Growing medicinal and herbal plants will help preserve Jordan's unique diversity of these plants and provide farmers with an economically feasible alternative to traditional crops with its dwindling prices.
A Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture official said that producing medicinal and herbal plants can make the country's pharmaceutical, cosmetic and foodstuff industry independent from imports of this kind.
A three-year project, financed with $250,000 from the World Bank and implemented by the National Center for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer (NCARTT), is introducing Jordan's farmers to better varieties and train them on how to properly plant and process medicinal and herbal plants. For this purpose, farmers around Jordan are getting acquainted with the plants most appropriate to the soil type and climate of their very areas.
On model farms totaling 1,660 dunums in 32 villages all over the country, Jordanian farmers are being trained how to properly handle the sensitive plants. The wild herbs identified during the project as most feasible for Jordan's farmers are: Fenugreek, anise, cumin, black cumin, fennel, rosemary, melissa, oregano, salvia and chamomile.
Jordan, home to around 2,500 wild medicinal and herbal plants, imports plant parts and essential oils worth $8 million annually, a source of income that should not be lost to Jordan's farmers, believes Kamal Khairallah, director of the regional center for agricultural research and technology transfer in Mushaqqir.
Several of the medicinal and herbal plants are endemic in Jordan like Iris petrana, Cousina dayi, Plantago mari-mortui, Crucianella transjordanica, Centaurea procurrenes, Scorphularia nabataerum, Tamarex tetragyna and Tamarex palaestina.
Others belong to rare species that are threatened by extinction, such as Adiantum capillus-veneri, Sternbergia clusiana, Pistcia atlantica, Caralluma aaronis, Pergularia tomentosa, Equisetum ramosissmum and Crocus moabitucus. But all of these plants are endangered mainly by “fast progressing urbanization, intensive agriculture and overgrazing,” said Khairallah.
Jordan's meager production cannot cover the local demand of both pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry as well as the individual consumer market for such crops necessitating the import from neighboring countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt worth around four million dollars annually.
Another four million dollars are spent on imports for essential oils from herbal plants from Europe.
“We should plant around 30,000 dunums with herbal and medicinal plants in order to cover our demands. Another advantage of herbal and medicinal plants is that they are relatively water efficient,” Khairallah said pointing out another advantage of herbal economics.
The current project will end this year, but there are hopes the World Bank will finance another cycle during which the project can be expanded and seed multiplication units could be set up. — ( Jordan Times )
By Dana Charkasi
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
