Punjab Agriculture Is Missing Out on a Mega Sector – Medicinal Plants

According to data, the size of the global herbal market in the year 2020 was $657.5 billion.

Crop diversification is being vociferously advocated by a vast array of agricultural experts in Punjab. Photo for representation. 

(Photo: PTI)

Punjab has always been a front-runner state in modernising agriculture. It is referred to as one of the most successful celebrated stories of the Green Revolution. Many serious deliberations have contributed a fair share of criticism and applause for the Green Revolution. But the depletion of underground water, soil microflora, and health due to monoculture of rice and wheat in the Kharif and Rabi seasons respectively remain the existing threat.

Crop diversification is vociferously advocated by a vast array of agricultural experts to replace the agricultural area under paddy with other potential crops. But assured marketing with the support of mandis, almost stable yields, high R&D, and easy accessibility to the resources make paddy and wheat the most suitable choice for farmers, and the discourse on crop diversification gets limited only to seminars and articles.

Medicinal Plants Is a Booming Sector

Many experts have stressed the need to tap the potential of cotton, arhar, mash, moong, maize and groundnut, among other vegetables, in order to reduce the heavy inflow of pesticides and fertilisers required for the production of paddy, and eventually, enable the revival of the microflora of the soil and save underground water.

However, there is also the sector of medicinal plants that has undergone un-recognised for a long time and is still struggling to find its place in most debates and discussions of agricultural experts in Punjab. The recent Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was tabled in Parliament on 9 December last year, encourages the cultivation of medicinal plants.

As per one of the reports published by the Forum on Indian Traditional Medicine (FITM) at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a think-tank policy institute in New Delhi, $657.5 billion was the size of the global herbal market in the year 2020; it is expected to reach $746.9 billion by 2022.

The current turnover of $18.1 billion and the market size of the Indian AYUSH industry as a whole (consisting of nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, plant extracts, herbal plants) grew by 17 per cent from 2014 to 2020. In contrast, India has emerged as a big market of AYUSH products in the world and reported a six-fold rise in output in just nine years from 2005-2006 to 2014-2015.

Also, the All India Survey of Prioritised Medicinal Plants in 2019 highlighted a continuous surge in the demand for high-value medicinal plants – almost 50 per cent in a year – despite a 26 per cent slump in overall supply. With the AYUSH sector becoming economically active and supported by its growing demand (both global and domestic), and with the regulatory support extended by the Ministry of AYUSH, it is imperative to capitalise on this trend for the wider benefits of farmers and Punjab’s ecology.

Less Than 3% Farm Area Is Under Medicinal Plants

Despite favourable climatic conditions, the presence of 284 herbal licensed units, and the National Medicinal Plants (NMPB) supporting commercial cultivation of more than 115 listed species under sets of subsidy regimes (30%, 50%, and 75%), Punjab has less than three per cent agricultural area under medicinal and aromatic Plants from the total agricultural area. If we focus only on medicinal plants, the area would be far less.

However, during my field visits, a farmer-producer company named ‘Suhavi’ is actively involved in the cultivation of Ghritkumari, Sarpgandha, Haldi, Tulsi, Ashwagandha and making nurseries for Sahanjna, Kalmegh, etc. in a village near Noorpur Bedi falling under Roopnagar District. Similarly, the cultivation of Haldi is adopted by some farmers in different districts of Punjab.

In Punjab, medicinal plants are mostly collected from the wild and not cultivated due to common reasons such as lack of awareness, selection of medicinal plants in the particular agro-climatic zone, long gestation period, less clarity on crop cycle based on seasons to compete with traditional crops, volatile crop yield, lack of quality planting material, and, most importantly, the volatile market with no assured buy-back mechanism. Addressing these issues is not easy, but a few suggestions may help supplement future discussions.

Technical Bottlenecks

With no policy to suggest the right medicinal plant in the right location, it is imperative to highlight potential growing areas for medicinal plants using geospatial-based agro-ecological zoning studies. Medicinal plants such as Ashwagandha, Shatavari, Tulsi, Brahmi, Sarpgandha, Safed Musali, Ghritkumari, Amla, Kalmegh, Bach are some of the common species that can be easily domesticated in the state; they have more than 200 Metric Tonne (MT dry weight) estimated consumption by domestic herbal industries.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a surge in demand for immunity-booster plants such as Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Amla was observed, giving handsome returns to farmers.

It is imperative to identify alternative potential crop cycles, especially focusing on replacing paddy and validating the same. Plants like Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Safed Musali, Kalmegh can compete with paddy if there is assured marketing.

Multilayer farming of medicinal plants with different types of vegetables, pulses, and fruits that may complement each other in many ways, such as by providing shade canopy, litter, increasing the moisture-holding capacity of the soil, while nurturing microflora, must be explored by agricultural research institutions

To start with, at least partial adoption of medicinal plants with traditional crops can be considered by farmers.

For farmers interested in organic cultivation, or having natural land, medicinal plants are the best option as pesticide and heavy metals residues are not recommended in herbal formulations. Even phytoremediation techniques with Brassica species, especially mustard, should be explored to intercrop with medicinal plants.

Value additions can be encouraged through promoting and supporting self-help groups and farmer-producer companies, NGOs or CBO, and cluster formation for good economic sustenance.

Amla pickles, Triphala churna, Chyavanprash, candies, oils, etc. can be manufactured by establishing primary processing at the panchayat level, which can be supported by the National AYUSH Mission (NAM).

There is a need for the dissemination of good agricultural practices and methodologies with the support of agricultural institutes of the state

There are also increasing concerns regarding the authenticity of the planting material. Thus, research organisations should explore and identify more elite cultivars and make them easily accessible to farmers in sufficient quantity.

More testing labs should be established in the state, and subsequently, the farmers must be made aware of these laboratories for evaluating the quality of produce in order to promote quality-based trade.

Commercial Constraints in Growing Herbal Plants

Marketing of medicinal plants remains an uphill task, but RCFC-North-I (NMPB) located in Joginder Nagar is playing a stellar role by providing farmers with backward (generating nurseries) and forward linkages (industry linkage).

Punjab has a strong mandi network, and thus, the concept of herbal mandis can be explored by policymakers where prioritised medicinal plants, as suggested by the government based on their demand, can be procured and farmers are given the price for their produce while maintaining the management record system.

The concept of Minimum Support Price (MSP) is deep-rooted in Punjab. Thus, a mechanism should be built to entitle medicinal plants to different slabs of MSP.

For farmers interested in the open market, a uniform, farmer-friendly, and easy-to-understand (in vernacular language) contract agreement should be drafted by RCFCs (NMPB) with the support of the Ministry of AYUSH.

There should be a robust mechanism ensuring 100% buyback in an agreement under the strict vigil by RCFCs or the forest or agriculture departments. Guaranteed price and appropriate benefit-sharing should be provided before signing the contract.

Policymakers Should Consult All

Most herbal industries in Punjab are MSMEs. So, they also need to be strengthened by incentivising quality-based R&D production of medicinal plants and related formulations, and by evaluating traditional medicine on global standards.

In contrast, for achieving comprehensive, quality-based production of medicinal plants, the targeted focus should inclusively be on three brackets, i.e., good agricultural practices, manufacturing, and marketing of medicinal plants. For this, strong policy decisions are required that take into consideration inputs from progressive farmers, agricultural institutes, AYUSH, and economic experts.

(The writer is a researcher in FITM at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New-Delhi. He can be reached on Twitter @PAS_speaks. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)