New Delhi, Sep 2: Medicinal plants will be cultivated on 75,000 hectares of land in the next one year across the country, the Ministry of AYUSH said Today.
”The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH, has launched a national campaign to promote cultivation of medicinal plants in the country as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. This will help in increasing the income of farmers and realise the dream of Green India,” the Ministry said in a statement.
”Under this campaign, cultivation of medicinal plants will be done on 75,000 hectares of land in
the next one year across the country,” it said. The programme was from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Pune in Maharashtra.
This programme is the second in the series of programmes being organised by the Ministry of AYUSH under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
In Pune, medicinal plants were distributed to the farmers. Those who were already cultivating
medicinal plants were felicitated. Nilesh Lanke, MLA from Parner in Ahmednagar district, Dr Asim Ali
Khan, DG, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and Dr Chandra Shekhar Sanwal, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, NMPB, led the events from different locations.
Dr Sanwal said, ”This effort will give more impetus to the supply of medicinal plants in
the country.” A total of 7,500 medicinal plants were distributed to 75 farmers on this occasion.
A target has been set to distribute 75,000 saplings.
In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for AYUSH Dharam Singh Saini, along
with Research Officer of National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) Sunil Dutt and other officials,
participated. Farmers cultivating medicinal plants were felicitated by Saini.
Medicinal plants were distributed free of cost to 150 farmers who came from many nearby districts.
These included mainly 5 species of plants – night-flowering jasmine (parijat), golden apple (bel),
margosa (neem), Indian ginseng (ashwagandha) and Indian blackberry (jamun). As many as 750 jamun saplings were separately distributed free of cost to the farmers.
Union AYUSH Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said the country has immense potential in the field of medicinal plants and cultivation of medicinal plants on 75,000 hectares will ensure availability of medicines in the country, besides being a source of income for the farmers.
Significantly, in the last one-and-a-half years, the market of medicinal plants has increased in a big way not only in India but all over the world. This is the reason that ashwagandha has been the third best-selling product in America.
Other programmes being held under ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ include launch of Y Break App, distribution of prophylactic AYUSH drugs, ‘Ayush Aapke Dwar’ and lecture series for school and college students. The lecture series and webinar on Y Break app are to be organised on September 5.(UNI)