The Pakistani Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MINFAL) has introduced a new scheme designed to promote the production of medicinal herbs and spices as crops as a means of increasing the income of the country's farmers, according to Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper.
Although the country has an abundance of medicinal herbs growing wild, it is yet to cultivate them on a large scale, and currently imports vast quantities of medicinal products which it could probably produce itself, the paper said.
With this in mind, MINFAL has drawn up a plan which will not only save the wild herbs and spices from extinction but also make the country self-sufficient in raw materials of pharmaceutical drugs. The scheme will be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs35.7 million (€0.65m) over a period of five years.
Very little is known about the full extent of the medicinal herbs and spices growing in Pakistan, and the paper said that some experts feared that many of the indigenous species could already be extinct because of a loss of natural habitat or small-scale cultivation which failed to take into account the delicacy of the plants.
The first task will be to identify the herbs and spices by tapping indigenous knowledge and determining how best to cultivate them in a sustainable manner according to the varying climates and soil conditions of Pakistan. The government is expected to offer research grants to agricultural colleges for work on medicinal herbs.