Activities for Developing Business of Vegetables, Spices, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

In the first phase, market links will be established to ensure the buyer about the species being cultivated and demand and the estimated volumes so that buyers could rely on our company for their future demands. We will invite consultants to take up the need assessment study, apart from our own study. Other than this we will also collaborate with private parties in this field which conduct such surveys. One of the potential collaboration could be ITC which publishes a market report every quarter to promote and improve international market transparency and fill in the information gap in medicinal plants supply and botanicals extracts. The regional reviews cover the main producing regions: Africa, China (and other East Asian countries), India (and other Asian countries), North America and South America. Information on Oceanic countries is occasionally included as well. Each regional section includes:

• Demand and supply trends in medicinal herbs business.
•  Industry news from the major producers in each region.
•  Indicative prices of raw materials and herbal extracts, trade specifications commonly used in each region.
• Relevant meetings and trade shows.
•  A directory of global herb trade associations and special features (company profiles, regulations).
•  Links to Sustainability Standards and Guidance Documents Relevant to the Global Trade of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Extracts.

We have in-house expertise in cultivation and post harvesting but still we will be requiring experts for soil testing, testing of produce, organic certification, implementing organic norms in our farms and many more minute procedures to fulfil norms of E.U and W.H.O. For this we will hire the services of External Resource Persons/Agencies (ERPs). For this detailed documentation of entire procedures of starting from seed, cutting purchase to sale of produce will be done in following manner: 

1. Source of supply and end use of medicinal plant. 

1. Details of farm and cluster which are cultivating medicinal plants. 

• Need assessment of all individual buyers and species required. 

1. Documentation required for export of MAPs (G.A.C.P).

Based on the reports generated for demand and supply gap and requirement of buyers we will select the species based on environmental factor. We will choose the species based on demand by market and farmers ability to grow the species. Our company and expert consultants will ensure the quality and quantity of seed material for the farm in the cluster according to total farm land available, on cluster level according to the market demand. We will ensure where ever possible at farm level inter-cropping of different MAPs could be done.

We will organize workshops by involving experts in seed technology, soil chemistry and other areas for implementing a viable and sustainable model of bunnies for our farms with close support of farmers involved who will be the integral part of program and will be members of a state level farmer federation. We will higher best experts from Indian for implementation of protocols necessary for ensuring high quality produce, which will be basis for a sustainable model of business that will be run by our company in close association with rural farmers. We will ensure that every farmer group gets a proper training in the proposed species to be grown at large scale and these farm lands will be linked for business of medicinal and aromatic plants with Indian and European buyers. A standard protocol will be followed for nursery establishment, cultivation, post harvesting, storage of seeds so that the gap can be bridged in supply and demand of plants inside and outside cluster.

Extensive work has been done in Uttarakhand by our company as well as various government and non-government organizations to develop nursery techniques for different medicinal and aromatic plants. Following the standard protocols we have done Identification of area for nursery which was done on bases of ecological analysis of and micro climatic condition of the site. We aim to establish sufficient number of nurseries across the altitude gradient in Uttarakhand to provide legal planting material on sustainable bases. The entire program will be run by the team of Doon University in close collaboration of different research organizations of government of India and other non-government organization having command over different aspects of cultivation, nursery establishment and storage.

Infrastructure will be developed at farm cluster so that post harvested M.A.Ps can be packaged as quickly as possible to prevent deterioration of the product and to protect against unnecessary exposure to potential pest attacks and other sources of contamination. Continuous in-process quality control measures should be implemented to eliminate substandard materials, contaminants and foreign matter prior to and during the final stages of packaging. Processed M.A.P materials will be packaged in clean, dry boxes, sacks, bags or other containers in accordance with standard operating procedures and national and/or regional regulations of the producer and the end-user countries. Materials used for packaging will be be non-polluting, clean, dry and in undamaged condition and should conform to the quality requirements for the M.A.Ps materials concerned. Fragile M.A.Ps seeds should be packaged in rigid containers.

A label affixed to the packaging will clearly indicate the scientific name of the seeds of Medicinal and Aromatic plant, the place of origin (cultivation or collection site), the cultivation or collection date and the names of the grower/collector and the processor, and quantitative information. The label should also contain information indicating quality approval and comply with other national and/or regional labeling requirements. The label will bear a number that clearly identifies the production batch. Additional information about the production and quality parameters of the M.A.Ps materials may be added in a separate certificate, which is clearly linked to the package carrying the same batch number.

Local youth will be trained by skilled and experienced resource persons to establish the nursery and promoted seed production of different M.A.P species. This will give an opportunity to the rural youth to be a part of business and understand the requirements of market. This will also be an opportunity to abandon the illegal ways of collection of medicinal and aromatic plants and establish legalized nurseries for business.

• Development of natural resource management practices, in hill communities of Uttarakhand in the context of Climate change.
• Mitigation of human-wildlife conflict in project areas.
• Development of large scale farm based business in project areas. 

• Development of adaptation strategies.

• Development participatory conservation framework.

• Development of sustainable harvesting protocols for diverse natural resources.

• Strengthening of local natural resource based institutions.

• To standardize good cultivation and harvesting practices.

• Documentation of all processes involved and up-scaling of ex situ conservation efforts.