A survey on the availability of medicinal plants in Tamil Nadu by the Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR) shows that thousands of plant farmers are keen on growing medicinal plants provided they are given authentic seeds/planting materials at affordable prices, packages for cultivation and harvest, and proper tie-up with industry or trade.

The State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB), Ayush Cluster, Department of ISM, Department of Forest and Horticulture department should jointly chalk out programs to support the medicinal plant cultivators with the help of medicine manufacturing companies.

Though the Ayush cluster in the state (The Traditional Ayush Cluster of Tamil Nadu Pvt Ltd (TACT) had planned to tie-up with farmers’ clusters, the operation of it is yet to take off. There was the agreement that TACT would provide clean and authentic plant materials to the farmers, certify the produce after harvest and sell them to its member industrial units. But, no such services are given to the farmers now by the Cluster, SMPB is also inactive, the study finds.

In the year 2004, the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB) conducted a demand and supply study on medicinal plants and introduced some packages for the farmers to promote medicinal cultivation. However, the Board failed to carry out the second phase of the study after ten years though it took some efforts to conduct the same in the year 2014. SMPB could not complete or carry out the study programme due to unknown reasons.

Dr T Thirunarayanan, the coordinator of the survey by CTMR says that the reason for the failure of the SMPB study and the downward growth of medicinal cultivation is non-cooperation among various stakeholders such as forest department, ISM industry, ISM practitioners, medicine manufacturers, horticultural department and SMPB.

When the Centre published the survey report in its website, there was big response from the farmers and landholders across the state wanting more information and support for cultivation. CTMR expresses its finding that all the existing and old plant cultivators are willing to grow short term crops of medicinal plants and herbs provided there is assured buying.

“The government company, Tamil Nadu Medical Plant Farms & Herbal Medicine Corporation Limited (TAMPCOL) and SMPB should chalk out programmes to promote the cultivation by giving all support to the farmers. Presently, many herbal ingredients including Chukku, Arathai (dry ginger, galangal) are imported, which can well be grown here. Apart from Ayush units, individual doctors also use some specific plants. If we have a proper planning, projection and implementation, we can easily address the problem of shortage”, says Dr Thirunarayanan.

He said many companies are sourcing raw drugs from other states to meet their requirements. While conducting the survey, the biggest manufactures in the state shared their list of high demand medicinal plants with exact annual requirement. But none of them indicated their non-availability in other states. Very few herbs used in small volumes are not available or herbs that are restricted, are difficult to get.