Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs): A Landmark towards Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship Development in India

Abstract

In developing countries like India, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales. While in real sense agribusiness is emerging as a specialized branch of knowledge in the field of management sciences and can be defined as science and practice of activities, with backward and forward linkages, related to production, processing, marketing, trade, and distribution of raw and processed food, feed and fibre, including supply of inputs and services for these activities. India is on the threshold of an herbal revolution. A shift from ‘agriculture’ to ‘agri-business’ is being viewed as an essential pathway to revitalize Indian agriculture. While, the share of agriculture in total GDP is declining, it is still the single largest contributor to the GDP and plays a vital role in the overall socio-economic development of India. Human beings are dependent on plant secondary metabolites for their medicinal and aromatic purpose since the beginning of civilization. In India, nearly 9,500 registered herbal industries and a multitude of unregistered cottage-level herbal units depend upon the continuous supply of medicinal plants. India’s total export earnings from the crude drugs, herbal extracts and finished products stand at about Rs. 800 crores (US $ 160 million). Being a specialized area of knowledge based production and processing, the MAPs have gained importance in agribusiness and development of entrepreneurship and also in transforming the socio-economic status of the poor farmers. Therefore, MAPs have found place in the mandate of several research institutes, government organizations, financial and promotional agencies (CSIR, ICAR, NMPB, DBT, DST, ICMR, NABARD, NMPB, NHB NHM, AYUSH, CAPART, etc.)