What direction for medicinal herb development in Nghe An?
(Baonghean) - Nghe An province is identified to have many favorable conditions for developing the pharmaceutical industry associated with growing medicinal plants in the area. However, for many years, this potential has only stopped at the initial stage.
Fragmented development, difficult to sell output
Currently, in Nghe An, the cultivation and development of medicinal plants is 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 hard, farmers have to say no to herbicides and pesticides, and the yield is not high. However, the biggest difficulty now is still the output.
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| Delegates visited 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, Desmodium styracifolium, etc., of 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 "blockage" of output, many people have abandoned this crop. Mr. Tran Long in hamlet 1 of Nghi Van commune said: His family grows 3 sao of artemisia and plantain, in previous years they sold it for 30,000 VND/kg of artemisia. However, since 2018, the output of 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.
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| Medicinal plants are grown in many localities of Nghe An province. Photo courtesy |
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 Ke Huyet Dang species, 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 a forestry area of nearly 1 million hectares, and has 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.
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| The spoon tree garden in Pu Mat (Con Cuong). Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Most of the medicinal herbs that people exploit themselves 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 basic research results on medicinal plants in Vietnam, such as activity, active ingredients, cultivation conditions, seed production, care processes, harvesting, preliminary processing, preservation, etc. There is no chain connection in the production of medicinal herbs, attracting businesses to this field, etc.
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.
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| Nurturing 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 to ecological conditions in the planning of raw material areas for cultivation.
Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Nghe An, 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, etc.) to create a basis for forest owners - including National Parks, Conservation Areas, protective forest areas, etc.) to conserve medicinal herbs and guide people in planned exploitation.
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| Many Yen Thanh residents have invested tens of millions of dong to grow medicinal plants commercially. Photo courtesy |
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 materials and factories for extracting active ingredients and oriental medicine in the province.
The industry also hopes that the province will have a specialized mechanism 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.
