Part 2 - Commercialization of medicinal plants

Welcome back! In our last article we discussed about trading of medicinal plants as a part of commercialization and its possible benefits. But, sometimes favorable land type for cultivation and timely harvesting is not available. And even if you get it, it may not be sufficient enough to expand your business. Hence, another alternative for commercialization of medicinal plants is to start a medicinal plant nursery. It may not sound much interesting to some people but, it is indeed a nice business startup idea.

As we discussed in previous article, the demand of medicinal plants is high. But, this business has less competition in market due to lack of awareness. And, you can take privilege of this situation by introducing new marketing techniques as well as using the digital platform. You can provide the raw material required for cultivation of medicinal plants to traders and farmers/growers. Additionally, there are research institutes which always require different species of medicinal plants for their research study. You can co-ordinate with such institutes for a fixed long term contract of medicinal plants. Also, there are many people who like to collect and grow medicinal plants as a hobby. In short, this business has a wide scope in market and you can use different strategies to attract the customers. This is a onetime investment idea, because once you start the process you don’t need to spend extra on capital again and again. Other expenditure is on maintenance of the plants and nursery stuff. The most important thing is almost any type of land is favorable for nursery.

But, just like medicinal farming maintenance of medicinal plant nursery is not that easy. You have to practice proper propagation methods, grafting methods, use suitable fertilizers and so on. There is need to have a thorough knowledge of medicinal plants and necessary techniques required for their maintenance. Additionally, study of market season for demand of particular plant or species is also important.

There are a few courses available in this sector such as crop cultivation and marketing of medicinal plants, post graduate diploma in medicinal plants biotechnology, certificate in Ayurvedic herb cultivation etc. If you do not have much idea about the concept then you can join such courses to study the basics before you start the business. In addition to this, there are some government policies and schemes for improvising the marketing and trading of medicinal plants.

This was a short article on commercialization of medicinal plants. This sector has less acknowledgement because of lack of awareness, but if you put focus on it there are many opportunities in this field.

I hope you guys liked my article. Keep on visiting my blog for more of such articles and you can suggest some topics if you want in the comment box below. If you liked the article please share and subscribe to my blog for free!!!