Medicinal plants to be grown here to save forex

By Ifham Nizam

The Sri Lankan government spends nearly USD 09 million per year on importing ingredients, such as Aralu and Bulu, required for indigenous medicine. “We do not need to import such local medicines from India. Sri Lanka can produce these ingredients in sufficient quantities and action should be taken, in consultation with the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine, to do so, ” Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said, adding that a lot of foreign exchange could be saved through such action.These facts were revealed by a group of experts at a meeting of the Presidential Task Force on Green Economy with Solutions to Climate Change held at the Ministry of Environment last week. The experts suggested to the Presidential Task Force that a programme be launched to ensure that these plants can be grown in all parts of our country.The Chairman of the Task Force, Minister of Environment Amaraweera said that under the National Tree Planting Programme implemented by the Ministry of Environment, a project could be initiated to cultivate medicinal plants. He said that although there are medicinal plants such as Aralu and Bulu, in almost all parts of the country at present, there was no programme to harvest them.

Nilgala Herbal Garden has a large number of such medicinal plants and the Task Force will take steps to cultivate such plants, in other forest areas as well.Amaraweera also said wild animals destroyed crops as they did not have enough food in the forests. Therefore, the Presidential Task Force could initiate a programme to plant more fruit trees ,such as Atamba and Valu Amba, in the forests, the Minister said.