The Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Anand, Gujarat organized the virtual “Ashwagandha Stakeholders’ Meet - Opportunities & Challenges in the wake of COVID-19 Pandemics in India” recently.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Anand Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture Science), ICAR urged the farmers to harness the potential of medicinal and aromatic plants for doubling the farmers’ income. He emphasized on developing the research programmes for the application of space technologies for accurate estimation of the acreage of Ashwagandha and use of sensors for the quality assessment.
Dr. T. Janakiram, ADG (Horticulture Science), ICAR stressed on addressing the gap between the demand and supply of Ashwagandha in the country by strengthening the seed chain and value- addition in the crop.
Dr. P.K. Trivedi, Director, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, Lucknow highlighted on overview of the research achievements in Ashwagandha of CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow. He accentuating on the need for quality certification of raw drugs and scientific validation of therapeutic potential of Ashwagandha.
Dr. H.S. Gupta, Former Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi urged for setting-up of a certification agency to ensure the best quality planting materials for cultivation. Dr. Gupta also emphasized on having a Farmers’ Producers’ Organizations (FPO) in Ashwagandha to ascertain the best market price to the farmers.
Earlier, Dr. Satyajit Roy, Director, ICAR-DMAPR, Anand, Gujarat outlined the genesis and research achievements of the ICAR-DMAPR. He highlighted the important role played by Ashwagandha in ensuring the primary healthcare.
The meeting was aimed at garnering the opportunities and challenges in Ashwagandha in the wake of COVID-19 Pandemics in India.
Over 100 participants from the academia, researchers, vaidyas, farmers, traders, exporters, extractors and policy makers participated in the virtual meeting.
Source: ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Anand, Gujarat.