The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), under the Union Ministry of Ayush, has launched a national campaign to promote cultivation of medicinal plants in the country as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. This will help in increasing the income of farmers and realize the dream of Green India.

“Under this campaign, cultivation of medicinal plants will be done on 75,000 hectares of land in the next one year across the country. The program has been started from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Pune in Maharashtra. This program is second in the series of programs being organized by the Ministry of Ayush under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, said the statement issued by the Ayush Ministry.

In Pune medicinal plants were distributed to the farmers. Those who were already cultivating medicinal plants were felicitated. Nilesh Lanke, MLA from Parner in Ahmednagar district, Dr. Asim Ali Khan, DG, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), and Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sanwal, deputy chief executive officer, NMPB, led the events from different locations.

The farmers cultivating medicinal plants were felicitated by Dharam Singh Saini, Minister of State for Ayush, Uttar Pradesh. Medicinal plants were distributed free of cost to 150 farmers who came from many nearby districts. These included mainly 5 species of plants - Night-flowering Jasmine (Parijat), Golden Apple (Bel), Margosa Tree (Neem), Indian Ginseng (Ashwagandha) and Indian Blackberry (Jamun). 750 Jamun saplings were separately distributed free of cost to the farmers.

Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the country has immense potential in the field of medicinal plants and cultivation of medicinal plants on 75,000 hectares of land will ensure availability of medicines in the country and it will be a big source of income for the farmers. This will make the country self-reliant in the field of medicines. Significantly, in the last 1.5 years, the market of medicinal plants has increased in a big way not only in India but all over the world. This is the reason that Ashwagandha has been the third best-selling product in America.