Health herbs on Uttaranchal hills

The state government eyes plant growth on a commercial basis

Kalihari is a reputed medicinal plant found in parts of Uttaranchal. And now, the government wants to see the growth of this plant, which contains colchicin considered to be an important herb, on a commercial basis.

For this purpose, the government has clubbed kalihari in the 26 exclusive clubs of medicinal plants, for which it has given permission for commercial exploitation on a larger scale.

In a new government order, Gopeshwar-based Herbal Research Medicinal Institute (HRMI) has been made the nodal agency to register all those farmers, who had been growing medicinal plants in their fields.

"In our new approach, only those farmers will be registered as growers of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) who are actually into cultivation and registration will be done by the nominated agencies after monitoring," said S K Singh director, HRMI.

In yet another step, the government has come out with an order regarding the subsidy provisions to the MAP growers in order to motivate them to grow these plants commercially. A total of 26 species have been identified, to be entitled for a 50 per cent subsidy.

In this regard, the economics of cultivation of these 26 species has been prepared, which would be distributed to farmers.

To start with, the HRMI has come out with a plan to grow three species--sarpgandha, kalihari and chamomile--in the Dehra Dun and Haldwani areas as a pilot project. For example, in the case of kalihari, farmers will be told that it grows on sandy loam with little water-holding capacity in warm and humid weather conditions.

The economics worked out in this regard is that farmers would get net returns of Rs 1,500 per nali in five years (50 nalis = one hectare) with an average return of Rs 3,000 per nali per year. Separate training sessions are also being held to educate farmers about the cultivation practices of the focused species, Singh said.

In addition to this, the HRMI also wants to convert its Gadarpur farmhouse in Udham Singh Nagar into a centre of excellence. In this farmhouse, experts have already sown seeds of sarpgandha and kalihari medicinal plants for practical purposes.