Organic cultivation of medicinal plants in Uttarakhand: An overview

India is considered “Herbarium of the world” due to its varied agro-climatic conditions and is among the biggest repositories of herbal wealth in the world. Uttarakhand is also native place for different medicinal and aromatic plants due to its subtropical to cold arid climate. with ever-increasing demand of natural products in pharmaceutical industries, cultivation of medicinal plants is now becoming popular and economically feasible. In lieu of getting higher production, producers have started the high application of inorganic fertilizers and chemi-cals for crop production. these inorganic fertilizers and chemicals besides causing environmental problem, also hamper the composition of secondary metabolites, which are active ingredients in medicinal and aromatic plants. Under such circumstances, organic cultivation of these medicinal plants provides more viable options. Organically grown medicinal plants have not only appropriate composition but also enhance the opportunity for their export, as medicinal plants’ products constitute less than 1% of $70 billion Indian share of world trade. thus, it is the need of the hour to promote the organic farming of medicinal and aromatic plants for making production system sustainable and export orientated by developing necessary strategies, putting institutional support for organic movement and making necessary policy changes. the global market for herbal and traditional medicines is growing and, for India to be a part of the growth, it is necessary that herbal industry and traditional medicines sector of our country emerge as a strong forum under one umbrella.