10 FEB,Delhi: Till date, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has supported 1498 no. of projects throughout the country under Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants since its inception. Under the same scheme, NMPB, Ministry of Ayush has supported 103026.32-hectare area under In-situ / Ex-situ Conservation and Resource augmentation, 24,000 herbal gardens, 1175 JFMCs, 233 seminars / workshops / conferences / buyer-seller meets / trainings and 57 no. of nurseries. Beside this, NMPB has developed “e-CHARAK” application to provide a platform for trade of Medicinal Plants & to provide easy market access and developed a NMPB helpline in collaboration with CDAC Hyderabad.Ministry of Ayush had supported 56,305 hectare area, 220 nurseries, 354 post-harvest management units, 25 Processing Units, 42 Rural / District Collection Centres / Retail outlet, 10 Seed germplasm centres, 15 Demonstration plots etc. under medicinal plants component of National Ayush Mission (NAM) from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21.National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of Ayush is implementing a scheme entitled “Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants.” Under the scheme project based support is provided for following activities on medicinal plants:Survey Inventorisation, In-situ Conservation through Medicinal Plants Conservation and Development Areas (MPCDA) and Resource augmentationEx-situ Conservation / Establishment of Herbal Garden (HG), School Herbal Garden (SHG) and Home Herbal Garden (HHG)Support to Joint Forest Management Committees / Panchayats / Van Panchayats / Biodiversity Management Committees / Self Help Groups for value addition activities like drying, primary processing, storage etc. of Medicinal Plants and thereby generate livelihood to these communitiesResearch & DevelopmentInformation, Education and Communication (IEC) etc.Promotional activities such as establishment of nurseries.Ministry of Ayush, Government of India had implemented Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Ayush Mission (NAM) to promote the cultivation of medicinal plants from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21. Under its ‘Medicinal Plants’ component, market driven cultivation of 140 prioritized medicinal plants in identified clusters/zones was supported and implemented in a mission mode through selected State Implementing agencies throughout the country. As per the scheme guidelines, the support was provided for:Cultivation of prioritized medicinal plants on farmer’s land.Establishment of nurseries with backward linkages for raising and supply of quality planting material.Post-harvest management with forwarding linkages.Primary processing, marketing infrastructure etc.