ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

Review of Research Vol: 1 Issue: 1/ October 2011

ISSN: 2249-894X

Research Papers

ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

By V.T.KUMAR and Dr.C.VENKATESAN

Assistant Professor of Economics DDE.Annamalai University Annamalainagar-608002.Tamilnadu.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem Traditional Tamil system of Medicine is called Siddha Medicine and it is plant based traditional medicine to health care. It includes herbal products in organic substance. Which are used to get Chendooram and Choornam. The collection and processing of medicinal plants are the source of both full and part time employment in rural areas. Micro
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ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

studies suggest that a large number of women are employed in this sector. According to the WHO, 80 percent of the worlds population depends on health care provided by medicinal plants. This is because; poorer sections of the population in the developing countries believe that natural remedies are cheaper than other types of medicines. Medicinal plants provide a good source of income if cultivated aggressively and traded. As the demand is fast increasing, they help to improve the economic level of the people. Chatterjee, (2002) Increase in the price of allopathic drugs, may result in an increased demand for plant based medicinal products and preparations. The huge wasteland of rural areas in Tamil Nadu can be utilized for the purpose of medicinal plant cultivation practice. This will provide income and employment for rural poor. It will supply sufficient raw materials for the siddha medicine manufacturing firms. It also maintains the balance between ecology and bio-diversity. Hence in this context is undertaken.

Review of Literature Shankar and Rawat (2006) have explained that medicinal plants activities include the collection, processing, marketing, cultivation and manufacturing of herbal medicines including formulation of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy and Naturopathy systems of medicines. In rural areas of North Eastern region, people can have the scope for various changes in their socio-economic status by adoption of different activities of medicinal plants, particularly large scale cultivation of locally available or suitable medicinal plants in wasteland area.
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ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

Suneetha and Chandrakanth (2006) have attempted to decide priorities between 18 medicinal plants selected on the basis of economic importance and endemicity in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The results indicate that in Gloriosa, Cassia and Plantago, the value is greatly influenced by international variables like export demand in relation to other variables. Schippmann, et al, (2006) have studied increased realization that many wild medicinal and aromatic plant species are being over-exploited. Among the species that can be marked at a high price to make cultivation profitable, only few are in the highest categories. Maheswaran et al, (2011) have aimed to document and quantitatively analyze the local knowledge of the traditional siddha healers in Virudhunagar District of TamilNadu, India. This study recorded the ethno-medical usage of 227 species which were used to prepare 611 formulations for the treatment of 36 illness categories. Quantitative analysis of the data has revealed that the easily available species hold a high conesus and cultural importance. There is a scanty literate focusing on economic aspects of herbal cultivation in terms of employment, cost and income of household due to herbal products. Therefore the present study is taken up to fill in this gap. Objectives The main objectives of this study are: 1. To find out the varieties and trend in area under cultivation of siddha herbal plants in the study region. 2. To determine the factors influencing the cultivation of siddha herbal plants among the cultivators.
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ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

3. To compare the generation of employment and cost structure per acre of the siddha herbal cultivation. 4. To estimate income generated through cultivation of siddha herbal products and its share in agricultural income as well as total household income of the cultivators. 5. To analyse the role of government (in terms of subsidy, seed and training) to promote the cultivation of herbals. 6. To suggest policy measures to improve the economic conditions of the herbal cultivators. Methodology The study area will be Namakkal District which has sizable production of herbal plants. The private land owners devote a part of their lands for cultivation of the herbals, instead of procuring herbals from the area of common property resources. About 300 samples of cultivators would be covered by choosing them at random from the major herbal cultivated areas in Namakkal District. A pretested schedule and questionnaire methods will be adopted for collecting the data from the cultivating groups in the study region, for one year from 2011-2012. References 1. Chatterjee (2002) Cultivation of medicinal and Aromatic plants in India, - A commercial approach, In International conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: possibilities and limitations of Medicinal and Aromatic plant production in 21st century, chemical weekly, November.
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ECONOMICS OF HERBAL CULTIVATION: A STUDY ON NAMAKKAL DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU STATE

2. Anbuganapathi (2002) The principle of siddha systems of medicine paper presented at national conference on medical plants, their cultivation, cultivation and marketing, Salem June 26-27. 3. Rama Shankar and Rawat (2006) medicinal plants activities for change in the socio-economic status in rural areas of north east India Journal of Bulletin of Arunachal Forest research 22 (12): 5863. 4. Huang Jie, Chagrin (2001) Traditional herbal products creabe innovation model in yannam province Journal of Economic issues exploration Vol. 2, 56-63.