Kerala is taking a significant stride towards preserving and promoting its rich heritage of medicinal plants. The government has officially approved a groundbreaking proposal to establish a dedicated medicinal plant nursery at the International Ayurveda Research Centre in Kannur. This state-of-the-art facility, currently under development by the Department of Ayurveda Medical Education, will utilize a generous 12 acres of the centre’s expansive 200-acre campus.
For its inaugural year, the project has secured an initial funding of ₹62.6 lakh, drawn from the ₹1.5 crore earmarked for research activities in the 2025-26 financial year. Spearheaded by the State Medicinal Plant Board, this vital initiative is designed to provide top-quality planting materials to farmers, researchers, and the general public. Beyond cultivation, it emphasizes the crucial conservation of valuable plant species and will serve as a dynamic training hub for future nursery developers.
The project is comprehensively structured around three core elements: a bio-vermicompost unit for sustainable nutrient production, a medicinal plant germplasm collection unit to safeguard genetic diversity, and the central nursery itself. The nursery’s infrastructure will be robust, featuring a modern pump house, efficient storage and potting sheds, a propagation house, a greenhouse for controlled growth, a shade house, and a hardening house for plant acclimatization. Notably, rainwater harvesting systems will also be integrated to ensure water sustainability. The long-term objective is ambitious: to cultivate an impressive 1 million seedlings within five years, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 seedlings.
This visionary undertaking is poised to deliver widespread benefits across the districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, and Kasaragod. Officials anticipate that, in addition to strengthening Ayurveda-based agricultural practices, the project will generate numerous direct and indirect employment opportunities for local communities. Farmers, in particular, stand to gain significant supplementary income through the diversification into medicinal plant cultivation, thereby nurturing a robust and sustainable ecosystem for Ayurveda-related industries throughout the region.
Ultimately, this project is a cornerstone of the government’s broader vision: to transform Kannur’s International Ayurveda Research Centre into a leading global hub for scientific innovation in Ayurveda, seamlessly integrating and advancing traditional knowledge systems with contemporary research methodologies.