PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said that the Himalayan region is a hub of natural herbal wealth and given its immense potential, the State government has given priority to develop the herbal economy in Uttarakhand. The CM chaired a meeting of the Herbal Advisory Committee at the State secretariat on Friday. In the meeting, he directed officials to develop the herbal sector by forming clusters in villages. He said that special attention should be paid to the promotion of herbal and medicinal products available in the high Himalayan regions. The CM said that concrete efforts should be made to maximize the benefits of farmers’ produce, increase local self-employment opportunities and integrate women into the economy. He also urged the cooperation of Pantnagar University to ensure value addition, processing and training for herbal products. He said that joint teams of the Agriculture and Forest departments should be sent to areas where bears and other wild animals are causing damage to human life and crops. These teams should provide information to the public about safety measures and crop protection. Dhami directed that a team of subject matter experts be sent from the State to study the best practices of two leading states in the herbal and aroma sectors, so that these innovations can be implemented in Uttarakhand as well. He said that to increase turnover in the herbal sector, coordinated work should be done on research, innovation, production, marketing and branding. The director of Herbal Research and Development Institute, Abhishek Tripathi gave a detailed present information about the research work being done by the institute, conservation of rare medicinal species, production, and training programmes. Agriculture minister Ganesh Joshi, vice chairman of Herbal Advisory Committee Bhuvan Vikram Dabral, principal secretary RK Sudhanshu, secretary SN Pandey, V Shanmugam and others attended the meeting.
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