Introduction

India with its varied agro-climatic conditions and topography has been considered as the botanical garden of the world.  Our herbal wealth constitutes about  5000 species of known medicinal and aromatic plants. The increase in population, rapid expansion of the area under food and commercial crops, deforestation, extension of urban area etc., are the cause for fast depletion of our herbal wealth.  In the recent past plant based industries such as expanded their production causing further pressure to this sector.  Consequently many of the medicinal plants are at the verge of extinction because of over exploitation.  In spite of the spectacular advancement in modern medicines,  the present trend of "Back to the nature" and "Health for all in 21st century" has called for more and more natural and herbal products.  This situation demands a systematic cultivation of these plants and collaboration with non-agricultural institutes at a much higher level than what has been envisaged till now.

Genesis

        The Indian Council of Agricultural Research established National Research Centre for Medicinal & Aromatic Plants on November 24, 1992 in a 20.2 hectare irrigated land at Boriavi in Anand district of Gujarat.  A sum of Rupees 2.5 crores was sanctioned for VIII Plan period.  A total of 15 scientific personnel in addition to the Director were allotted to take  up the research programme on medicinal and aromatic plants.

Location

        National Research Centre for Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, Boriavi, Anand is located on Ahmedabad-Bombay rail route.  The centre is 7 km away from Anand Railway station on Anand-Ahmedabad state highway towards Nadiad.  Anand is well connected to all parts of the country by road, rail and Air.  The nearby airports are at Vadodara (45 km) and Ahmedabad (65 km).

Mandate of NRCMAP

· Develop appropriate production, protection and processing technologies for important medicinal and aromatic plants through basic, strategic and applied research.

· Germplasm enhancement of various medicinal and aromatic plants

· Production of parental lines and breeder's stock

· Act as a National Repository for the genetic resources of some important medicinal and aromatic plants.

· Coordinate research under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Medicinal & Aromatic Plants and Betelvine.

· Act as an Information Data Bank on medicinal and aromatic plants.

· Transfer of technologies developed by the NRC to the farmers through cooperation with the developmental agencies.

Objectives

· To identify plants which need attention of agricultural scientists and to collect, maintain and evaluation of the identified plants.

· To carry out those basic researches on the chosen crops, which are useful to develop their agro-technology.

· To coordinate the activities of the centres of AICRP on Medicinal & Aromatic Plants located in various agro-climatic zones of India.

· To provide planting material and technical know-how generated for further testing and refinement by the centres of the co-ordinated project and NRCMAP.

· To develop partnership between this research centre and private sector, NGOs and Farmers' Associations/Progressive farmers interested in promoting the use of herbal medicines.

Outreach Programme

        The head quarters of the two All India Network Projects such as All India Network Project on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (AINPMAP) and All India Network Project on Betelvine (AINPB) are housed in the NRCMAP. The Director is also responsible for coordination and monitoring of research work in these two projects as Project Co-ordinator in addition to his duties. There are nine centres in State Agricultural Universities (SAU) and two centres in ICAR institutes under AINPMAP. Similarly eight centres in SAUs and one centre in Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) set up are also participating under AINPB.

Contact Information

The Director,
National Research Centre for Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (NRCMAP)
Boriavi - 387 310,Anand Dist, Gujarat.

Telephone                0268-2578602, 2578152
EPABX                     0268-2578644, 2578182
Fax                            0268-2578601
Grams                       MEDPLANTS 
E - mail                     nrc-map@gmail.com

Organizational Setup

 ICAR HEAD QUARTERS
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QRT & RAC
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IMC --------------------DIRECTOR---------------- RAC
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Research	Outreach Programmes	Central Facilities	Administration
Genetic Resource Management Crop Improvement Crop Production Crop Protection Quality Assessment Post Harvest Management Biotechnology	All India Networking program on Medicinal & Aromatic Plants All India Networking programme on Betelvine	Agricultural Research Information Service Central Instrumentation Facilities Library Farm facility Active Gene Bank for  M & AP Quality Control Laboratory	Establishment Finance Cash & Bill Purchases Store Security Estate Management