Trade Regulations in Medicinal Plant sector -Review

Executive Summary

Tamilnadu holds a key position in trade and export of botanicals used in medicine due its geographical position and well developed trade ports. In fact cultivation and conservation has always been a priority as much as the utilization of medicinal plants in the state.

Government Departments particularly Forest Department and Commercial Tax Departments have been proactive in bringing in regulation for facilitation of the medicinal plant sector. A review of the existing regulations both the central and state pertaining to the trade provide some more opportunity for further facilitation as this sector provides rural employment particularly in areas close to reserve forest.

The regulations and the bottlenecks were discussed jointly and individually with traders, exporters and growers and wherever required experts inputs and official/legal view points were sought and obtained from senior government officials.

The Key recommendations are

Forest Department

• Tamilnadu Forest Department to come out with area specific list of Medicinal plant part permitted to be collected by VFC members
• Issue of Origin certificate by Range officers in JFM area for non-forest wild collection and cultivation
• Ban on collection of select plants  in a given area for a specific period to promote conservation and regeneration
• Provisions of Identity cards for VFC members for collection, restricting them to a given area.
• Suggestion to MoEF on revision of Negative list based on ground realities and to remove anomalies in export incentive schemes

 Commercial Tax Department 

·        Publication of Tax exempted list with Botanical names along with Tamil and Sanskrit name as given in Govt of India Formularies of ISM

·        Registration of VFC cooperatives and exempting them from Tax

·        Exempting all cultivated medicinal plant materials from Tax by issuing orders under Tamilnadu VAT ACT 2006

Land Reforms Department

• Amendment in Tamilnadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling) Act 1961. to permit Crop diversification to medicinal plants in old Plantations.

Agricultural Marketing Department

• The Provisions of contract farming with authority to proceed against defaulter – either buyer or seller needs to be made by amending  Tamilnadu Agricultural Marketing (Regulation) Act

Transport Department

• Explore the possibility of providing free transport passes for members of VFCs for the purpose of bringing medicinal plant material to consolidation centres
• To issue circulars to field officials to accept the weight mentioned in the certificate of origin or approved weigh bridge during transport in trucks

Strategy Paper, Action plan and Road map for the Development of the Medicinal Plant sector

Executive Summary.

Centre for Traditional Medicine & Research, Chennai was assigned the consultancy for preparing the ‘Strategy Paper, Action plan and Road map for the Development of the Medicinal Plant sector’ for five year period (2008-2013). Three Stakeholders consultation workshops were organized at three locations (Tirunelveli, Salem, and Chennai)- primarily active in the area of cultivation, trade and manufacture during the second of the FY2007-08. Source assessment and Demand assessment studies were also carried out by visit to collection centres, Trade centres and Manufacturing industries and data collected in pre designed formats. Based on the above the following recommendations are made

• Orientation and training for Field level forest staff and gatherers on material being collected, their conservation needs, Semi processing without wastage, non destructive collection.
• Directions to keep records on collected material at field level
• Plant introduction for betterment of the economy of the forest dependant tribal community in community land, waste land and denuded open forest areas-MPDA model
• Improvement of 6 select Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas and addition of two new MPCAs- Kurumalai and Ginjee.
• Revitalize local utilization in healthcare by organizing awareness and medical camps with the help of ISM department.
• Establishment and improvements of Seed centre and Nurseries for Propagule development of select medicinal plants of cultivation and conservation interest.
• Agro technology development and modification of technology to fulfill local needs for Plants of commercial interest.
• Post harvest technology/ storage norm development and storage life studies for biologically active compounds in plant drugs
• Support for cultivation of commercially viable plants with tie-up with user industry/ trade associations/ Manufacturers Association- cluster approach.
• Insurance cover from end to end-growing, storage, transit, production to product liability and export.
• Massive awareness campaign through publication and electronic media.
• Market promotion support for participation in fairs for growers, traders and manufacturers.
• Assistance for value addition by growers/ traders – extraction units or processing units.

Traditional Healers Training

பாரம்பரிய வைத்தியர்கள் இன்றளவும் கிராமப்புறங்களில் நோய் நீக்கும் சேவை புரிந்து வருகின்றனர். எல்லா மருத்துவர்களும் எல்லா நோய்களுக்கும் மருத்துவம் செய்யாவிட்டாலும் கூட மக்கள் மத்தியில் நன்மதிப்பை பெற்று இருக்கிறார்கள். மாறி வரும் தற்கால சூழ்நிலையில் ஏற்படும் நோய்களுக்கும், இவர்கள் வாழும் பகுதியில் கிடைக்கும் தாவரங்களை கொண்டு சிகிட்சை செய்வதற்கான புத்துணர்வு பயிற்சி 11,ஆகஸ்ட் 2012, அன்று சேலம் மாவட்டம், மேட்டூர் அருகில் உள்ள கொளத்தூர், கருங்கலூர், விவேகானந்தா கல்வி நிலையத்தில் சென்னை பாரம்பரிய மருத்துவ ஆய்வு மையம் நடத்துகிறது. சேலம்  தருமபுரி மாவட்டத்தை சார்ந்த  பாரம்பரிய வைத்தியர்கள் இதில் கலந்து கொள்வார்கள். இதுவரை அழைப்பிதழ் கிடைக்க பெறாதவர்கள் 9444018158/044-22600440/22533399 என்ற தொலைபேசியில் தொடர்பு கொண்டு பதிவு செய்து கொள்ளவும். புத்துணர்வு பயிற்சி இந்திய அரசின் ஆயுஷ் துறை திட்டத்தின் கீழ் நடத்தப்படுகிறது.