Srinagar, 26 October (H.S.): CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine and National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of AYUSH have conducted a one-day Buyer-Seller Meet on Medicinal and Aromatic plant sector for the growers, startup and industries at CSIR-IIIM, Branch Lab. Srinagar. Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director CSIR-IIIM, was the chief guest, Dr. Suresh Sharma, Director, AYUSH J&K and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of J&K Medicinal Plant Board was the guest of honour whileas Kavita Tyagi, Consultant, Medicinal and Agronomy, NMPB, Prof. T.H. Masoodi, Nodal Office, RCFC North NMPB-II and Prof. Mansoor Wani Wani, HoD Botany, Kashmir University were on presidium. A spokesperson told that the program was attended by more than 100 famers from different districts of Kashmir region and the buyers from across country. The main objective of the programme was to interact with the growers & entrepreneurs of Medicinal plant sector & discuss about some challenges faced by growers in value addition & selling of their products in open market easily.

Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director CSIR-IIIM, while speaking at the inaugural session emphasised on the importance of medicinal and aromatic plant sector in drug discovery & uplifting the farming community through enhanced income generation by cultivating medicinal and aromatic plants. He highlighted the pivotal role of CSIR-IIIM in implementing the broader domain of scientific and technological outreach initiatives in natural products driven drug discovery with special focus on phytopharmaceutical drugs discovery and providing proof of concept to the traditional Indian medicine system. He also highlighted that having harbouring more than 3000 medicinal plants species in the region, there are ample opportunities for the Indian stakeholders to position herbal based standardised products into the global market. Dr Ahmed commended the organizers for devising an impactful workshop that envisages to strengthen the bonding between different government and non-government organisations related to this sector like national Medicinal Plants Board, Department of Ayush.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar