ITC scales up cultivation of medicinal, aromatic plants

ITC Agri Business Division is encouraging the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants to expand the conglomerate's presence in the fast-growing health and wellness products market in the food, personal care and other categories.

The agri-division of ITC is working with farmers and helping them to diversify their crops by encouraging them to cultivate high-demand crops like Ashwagandha, Tulsi, and Kalonji in Madhya Pradesh and turmeric in southern states.

Through this initiative, ITC looks to meet its requirements by chasing its FMCG ambitions and also leverages the B2B nutraceuticals space, bridging the demand-supply gap in the market, which has evolved rapidly after the pandemic.

"As a part of the ITC Next strategy, the company's Agri-Business Division has pivoted its strategic focus towards rapidly scaling up its value-added Agri Products (VAAP) portfolio to accelerate growth and competitiveness.

In line with the larger ITC NextGen Agriculture vision, we are focusing on promoting the cultivation of value-added crops such as medicinal and aromatic plants like Ashwagandha," ITC Agri Business Divisional CEO S Ganesh Kumar told PTI.

These high-value crops support ITC's food products like Veda Marie Light biscuits under its Sunfest brand, which have ingredients like Tulsi, Ashwagandha, liquorice, cardamom, and ginger.

It also supports the development of personal care items like body washes containing lemongrass and jojoba. Besides, ITC also has some fortified food products under its over Rs 9,000 crore brand Aashirvaad.

ITC's Agri Business Division, through its Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Extracts (MAPE) initiative programme in Madhya Pradesh, has led to an increase of 25 to 30 per cent in farmer incomes.

"Opportunities are being evaluated at the intersection of farmer economics, market demand and sustainability. We believe that a balanced and intelligent crop diversification strategy helps raise farmer incomes and mitigate the vagaries of weather," Kumar said.

Moreover, to promote this initiative among farmers, ITC has set up a 100-acre state-of-the-art organic certified experimental and training farm in Sehore, Madhya Pradesh.

"Our MAPE programme in Madhya Pradesh has led to a significant transformation in farmers' lives while helping us focus on a key value-added agri segment that caters to emerging consumer demand for health and wellness," said Kumar.

Today, value-added crops like Tulsi, Ashwagandha and Kalonji are cultivated by farmers across 4,000 acres in the state. ITC has also promoted a dedicated cluster for the organic cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants.

Around 13 medicinal and aromatic plants have been studied for the standardising package of practices and farm economics, which include - Tulsi, Mentha, Ashwagandha, Shatavari, Licorice, Kalmegh, Gudmar, Moringa, Lemongrass, Mandukparni, Linseed, Kalonji and Ajwain.