The Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) is planning to develop a 750-acre herbal village in the valley of High Ranges in Idukki or Wyanad district, in association with the private players.
According to the plan, Kinfra will make available the land for entrepreneurs with necessary infrastructure for commercial cultivation of herbal and medicinal plants. The herbal village will be a combination of plantations, semi-processing units, neighborhood villages for contract farming, collection centre and R& D units, wherein 60 per cent of the land will be earmarked for cultivation of the herbs and medicinal plants.
Kinfra will create support infrastructure like an 11 KV substation for dedicated power supply, potable and irrigation water supply, telephone exchange, a network of well-knit roads, housing scheme for employees of the herbal village and a 10 bed hospital. In addition, Kinfra will create common facilities like administrative block, banks and post office, a 10-suite guesthouse with necessary paraphernalia, recreation centre and a conference hall.
According to Kinfra sources, it is on the look out of suitable location for the project at Wyanad and Idukki, as the mountain valleys in this region have long terrains of vacant degraded forests. Some of the Ayurvedic drug manufacturers in the state have evinced interest and are considering participating in the project.
The project envisages the private partner to develop an R&D centre, Gene bank and herbarium as a profit centre, with thrust on field-related problems like conservation biology, threat categorization, standard agronomical practices, viable and good quality planting materials. The entrepreneurs are also expected to set up onsite semi processing centres with focus on value addition and export.
The herbal village also proposes to encourage contract farming by neighborhood villagers in their farms or kitchen garden. The units have to encourage the villagers with assurance of buyback and support in farming practices. The herbal village will have a common collection centre to facilitate the buyback of the herbal and medicinal plants from the household cultivators or contract farmers.
Kinfra plans to integrate the 'Vanaspathi Vanam' scheme of the state forest department with the herbal village concept in its suburbs. The scheme envisages planting of Vanaspathi in the degraded forests of the region, intercropping with indigenous and local medicinal species and herbs.