Introduction of medicinal herbs to cost Rs 35.774 million

The government has initiated a project to introduce medicinal herbs of economic importance to initiate research and start demonstration at farmer's fields for their commercial production.
The project titled "Introduction of medicinal herbs and spices as crop" (IMHSC) is estimated to cost Rs 35.774 million in the investment plan during four years from 2002 to 2006.
The promotion of medicinal herbs and spices as proposed in the project is in conformity with self-reliance in agriculture sector.
According to official sources here on Friday, the project will demonstrate to the farming community, the production technology of medicinal herbs and spices and to increase their farm income.
The project also aims to identify problems in commercial production of these crops; collect germ plasma, conduct research and develop production technologies and transfer these to the growers.
At present, research is being carried out in isolation at various institutes in the country and due to lack of infrastructure and co-ordination, a very little potential has been exploited and the IMHSC project aims at utilising all the prevailing resources.
VALUABLE RESOURCES: Interaction of various stakeholders will further help in formulating appropriate strategies for the promotion of these valuable resources and it will result in gradual increase in the use of native raw material in various processing industries and will broaden the scope of their cultivation.
The project has been started with the objectives to collect; conserve and manage the production of medicinal herbs and spices. It will be helpful to evaluate, improve and multiply seeds of medicinal herbs and species, which have market demand.
Besides identifying medicinal herbs of economic importance for focused research and commercial production at farmer's fields, efforts would be made to conduct agronomic trials to prepare a package of technology and its demonstration to the farmers.
Medicinal herb gardens will be established at PFI, PGRI, Hamdard University and AZRC. Harvesting/wild collection technologies will be developed so that plants are harvested in the proper season at the proper stage of their physiological growth, from the proper habitats and in a non-destructive and sustainable fashion.