Srinagar: Three-day national seminar and stakeholder meet on ‘Startup Opportunities in Medicinal Plants’ commenced Monday at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar campus.
The workshop is organised by the Regional cum Facilitation Centre, Northern Region-II, NMPB, SKUAST-K in collaboration with the World Bank-ICAR funded National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) for the institutional development of SKUAST-K.
Commissioner, Science and Technology Department, Saurabh Bhagat, who was the chief guest at the inaugural session, briefed about importance of medicinal plant sector and different schemes which are there for the entrepreneurs and researchers. He said SKUAST-K has to play an important role in making the medicinal and aromatic sector a reality in Kashmir.
Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-K, Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai, said that the J&K’s agricultural sector is in a transitory phase, the goal is to move from subsistence to sustainable commercial agriculture, from food security to nutritional and economic security with due care to ecosystem health. He said J&K has the potential to be a model bioeconomy given the vast natural resource base of the region and focus should be on low volume high value business in Medicinal and aromatic plants. SKUAST-K is a socially responsible institution, working hard for transformation of agriculture in J&K. It has reoriented Agri-ducation in line with NEP 2020 respecting individuality and creativity, focusing on employability, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Former Director, Dept. of Environment and Remote Sensing, Dr OP Sharma, appreciated the RCFC, NR-II for conducting the timely seminar on medicinal plants and impressed upon the participants to come forward and take it at the commercial level.
Prof Ravindra Kumar Sinha, Chancellor SMVDU, J&K, acknowledged the efforts of RCFC, NR-ll in promoting the rare and endangered medicinal plant species and spreading the word regarding the same among the masses.
Regional Director, Prof Sheikh Bilal Ahmed welcomed all the dignitaries and briefed the audience about the need and importance of conducting such kind of seminars for generation of livelihood. OSD to Vice Chancellor, Prof Azmat Alam Khan presented the vote of the thanks.
Two technical sessions were conducted on Day-1, wherein fruitful deliberations were done on the different aspects of this booming sector. More than 150 participants including scientist staff, scholars, researchers, entrepreneurs and most importantly attended the seminar and benefited for the expert speakers.
The seminar is aimed to create awareness regarding medicinal plant conservation, cultivation, and promotion among the educated youth, entrepreneurs and farmers. Ten progressive farmers from UTs of J &K and Ladakh were felicitated on the occasion so that other will follow the suit.

KR Desk