Jammu, Jan 15: The government has formulated a comprehensive action plan costing Rs. 76.50 crore for conservation, development and sustainable management of Medicinal Plants in the State.
This was stated by the Minister for Health, Horticulture and Floriculture, Sham Lal Sharma while chairing Governing Body meeting of J&K State Medicinal Plants Board and State Level Steering Committee for implementation of National Mission on Medicinal Plants here today.
He said the main components of the action plan, which will be implemented in next four years, include conservation of medicinal plants, mass cultivation of Medicinal Plants, Processing and value addition, marketing.  The action plan also focuses on supporting research institutions, programme management, capacity building and survey and studies regarding medicinal and aromatic plants, he added.
The Minister said that the State Government has already initiated measures to promote cultivation of medicinal plants under Centrally Sponsored National Mission on Medicinal Plants of the Department of AYUSH.
He said the State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB) has already released Rs. 3.50 crore to the Forest Department for conservation and development of medicinal plants. He said the Department of AYUSH has designated Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM), Jammu as felicitation centre for medicinal plants and released an amount of
Rs. 2.50 crore for carrying various activities including, identification of plant species, certification of planting material, developing of marketing linkage and modern processing technologies for collection, drying, extraction, formulation, preservation and storage.
The Minister said that Rs. 40 lakh has been released to SMPB for implementing that National Campaign on promotion, Propagation and Usages of Amla across Jammu and Kashmir.
He said an amount of Rs. 3.23 crore has been released against a sanctioned project of Rs 6.86 crore to the Horticulture Mission for implementation of National Mission of Medicinal Plants in the State that covers second component of State Action Plan for promoting Mass Cultivation of Medicinal Plants.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST