Around 100 testing laboratories should be set up in different parts of the country to test plant species so that standardization could be achieved, according to a resolution adopted during the international seminar on Medicinal Plants & Species Patents & Exports organized by The Voluntary Health Education and Rural Development Society (VHERDS) here. Delegates at the seminar also felt that testing centers should also be equipped with adequate working funds for bringing about standardization.

The resolution also maintained that research and certifying laboratories should strive for international acceptance which could only be made possible by drawing up guidelines to screen the private agencies and minimum standards should be laid down.

The seminar stressed the need for cooperation between government international organisations like UNCTAD, WTO and others. The resolution further maintained that technical assistance programmes and financial assistance programmes should focus on popularizing best adapted cultivation, harvest, processing methods at farm and community level since there were constraints facing development of the medicinal plant sector.

The seminar resolved that quality control and assurance system and products should be standardized. It also maintained that VHERDS should be used as a platform for dissemination of patent information and help in filing and prosecution of patent applications in India and abroad as this could help farmers and breeders to get protection and monopoly rights for commercial exploitation.