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Catalyzing Rural Empowerment through Cultivation, Value Addition and Marketing of Aromatic Plants
- The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has contributed significantly in the development, nurturing and positioning of essential oil-based aroma industry in the country. This has led to creation of an ecosystem benefitting the industry, farmers and next generation entrepreneurs.
- The segment is maturing and there is global connect in a significant manner, providing newer opportunities which are associated, however, with several challenges. Industry thus needs to reposition itself in this important segment. CSIR once again proposes to contribute for the purpose in a mission mode. CSIR Aroma Mission has been conceptualized and is being made operational.
- The nodal laboratory is CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow. The participating laboratories are CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur; CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu; CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Lucknow; and CSIR-North-East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST), Jorhat.
- The CSIR Aroma Mission is envisaged to bring transformative change in the aroma sector through desired interventions in the areas of agriculture, processing and product development for fuelling the growth of aroma industry and rural employment.
- The mission will promote the cultivation of aromatic crops for essential oils that are in great demand by aroma industry. It is expected to enable Indian farmers and aroma industry to become global leaders in the production and export of some other essential oils on the pattern of menthol mint. This is expected to provide substantial benefits to the farmers in achieving higher profits, utilization of waste lands and protection of their crops from wild and grazing animals.
- An additional area of 5500 hectares will be brought under cultivation of these crops by interventions of CSIR to further catalyze cultivation of aromatic crops in about 60,000 hectares.
- An additional 700 tonnes of essential oil is expected to be produced annually for perfumery, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and use of these oils in value addition and herbal products would generate a business of at least 200 crores.
- The activities of the Mission will improve availability of quality material on sustainable basis for a boom in the herbal industry based on essential oils.
- The income of the farmers through such cultivation is expected to increase by Rs. 30,000 to 60,000/ha/year. About 45,000 skilled human resource capable of multiplying quality planting material, distillation, fractionation and value addition will be developed. More than 25,000 farming families would be directly benefitted and an employment of more than 10-15 lakhs mandays will be generated in rural areas.
- The scientific interventions made under the mission project would provide assured benefits to the growers of Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Gujarat, Marathwada, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and other states where farmers are exposed to frequent episodes of weather extremes and account for maximum suicides.
- The mission will put a mechanism in place for timely agro-advisory, ensuring optimal productivity and fair price of the produce to the farmers and reducing the import of essential oils and enabling India to become leading exporter of at least some essential oils.
This Mission aims to achieve following outcomes
- Bring about 5500 ha of additional area under captive cultivation aromatic cash cropsparticularly targeting rain-fed /degraded land across the country
- Provide technical and infrastructural support for distillation and values-addition to farmers/growers all over the country
- Enabling effective buy-back mechanisms to assure remunerative prices to the farmers/growers
- Value-addition to essential oils and aroma ingredients for their integration in global trade and economy
