Faulty disbursement of funds pose threat to cultivation of widely used medicinal plants in TN

Cultivation of widely used medicinal plants has slowed down in Tamil Nadu  as the government subsidies earmarked for the medicinal plant cultivation were not properly disbursed among all the herb growers in the rural areas, it is learnt. Due to lack of financial assistance and technical support, the farmers are unable to cultivate many of the medicinal and aromatic plants which are the source for essential raw materials for commonly used Ayurveda and Siddha medicines. This situation forces the market to increase the prices of the available crude drugs day by day. According to sources close to the plant cultivators, the fund coming to the state horticultural department from the national medicine plant board (NMPB) is disbursed among a few number of farmers, and majority of the cultivators who grow the most needed herbs for Ayurveda and Siddha medicines are being deprived of the benefits. The fund is diverted only for one or two varieties of crops which are not widely used for medicines, they alleged. A technical expert and Siddha doctor in Chennai, who regularly trains the growers and provides them valuable information about plant cultivation, said the government subsidies are benefiting only the exporters of herbal extracts and medicinal plants. All the funds supposed to be disbursed among herb cultivators is going to one or two societies or associations of plant cultivators. He said a total of 180 raw drugs are required for manufacturing the commonly used Ayurveda and Siddha medicines. But the farmers of these widely used plants are unable to avail the benefit of the government scheme. This diversion of funds to selected plant growers forces the farmers of other crops to hike the prices of their produce. He said while disbursing the money, the authorities should consider the most important and widely used plants that are required for the manufacture of Ayurveda and Siddha medicines. The money should not be distributed among a few number of farmers, but should be given to all those engage in the plant cultivation and have linkage to Ayurveda and Siddha industry. He alleged that currently the fund is diverted to some extract exporting units only. In Tirupur alone about 9000 acres of land belonging to over 2000 farmers is used for medicinal plant cultivation. The seeds of ‘Glorisa Superba' produced from the area are exported to countries like Italy where the alkaloid extracted from it is used for the preparation of herbal drugs to fight diseases like cancer, said a plant grower from Tirupur. The cultivation of medicinal plants in Tamil Nadu is the key to meeting the raw material needs of the ayush industry in the state and it offers opportunities for exports of extracts and raw herbs, he said. When contacted Dr T Thirunarayanan, secretary of the Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR), said, the needs of the ISM industry need to be assessed and funds should be provided to farmers to cultivate the plants in different agro climatic regions. He said some widely used medicinal plants like Andrographis paniculata, Mucuna pruriens, Saraca asoca (Roxb.) Withania somnifera, Piper longum, Oldenlandia umbellata, Desmodium gangeticam,Centella asiatica. Piper nigrum. Pseudarthira viscid, Trichosanthes cucumerina L Gmelia arborea, Vettiveria zizonoides and Steriospermum colais are now rarely available in the market.

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.