Opening a warehouse of precious medicinal herbs from Nghe An

(Baonghean) - Some products processed from medicinal plant areas in Nghe An have been launched on the market with positive signs. This is an important factor for farmers and businesses to open up the potential 'warehouse' of medicinal plants in the area.

Recently, Con Cuong district has cooperated with Thanh An Agricultural Science and Technology Service Joint Stock Company to successfully implement a project to plant, process and supply to the market two medicinal products, Solanum procumbens and Gymnema sylvestre. These are widely adaptable medicinal plants, easy to grow, easy to care for, low investment, and Con Cuong district has implemented a model in Chi Khe commune with high productivity.

The products are purchased by the company, processed on site, finely ground, packaged according to standards and brought to the market in two product lines: medicinal tea and tea bags. According to estimates, these medicinal plants can bring growers in Con Cuong an amount of about 100 million VND/ha/year.

Many types of medicinal herbs are sold at the Cooperative for Production and Introduction of Typical Products of Que Phong District. Photo: Nguyen Nguyen

Previously, in Que Phong district, a cooperative was established to produce and supply typical products, including many medicinal products exploited in the area such as lim mushroom, yellow flower tea, Ngoc Cau, Tun gum, Xuyen Da, Sam Cau, Chuan Hat, Vang tea...

According to Ms. Sam Thi Yen - Director of the Cooperative, after 8 months of operation, the Cooperative has purchased more than 1 ton of various medicinal products, packaged and sold to customers. The problem is that most of the medicinal products sold at the Cooperative are used to soak in wine, decoct and drink according to traditional medicine of the people. Only cinnamon essential oil is extracted from cinnamon products, packaged in small bottles for external use to prevent insect bites.

To protect, develop and effectively exploit the "warehouse" of precious medicinal herbs in the area, the People's Committee of Que Phong district has developed a project "Conservation and development of medicinal plants with high economic value in the period 2015 - 2020". In the immediate future, priority will be given to developing yellow flower tea, ginseng, and bon bo into commodities.

In the transformation of crop structure, rural economic structure, exploiting the potential and existing advantages of the locality, gradually creating a new production mindset for people in the form of short-term support for long-term, at the same time raising people's awareness in protecting sustainable forest resources, preserving and maintaining precious and rare genetic resources on the spot. Que Phong strives to have an area of ​​conservation and newly planted medicinal plants of 334.5 hectares by 2020; mainly focusing on conserving medicinal plants in natural forests, building pilot planting models in communes. Priority is given to the conservation and development of 3 types of medicinal plants: yellow tea flower, ginseng, and bon bo.

Gymnema Sylvestre plant is grown in Chi Khe commune (Con Cuong). Photo: Nhat Lan.

Nghia Dan District is also planning to develop medicinal plants grown under forest canopy and home gardens. Mr. Phan Van Binh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee said: Nghia Dan has a plan to attract and call on businesses to invest in building raw medicinal plant processing factories in the area, in order to develop medicinal plants. In the immediate future, a model of growing ginger in packaging, placed under the canopy of trees is being implemented. However, to ensure product output, the district will sign contracts with businesses, ensuring product consumption for people, avoiding the situation where products are made but have no place to sell.

Through discussion, Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology said: In order to protect and exploit the precious medicinal resources in mountainous districts, the province needs to soon have specific policies to protect precious medicinal plants. For a long time, people often go into the forest to exploit non-timber products, including medicinal plants, depleting the medicinal resources in the forest. Second, there needs to be businesses to purchase medicinal plants for people according to standards and have a serious and scientific exploitation plan. Third, it is necessary to implement projects to plant medicinal plants under the forest canopy, both protecting the forest and developing medicinal plants in a sustainable way.

At the same time, localities need to call for attracting businesses to invest in and process agricultural products, in order to extract medicinal herbs into functional finished products to serve as input materials for the production of medicines or functional foods, increasing the value of medicinal products.

Xuan Hoang