Lucknow, May 16: An ‘Aroma and Phyto-Pharmaceutical Mission’ has been launched to boost cultivation of aromatic crops like lavender, rosemary and lemon grass and medicinal plants like ashwagandha and satavar, keeping in view plight of farmers involved in traditional agriculture and their flight from rural areas due to climate change.
Under the mission by the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, cultivation of these crops will be promoted especially in unproductive, marginal waste lands including those affected by water scarcity, drought, salinity or flood in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K, AP, HP, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and North Eastern states.
The purpose is to boost cultivation and value-addition of medicinal and aromatic plants for supply to industries related to aroma business and to the traditional system of Indian medicine, Director CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow, Prof A K Tripathi, said here.
Tripathi, who has been designated as Mission Director by DG, CSIR, said several CSIR institutes including CIMAP, CDRI, NBRI and IITR from Lucknow, IIIM, Jammu, IHBT, Palampur, URDIP, Pune, and NEIST, Jorhat will join hands to develop and popularise technologies for cultivation, processing, value-addition, product development and marketing of medicinal and aromatic plants.
Under the Aroma Mission various economically important aromatic crops including mint, vetiver, lemon grass, palmarosa, ocimum, patchouli, lavender, rosemary, tagetes, Jammu monarda and valerian will be taken up.
Similarly, Phyto-Pharmaceutical Mission will target several economically important medicinal plants including kalmegh, ashwagandha, satavar, senna, silybum, curcuma and swertia, he said.
On the likely outcomes in the next two years, Tripathi was hopeful that a minimum of 6000 hectares of additional area would be brought under cultivation of various aromatic and medicinal crops generating employment among rural youth, and creating trained and skilled manpower leading to an estimated income enhancement of farmers in the range of Rs 25,000 to 75,000 per hectare depending upon the crop they would grow.
