National Medicinal Plants Board
Also called: NMPB · Topic: Rural Development: Diversification, Allied Sectors and Organic Farming · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) is a national body under the Ministry of AYUSH. It coordinates policy and support for medicinal plants in India: their conservation (protecting the plants and where they grow), cultivation (growing them on farms), trade and sustainable use (using them without using them up). Wild collection alone cannot meet the demand from the AYUSH industry, so the Board encourages farmers to grow these plants. This takes pressure off wild stocks and gives farmers a high-value crop to add to what they already grow. That links the Board to crop diversification (moving from one or a few crops to a wider mix) and to rural incomes.
Example
The Board supports studies of how much medicinal plant material the country needs. One example is a study by ICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education) that estimated India's yearly demand. Studies like this help plan how much area should go under cultivation. A farmer in a tribal or hilly district who grows medicinal herbs alongside regular crops is doing the kind of diversification the Board supports.
Don't confuse with
- MoTA–CSIR-NBRI medicinal plants project: a three-year project of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs with CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow, covering 16 tribal hotspots. It is a separate initiative. It is not run by NMPB or the Ministry of AYUSH.
- CSIR-NBRI and CSIR-CIMAP: these are research institutes under CSIR, and both are in Lucknow. NMPB is a policy and support body, not a research laboratory.