Conservation and cultivation of medicinal plants in tribal areas

Conservation and cultivation of medicinal plants in tribal areas

The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush is presently implementing “Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants” throughout the country including the State of Odisha. Under the scheme, the project based support is provided for following activities:

The activity wise number of projects supported under the above scheme in state of Odisha including Mayurbhanj District are as below:

Sr. No.

Activities Supported

No. of Project Supported

No. of project supported in Mayurbhanj District

1.

Conservation, Resource Augmentation and support to Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) etc.

27

–

2.

Herbal Garden

10

01

3.

Nursery/Quality Planting Material/ species specific campaign    

06

01

4.

Information Education & Communication (IEC)

16

–

5.

Research  and Development (R&D)

02

–

6.

Activities supported through Regional Cum Facilitation Centers (East Region) of NMPB

 

i. Stakeholders Meet

 

 ii. Training Programmes

 

 

 

06

 

11

 

 

 

–

 

02

 

(b) and (c): Under the above Central Sector Scheme, project based support is provided through State Forest Departments to Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs)/Panchayats/ Van Panchayat/SHGs/BMCs etc. for setting of local cluster for value addition, drying, warehousing and augmenting marketing infrastructure etc. and generate livelihood to these forest fringe communities including tribal farmers. These initiatives / activities supported under the above Central Sector Scheme have helped in promoting cultivation, Conservation and livelihood opportunities for farmers including those from tribal regions also.

To strengthen medicinal plants cultivation, market access and income enhancement of the farmers across the country including tribal regions, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush through its Regional Cum Facilitation Centres (RCFCs) provide Quality Planting Material (QPM) of medicinal plants and impart training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Field Collection Practices (GFCPs). In addition, the Government of Odisha has taken steps by conducting awareness programmes through training/ seminars/ workshops, State level & Regional Level Kalinga Herbal Fairs, distribution of IEC materials and exposure visit to strengthen medicinal plant cultivation, market access and income enhancement in tribal regions. The State Medicinal Plants Board, Odisha is also providing technical support for cultivation of medicinal plants.

To provide a platform for trade of medicinal plants & easy market access, the NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has launched “e-CHARAK” mobile application as well as web portal for the promotion and marketing of medicinal plants/herbs. The “e-CHARAK” is a platform to enable information exchange between various stakeholders mainly farmers involved in the medicinal plants sector across the country. The “e-CHARAK” application supports different local languages and it also provides a fortnightly market price of 100 MPs from 25 herbal markets across India.

This information was given by the Minister of State (IC) for Ayush Shri Pratap Rao Jadhav in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 17th MARCH 2026. 

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