Karnataka eyes medicinal shrubs market

The forest department is contemplating cultivating medicinal shrubs and marketing them to private industries to meet the increasing global demand for Ayurvedic and vanaspati shrubs.

Karnataka was once a popular destination for those searching for medicinal plants. Ayurvedic and vanaspati pharmaceutical  industries are now exporting medicinal plants from Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Nepal and other places. Besides, the global demand for medicinal plants too is increasing by the day. In this background, the state government has now decided to enter into agreements with private industries to cultivate and market medicinal shrubs.

Forest minister CH Vijayshankar said, “A two-day national level workshop is being held from May 2 in Bangalore to help the state’s private industries doing business in the field of Ayurvedic and vanaspati medicine. We have invited experts, scientists and also heads of industries to the workshop where all issues would be discussed threadbare before drawing up an action plan. We also plan to enter into agreements with private industries to cultivate medicinal shrubs. The companies too can enter into agreement with the farmers directly.”