Even as the state government will soon form a separate department for Ayush in Kerala, more than 1000 farmers of medicinal plants in the state are coming together to form an association in order to strengthen and preserve the cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs in the state.

The farmers are also inspired by the formation of Ayush ministry in the centre and deliberating on approaching the governments at the centre and the state to resolve their long pending issues.

According to sources, Kerala government will declare the formation of the department soon after the next cabinet meeting. To carry out the preliminary work, a secretary for the department has been appointed and other officers are being posted on work arrangement from other departments.

Currently, the cultivators of medicinal plants are unorganized and scattered in different parts, especially in northern states. Since they have no organisation or no control of a united body, the manufacturers are exploiting them, and even the State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB) is not supporting them properly, said Reji Joseph, a large scale cultivator of medicinal plants in Attapadi in Palakkad district.

Reji, who takes the initiative to bring all the farmers under one umbrella, is the leader of the Attapadi Medicinal Plants Farmers’ Group.

“We are facing so many problems as we are unorganised. We are not industry people, only farmers of herbs and plants. The manufacturers of traditional medicines and the SMPB are motivating us to cultivate the plants, but they are not keeping their promises in buying our produce on a good price. The net result is that we should suffer a big loss. The National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB) is giving us some amount of subsidy, but no adequate price for our effort is given to us by the manufacturers. So, we are going to request the government to advise the medicine manufacturing companies and the SMPB to collect the crops cultivated by the local farmers by giving satisfactory price,” he told Pharmabiz.

He said the main objective of forming the association is to inspire the government to take the plant cultivators problems into consideration, especially for a deserving price for their produce. The government can direct its own manufacturing company, Oushadhi, to buy raw drugs from the local farmers. Reji said Oushadhi is buying the raw materials from north Indian states and not supporting the local farmers.

While maintaining that SMPB is helping the farmers to an extent, Reji said the plant cultivators are in dire need of a good market for their produce. For that, the support of major manufacturing companies is necessary and the government should strictly advise them to buy the local manufacturers’ crops and only for non-available produce, the companies can depend on outside manufacturers.