ICAR-IIHR hosted the QRT review meeting of AICRP on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and Betelvine on 29th February, 2024. The QRT team comprised of 6 members including QRT Chairman, Dr. Dr. N.C. Gautam, Formerly Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi, Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India, other members included Dr. BR Tyagi, Chief scientist (Retd), CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow and Formerly Director, ICAR-DMAPR, Anand, Dr. AB Rai, Head and Principal Scientist (Retd.), ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi , Dr. Sharad Srivastava, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow, Dr. M. Prabhakar, Ex-Head and PS, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru and Dr. Hardik Soni, Asst. General Manager, Vasu Healthcare Pvt Ltd. Vadodara. Dr. R. Nagaraja Reddy, Senior Scientist from ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatics Plants Research, Anand, represented the Project Coordinator of AICRP on MAP and B. The team interacted with Dr. Prakash Patil, Director, ICAR-IIHR in the presence of Head (I/C), Division of Flower and Medicinal Crops, Dr. Tejaswini Prakash and thereafter proceeded for the field visit to NHF demonstration block where Dr. K. Hima Bindu and Dr. M. R. Rohini explained about the medicinal crops technologies. The Chairman and the members appreciated the technologies displayed and suggested to have the QR code information attached to the technologies regarding the cultivation practices and uses of medicinal plants to benefit the visiting farmers. The team then visited the Betelvine germplasm block, hybridization block and DUS field where Dr K. Hima Bindu explained in detail about the germplasm collection, maintenance and hybridization and hybrid evaluation activities being carried out at the center. Further, they visited MLT trial of Centella asiatica, RET field genebank, medicinal crops nursery polyhouse having cocoponic cultivation of medicinal plants and then to BESSTHORT where different value-added products of Betelvine viz., Betelvine oil, betelvine chocolate, mouth freshener, dhoop etc were demonstrated. The team appreciated the progress made and suggested to see the possibilities of scaling up the production of the value-added products in line with the market demand. This was followed by an interaction session in the presence of Director, ICAR-IIHR with the scientists during which Dr. K. Hima Bindu presented the overall research achievements made in medicinal crops and betelvine at the center during last 5 years. QRT chairman and members appreciated the good work done and made suggestions for future line of work like concentrating on important crops/industry-oriented crops, popularizing and reaching out to the industries pan India about the technologies/innovations for faster commercialization, following biosafety protocols in crop production etc. Two publications were also released on the occasion viz., Technical bulletin on “Herbs for Household” and Production Technology of Medicinal Crops”. Director ICAR-IIHR in his remarks congratulated the scientists and acknowledged the QRT team for their visit and for critical and valuable suggestions. The interaction concluded with the vote of thanks by Dr .R .Nagaraja Reddy
