Model Medicinal Plants Garden
(MMPG)
 


 MMPG - National Botanical Research Institute
 
 

Introduction || Objectives || Outline of the site || Project Team || Work Progress
 
 

Theme:
 
Conservation by promotion: Use but not abuse.
 
 

Introduction:
 
The NBRI Model Medicinal Plant Garden (MMPG-NBRI) is about sustainability – there is no point in promoting the use of medicinal plants if they are going to be exterminated by popularity. It is about plant use. What are the top 10 medicinal plants in the Indo Gangetic region? How are they sourced?

Indo-Gangetic Plain

The vast Indo-Gangetic Plain, extending from Punjab to Assam, is the most intensively farmed zone of the country and one of the most intensively farmed in the world. Rainfall, most of which comes with the southwest monsoon, is generally adequate for summer grown crops, but in some years vast areas are seared by drought. Fortunately, much of the land has access, or potential access, to irrigation waters from wells and rivers, ensuring crops even in years of drought and making possible a winter crop as well as a summer harvest. Wheat is the main crop in the west, rice in the east. Pulses, sorghum, oilseeds, and sugarcane are among other important crops. Mango orchards are common. Other fruits of the sub-region include guavas, jackfruits, plums, lemon, oranges, and pomegranates.
 


Fig.1. Displaying the Indo-Gangetic Plain of India
 
In the Great Indian desert, rainfall is scanty and erratic. About 20 percent of the total area id under cultivation, mostly in Haryana and Gujarat states, and comparatively little in Rajasthan. The Indira Gandhi Canal-begun in 1958 as the Rajasthan Canal was designed to bring water from the north. Progress was slow, and only the first stage was close to completion by the end of the Seventh Five Year Plan (FY 1985-89). By then, the canal had substantially increased the area under cultivation in Rajasthan, and a new completion date of 1999 is anticipated (see Development Programmes, this ch; Development Planning, ch. 6). The cultivable area is expected to expand further with the development of the canal’s second stage during the 1990s. The leading crops of the sub-region are millet sorghum, wheat and peanuts,. Vast expanses of sparse vegetation provide sustenance for sheep and goats. In the late 1980s, dairy farming became important in locations that had sufficient pastureland.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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