NEW DELHI: In a bid to enhance the livelihood of tribal people, the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) under the Ministry of Ayush signed a MoU on Thursday to promote medicinal and aromatic plants forest produce.
While tribal communities are growing medicinal plants, they are unaware of the actual value of their produce, said Jual Oram, Tribal Affairs Minister.
The MoU will help the communities realise the potential of their produce and also facilitate earnings from the product.
In the first step, the MoU will first identify potential medicinal plant species of the tribal areas. The other activities of the MoU include supporting training and awareness programmes on good agricultural practices and good field collection practices. It also aims to support skill upgradation, capacity building besides facilitating financial assistance for plantations and nursery development for the plants through the self help groups. In the long run, the government also plans to come up with a research and testing centre.