The Hindu Business Line : Nandan Agro scouting for tie-ups

NANDAN Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, involved mainly in the cultivation and processing of medicinal plants and products, is scouting around for farm tie-ups in a bid to induce farmers to shift to cultivation of such plants.

The company has been getting into agreements with various State Governments to undertake projects of medicinal plants. The company has already tied up with the West Bengal Government and Andhra Pradesh.

Under the agreement the West Bengal Government, 300 acres have been allotted to Nandan Agro Farms.

"We will start with 10 acres demonstration park in which we will showcase cultivation of some of the medicinal plants to enable farmers to educate themselves on growing these plants,,' Mr C.S. Jadhav, Director - Marketing, Nandan Agro Farms Pvt Ltd, said.

The company is in the process of setting up a medicinal plant park at Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh with the State Government. "The total cost of the project is Rs 150 crore and 500 acres of land have been allotted for this purpose,'' Mr Jadhav said.

The company has been involved in the cultivation of safed musli and has also secured a process patent for the manufacture of a health drink from safed musli. The company's involvement does not end with cultivation but is involved with the process of making health and medicinal products from these plants.

The company had earlier entered into an agreement with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd to provide insurance cover to the growers of safed musli.

Currently, Nandan Agro has 800 acres of land under safed musli cultivation. It has launched a safed musli-based product in the market in capsule form under the brand name Bio-rhythm.

The company has set up a 50:50 joint venture company with Spearhead Sarl of Switzerland to market some of these herbal products.

The company is also involved in vanilla and aloe vera cultivation. It has an arrangement with Emami for the aloe vera cultivation.

According to Mr Jadhav, the State Governments are quite keen on getting into cultivation of medicinal plants. However, awareness at the farmer level is extremely low about the economic returns of such medicinal plants. The company plans to act as a facilitator not merely in cultivation but in consultancy, R&D, processing, extraction, value addition, manufacturing and marketing.

Mr Jadhav said the demand for medicinal products from plants is on the rise.

More Stories on : Alliances & Joint Ventures | Alternative Medicines

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