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.