What direction for medicinal development in Nghe An?

Fragmented development, difficult to sell output

Currently, in Nghe An, the cultivation and development of medicinal plants is still on a small scale. Some households are also aware of growing medicinal plants, however, the concern about the output of the products is a matter of concern.

Ms. Mai Thi Huong, village 7, Quynh Trang commune, Hoang Mai town, is taking care of the Solanum procumbens field and shares: My family grows 2 sao of Solanum procumbens. This plant can use all parts from the stem, leaves, and roots. Growing this plant is very difficult, farmers have to say no to herbicides and pesticides, and the yield is not high. However, the biggest difficulty right now is the output.

Delegates visit the Puxailaileng ginseng planting model in Muong Long commune (Ky Son). Photo: Lu Phu

Currently, the medicinal plants grown by Hoang Mai people are mainly Solanum procumbens, Plantago, Turmeric, Moneywort, and Cynomorium... in which the area of ​​Turmeric alone is over 200 hectares, concentrated in Quynh Trang and Quynh Vinh communes. However, due to the difficulty in selling the output, farmers are not interested in medicinal plants.

Nghi Loc district has a lot of medicinal plants, however, due to the "blockage" of output, many people have abandoned this crop. Mr. Tran Long in hamlet 1, Nghi Van commune said: His family grows 3 sao of wormwood and plantain, in previous years selling wormwood for 30,000 VND/kg. However, since 2018, the output for medicinal plants has been difficult, there were times when the remaining stock had to be sold off, so the family had to abandon medicinal plants and switch to growing vegetables.

Medicinal plants are grown in many localities of Nghe An province. Photo: Document

However, medicinal plants in Nghe An are increasingly declining. Most medicinal plants with high economic and usage value are gradually losing their ability to be exploited. Many forests that used to have large reserves of medicinal plants such as: Hoang Dang, Ngu Gia I Chinh Chim, Thien Nien Kien, Bach Bo, Cau Tich... have now gradually disappeared.

Some rare species are in danger of extinction. For example, the blood-red vine, which can be exploited for about 50 tons/year, is now only scattered in Pu Mat National Park and Pu Huong Nature Reserve...

Nghe An has nearly 1 million hectares of forestry land and biodiversity with many valuable medicinal plants. According to statistics, there are 962 species of medicinal plants and mushrooms. In the list of essential medicinal plants and herbs of the Ministry of Health, Nghe An has 41 species out of 206 species of naturally growing medicinal plants that are exploited and used.

Garden of spoon plants in Pu Mat (Con Cuong). Photo: Xuan Hoang

Most of the medicinal herbs that people exploit on their own are purchased by private traders and exported to China at cheap prices. Part of the reason is that in recent times, the issue of developing the pharmaceutical and medicinal herbs industry in the province has not received due attention in terms of both planning and investment policies. For example, there is no policy to support the development of medicinal herbs as well as prioritize the use of medicinal herbs in the province. There is a lack of information on the results of basic research on medicinal plants in Vietnam, such as activity, active pharmaceuticals, cultivation conditions, seed production, care processes, harvesting, preliminary processing, preservation, etc. There is no connection in the chain in the production of medicinal herbs, attracting businesses to this field, etc.

Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of Nghe An Department of Science and Technology

Deep Processing - Sustainable Direction

To overcome the above situation, Nghe An province is currently encouraging organizations, individuals, businesses... to invest in joint ventures in research, development, production, and processing of medicinal herbs and products from medicinal herbs in the area.

Currently, there are a number of individuals and organizations that have built models for growing and processing medicinal herbs in Ky Son, Que Phong, Con Cuong, Yen Thanh, Quynh Luu districts... However, all are in the initial stage and have not yet clearly defined output.

Growing and processing yellow flower tea in Que Phong district. Photo: Lam Tung

To increase the value of medicinal plants, it is necessary to gradually shift from raw material and medicinal material production to deep processing to increase product value and income, build brands for each region and locality to create strengths to stabilize the market. Prioritize research and selection of species with economic value and use value suitable for ecological conditions in the planning of raw material areas for cultivation.

Associate Professor Tran Ngoc Hai - Forestry University

Director of Nghe An Department of Science and Technology, Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh added: Speed ​​up the investigation and assessment of biological forms, especially medicinal materials in the Western region, and soon complete the Planning for the development of medicinal materials in Nghe An province.

On that basis, the province needs to clearly define the responsibilities of sectors, localities, and levels in management and development support policies (support for technology transfer application, support for chain connection, support for trade promotion, priority policy for using local medicinal herbs, investment attraction policy... To create a basis for forest owners - including National Parks, Conservation Areas, protective forest areas...) to conserve medicinal herbs and guide people in planned exploitation.

Many Yen Thanh residents have invested tens of millions of dong to grow medicinal plants for sale. Photo: Archive

At the same time, districts and enterprises have plans for development (planting and preliminary processing), forming a chain of links. Focus on attracting investment to encourage and call on domestic and foreign pharmaceutical enterprises to invest in developing medicinal herbs and factories extracting active ingredients and oriental medicine in the province.

The industry also hopes that the province will have specialized mechanisms and sanctions for medicinal plants to manage the issue of exploitation in nature. Medicinal plants must be considered as special forest products to guide forest owners and people to exploit them in a controlled and planned manner and to issue certificates of origin.