidelines, the support was provided for:

- (i) Cultivation of prioritized medicinal plants on farmer's land.
- (ii) Establishment  of  nurseries  with  backward  linkages  for  raising  and  supply  of  quality planting material.
- (iii) Post-harvest management with forwarding linkages.
- (iv) Primary processing, marketing infrastructure etc.

Ministry  of  Ayush  had  supported  56,305  hectare  area,  220  nurseries,  354  post-harvest management units, 25 Processing Units, 42 Rural / District Collection Centres / Retail outlet, 10 Seed germplasm centres, 15 Demonstration plots etc. under medicinal plants component of National Ayush Mission (NAM) from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21. The details of activities supported under National Ayush Mission scheme for medicinal plants component is given at Annexure - II.

(d) Under the 'Central Sector Scheme  on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants', there is a provision to support the Information, Education and Communication  (IEC)  activities  (training  programmes,  buyer  seller  meets,  workshops,  seminars, conferences etc.) and establishment of nurseries & regional cum facilitation centres to promote the cultivation of medicinal plants among farmers.

The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) has supported 233 projects under Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities to aware the local masses about the medicinal plants, 19 projects under marketing of medicinal plants, 57 projects for establishment of nurseries to raise the Quality Planting Material since its inception.

In addition, the National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of Ayush through its Regional Cum Facilitation  Centres  (RCFCs)  is  also  providing  financial  and  technical  assistance  to  farmers/other stakeholders for development of Quality Planting Material of medicinal plants and herbs in different states. As per scheme guidelines provision, NMPB has set up 7 Regional Cum Facilitation Centres

(RCFCs) in project mode to promote various medicinal plants activities in different regions / areas of the country.

Besides this, Ministry of Ayush, Government of India had promoted cultivation of Medicinal Plants  throughout  the  country  under  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of  the  National  Ayush  Mission (NAM) from  the  financial  year  2015-16  to  2020-21.  Ministry  of  Ayush  had  also  supported  235 workshops / buyer-seller meets / exposure visits under IEC activities and training for 19061 farmers in the country from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21 under the medicinal plants component of National Ayush Mission scheme.

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## Achievements under Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants:

| Sr. No.   | Activities supported                                                                                                                 |   No. of project supported | Achievements                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1.        | Survey Inventorisation, In-situ / Ex-situ Conservation and Resource augmentation                                                     |                        506 |  Area covered - 103026.32 hectare  Total no. of MPCDA - 105                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2.        | Herbal Garden (HG), School Herbal Gardens (SHGs) & Home Herbal Gardens (HHGs).                                                       |                        223 |  Total No. of HG/ SHGs/ HHGs - 21293  Total no. of campaigns - 07                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| 3.        | Establishment of nurseries                                                                                                           |                         57 |  To raise the planting material of medicinal plants.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| 4.        | Support to Joint Forest Management Committees / Panchayats / Van Panchayats / Biodiversity Management Committees / Self Help Groups. |                         51 |  Supported 1,175 number of JFMC / Van Panchayat / BMCs for value addition of medicinal plants raw material and generation of livelihood to these communities.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| 5.        | Research &Development                                                                                                                |                        402 |  Project supported on various aspects of medicinal plants such as the Bioactivity guided fractionation, agro techniques, cultivation practices, Documentation etc.  IPR/ Patent - NMPB so far identified 05 unique projects which are novel in nature and patentable. The filings of IPR are under process.  Agro techniques have been published covering 104 medicinal plant. |
| 6.        | Information, Education and Communication (IEC) etc.                                                                                  |                        233 |  Seminars / workshop / conferences / buyer-seller meets / trainings - 216  Total no. of NRDRs / RRDRs - 05  Schemes for Voluntary Certifications has been supported - 01  Projects on publication - 11                                                                                                                                                                        |
| 7.        | Marketing& IT                                                                                                                        |                         19 |  'e-CHARAK' application - To provide a platform for trade of Medicinal Plants & to provide easy market access.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| 9.        | Regional Cum Facilitation Centres                                                                                                    |                          7 |  Developed 82,28,727 QPM of medicinal plants                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|           | Total No. of projects                                                                                                                |                       1498 |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |

## Details of activities supported under Medicinal Plants Component of 'National Ayush Mission' (NAM) Scheme, Ministry of Ayush from the Financial Year 2015-16 to 2020-21.

|   S. No. | Activities supported                                |   2015- 16 |   2016- 17 |   2017- 18 |   2018- 19 |   2019- 20 |   2020- 21 |   TOTAL |
|----------|-----------------------------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|---------|
|        1 | Cultivation of Medicinal Plants (Area in hectare)   |       8722 |      12109 |      10366 |       9958 |       6794 |       8356 |   56305 |
|        2 | Maintenance of cultivation                          |       2031 |        164 |        163 |        176 |        130 |         10 |    2673 |
|        3 | Establishment of Nursery                            |         32 |         39 |         38 |         38 |         50 |         23 |     220 |
|        4 | Post-harvest Management                             |         62 |         48 |         66 |         52 |         99 |         27 |     354 |
|        5 | Processing Unit                                     |          1 |          2 |          3 |          1 |         16 |          2 |      25 |
|        6 | Rural / District Collection Centres / Retail outlet |          0 |         11 |          9 |         17 |          2 |          3 |      42 |
|        7 | Seed germplasm centres                              |          0 |          3 |          5 |          0 |          1 |          1 |      10 |
|        8 | Demonstration plot                                  |          0 |          2 |          2 |          2 |          6 |          3 |      15 |