How demand of Shatavari(Asparagus) changing Lives of Farmers and Locals in Rural India?
India has strong traditional healthcare practice specially in Rural and depends upon raw material derived from medicinal plants. There is huge gap between demand and supply of Medicinal plants to produce Herbal products by Herbal FMCG companies.
Shatavari is one of those medicinal plants which has created huge demand in Indian Herbal market due to its miraculous medicinal properties. Shatavari can be grown easily in Indian subcontinent due to favourable climate condition. In India Nepali Yellow Shatavari is grown at large scale rather than White Shatavari due to its good commercial value in Indian Herbal market.Shatavari farming is considered as commercial cash crop Cultivation. Farmers are getting multifold return from growing shatavari as compared to grain growing due to its good commercial value in market.
Cultivation of Shatavari is promoted by Medicinal Plant Board of India (NMPB) under Ministry of AYUSH and has been included in the LIST OF PRIORITISED PLANTS FOR CULTIVATION UNDER SCHEME. Farmers through the country are getting financial assistance by the AYUSH Ministry to encourage cultivation of Shatavari and other medicinal plants. Shatavari has been included in the list of 55 varities of plants by NMPB and is eligible for 30% subsidy as provided by Ministry of AYUSH.
To assess the current Demand and Supply scenario of medicinal plants, NMPB has extensively surveyed the herbal market of India in collaboration with Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education(ICFRE), Dehradun. The estimate of consolidated commercial demand of herbal raw drugs for the year 2014-15 has been estimated at 5,12,000 MT. Estimated export of Herbal Raw Drugs, including Extracts has been estimated 1,34,,500 MT in 2014-15. Estimated consumption by Domestic Herbal Industry has been estimated 1,95,000 MT in 2014-15. An estimated 1,67,500 MT of Herbal Raw Drugs are also used by Rural Households every year. These are the the statistics provided by NMPB, AYUSH Ministry.However statistics have not been updated by NMPB and demand has increased.
2. Demand of Shatavari
The use of herbal medicinal products and supplements has increased tremendously over the past two decades. As per the estimation people worldwide specifically people living in developing countries are relying on herbal medicine and health suppliments rather than allopathic drugs as a primary source of healthcare and traditional medical practice. Herbal products available not only in medical store but now also in supermarkets and food stores. Shatavari is known as 'queen of herbs' and considered a general health tonic to improve vitality. It has been used for many centuries in Indian Ayurvedic medicine system. It is one of the best herbs known to have antioxidant and inflammatory properties which help to enhance humans immunity. Shatavari has incredible health benefit particularly for the female reproductive system. In rural, people feed shatavari's dried roots to milk producing animals to enhance their milk yield. However not enough scientific studies on humans have been done to recommend it for any medical condition.
In Asian countires like India and Nepal farming of Nepali Yellow Shatavari has increased tremendously due to favourable climatic condition, good soil productivity and good commercial value in Herbal market. It has been observed that growing Shatavari in field is less difficult than growing other medicinal plants. Shatavari plants are thorny so animals also don't harm this crop. FMCG Herbal companies like Patanjali and Dabur use processed dried Shatavari roots as main ingradient to produce consumer goods and other healthcare suppliments. Shatavari is used in almost all healthcare products produced by these Indian Herbal companies. This is the reason of huge demand of Shatavari in Herbal market.
3. Contribution of Shatavari farming towards rural development
In India agriculture is main economic activity and growing medicinal plants like Shatavari is not only a major resource base for the traditional medicine & herbal industry but also provide livelihood and health security to a large segment of rural population. Herbal companies like Patanjali and Dabur promote farming of shatavari and other medicinal plants in line with NMPB, India as per their CSR activity.
In 2010 FMCG company Dabur initiates locals and farmers in Nepal into growing shatavari in their Farm. Tremendous changes have been observed in locals and Farmers' lives when they started getting engaged in shatavari farming. In Nepal who battled every day to earn bread and butter, today employs more laborers on daily wages and is responsible for their livelihood. Shatavari farming gives opportunity to a large section of rural population as labor requirements are considerably higher in this herbal farming than for cereals, and hence it is making agriculture a good source of employment in rural where people were supposed to run to big cities in search of employment.
4. My opinion as a Farmer
I am a farmer and have been growing shatavari in my farm for last 20 years. I have recorded the changes in my life when I used to grow cereals in my field and was not able to earn any significant profit. It really give me better perspective and a vision in agriculture. I have seen transformation in the field of agriculture in my area. The farmers who were engaged in cultivating only cereals and other less profitable crops, now are getting engaged in cultivating and growing medicinal plant shatavari due to its high return. This is becoming possible due to increased awareness in the field of agriculture. Multimedia is also playing important role in shaping and bringing reforms in the farming methods. Farmers are connecting and interacting each others nationwide. I have travelled to various cities in states Gujarat , Maharashtra, Bihar and my own state Uttar Pradesh to meet farmers and locals when they contact me and show interest in medicinal plants farming.
I grow medicinal plant shatavari(Asparagus racemosus wild) in my farm and every year I produce shatavari plants and seeds in excess in order to support farmers interested in growing shatavari. The process of cultivating and harvesting this medicinal plant involve various steps. Before getting engaged in this herbal farming, one should understand carefully all processing steps involved in this herbal farming.
I have seen the changes in lives of locals and farmers who quit growing cereals and switched to grow shatavari and other medicnal plants in their farms.Government also provides financial assistance to farmers for growing medicinal plants. Herbal industry is growing day by day due to increase demand of herbal products so there is need to motivate more and more people to get involved in herbal farming.
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