Government has taken several steps to train farmers about good agricultural practices and good field collection practices for medicinal plants

National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush has provided financial assistance in project mode to various institutes/organisations to organise awareness programmes, exposure visits, and capacity-building programmes through Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities under the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) for conservation, development, and sustainable management of medicinal plants. NMPB has supported about 126 projects for various IEC activities to educate an array of stakeholders including farmers about different aspects of medicinal plants like conservation, cultivation, post-harvest management, and marketing from the financial year 2017-18 to 2021-22 with the budget of US$ 3.7 million (Rs. 3,079.116 lakh).

Under CSS, project-based support is also provided to the Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research (DMAPR), Anand, Gujarat for the development of training modules and facilitation guides for good agriculture practices and good collection practices for medicinal plants. Furthermore, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is providing training to the farmers, through its laboratories, about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Field Collection Practices (GFCP) for medicinal plants in order to promote the production and processing of herbs/medicinal plants. These laboratories, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow; CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu; CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI) Lucknow; and CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), organises various training and awareness programmes to farmers and entrepreneurs on various aspects of agricultural science and technology.

In the last three years, a total of six Kisan Melas have been organised in which about 17,000 farmers, entrepreneurs, and industry representatives had participated. In various states of the country, around 3,004 farmers/entrepreneurs have been trained in good agricultural practices of economically important medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs). Apart from this, a total of 163 one-day outreach awareness programmes have been conducted, in which 10,791 farmers were trained in the cultivation and processing of medicinal and aromatic plants.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.