Bhubaneswar: A workshop-cum-training programme on medicinal plants in the state was organised by regional-cum-facilitation centre (RCFC- Eastern) of National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH at a city hotel Tuesday.
Delivering the welcome speech, Prof Asis Mazumdar of Jadavpur University who is also the nodal coordinator of RCFC, NMPB, said, “The RCFC is happy to organise its first stakeholders meet in Odisha for the promotion of medicinal plants in the state.”
He pointed out that there are various players in the said sector for instance—Forest department, Horticulture department, Directorate of AYUSH, Odisha Livelihood Mission and Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation among several others.
Lauding the workshop for bringing all the stakeholders under one roof he said, “Conservation and development of medicinal plants is only possible if we all work together in a cohesive manner.”
Padmapriya Balakrishnan from the Ministry of Ayush delivered the inaugural speech and underlined that about 80% of the world population is still dependent on medicinal plants and about 20% of the drugs in pharmaceutical firms are of plant origin.
“Resources are declining due to agricultural expansion, wood extraction and overgrazing, so there is a need for conservation, and cultivation of medicinal plants based on market forces,” she added.
It may be worth mentioning here that India is one of the world’s twelve mega diversity centers having rich vegetation with 47,000 plant species distributed over fifteen agro-climatic zones.
Notably, NMPB has established one of its RCFC in Jadavpur University for eastern region which caters to the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and functions in close co-ordination with State Medicinal Plants Board (SMPBs), the State implementing agency of the medicinal plants component of the AYUSH Mission. The RCFC acts as one stop center for the growers, cultivators, researchers, traders and other stakeholders of medicinal plants in the region. The objective of the RCFC is to provide a service window for growers of medicinal plants for supporting conservation, development, marketing, cultivation and provide handholding support to stakeholders in terms of technology dissemination.