Medicinal and Aromatic plants can provide business opportunities

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) India's share in the one billion dollar global herbal market is only 9-10 per cent while in the 62 billion dollar global herbal cosmeceuticals market India commands a miniscule 0.5 per cent.

Member (Agriculture) Planning Commission Dr V L Chopra said poor harvesting, lack or research and development, lack of latest technologies and lack of correspondence between production and stakeholders have resulted in paltry revenues from business in medicinal and aromatic plants.

Organised by PHD industry chamber, the national conference on 'Business Opportunities in Production and Processing of Medicinal and Aromatic plants' saw much deliberations to improve the standard and increase the potential for business.

However, sounding upbeat about the future, Dr Chopra, talked about the demand for medicinal plants on the basis of a sustained and increasing interest in alternative medicines.

Outlining various problems plaguing the production and processing of medicinal and aromatic plants, Dr Chopra said it was difficult to find a balance between sustainable growth and production due to the fact that 90 per cent of the medicinal plants are found in the wild and not under contract farming.

To revive interest in the traditional system of cure Dr Chopra stressed on the quality of the component being used and the right kind of material being used as a base in such medicines.

''Popularity among the one billion strong population should be the benchmark for its efficacy and it is important not to lose the faith of consumers,'' said Dr Chopra.

Many medicinal plants are under different degree of threat as 70 per cent of the plant collections involve destructive harvesting.

There are no reliable data on the demand, supply and production and a mismatch between forecasted demand and marketing, were some of the other problems highlighted in the conference.

Painting the dismal condition of the sector Special Secretary , Ministry of Mines, Dr Pradeep Kumar said, '' its sad and an indicative of the government mindset to list medicinal plants under Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP). This has contributed in medicinal plants being an insignificant part of revenue generation.'' Better marketing of the products, documentation of collection of data pertaining to medicinal plants, patents and intellectual property related issues, conservation and good sourcing and collection practices, were some of the recommendations of the conference.

UNI