Government Urged to Support Herbal Plant Farming for Local Medicine Production
instead of exporting these medicinal plants for processing abroad, which is capital intensive and the drugs come back expensive
Some of the herbal medicinal plants grown by farmers during the annual General Meeting of Salushi empowerment
The government has been challenged to support farmers engaging in the farming of herbal plants, that get exported abroad for processing ,and later imported back to the country as medicine for Kenyan hospitals.
Speaking during the annual General Meeting of Salushi empowerment, an organisation of over a thousand farmers engaging in the farming of herbal plants, the organisations chief executive Lucy Wanjiru says that if government were to support such efforts, Kenyans would never find empty shelves in government hospitals.
” instead of exporting these medicinal plants for processing abroad, which is capital intensive and the drugs come back expensive, let’s have our own industries where we can process the medicines for our own use.” Wanjiru said.
She adds on to say that the farming has brought employment in rural Kenya where their farms are located supporting the government’s agenda on employment of both the young and the old,as they reap big from the venture.
“I have a group of more than 5,000 farmers that this farming is supporting…let the government support us because we have already started and what we need most is back up in terms of drug manufacturing industries.”
Peterson Ngatia, a herbal plant farmer from kiamariga in Mathira constituency, says medicinal plants are an alternative way that government could use to supplement the Kenya medical supplies authority (KEMSA) stores with drugs that sometimes lack.
” If farmers in the country were to embrace medicinal plants farming, Kenyans would never worry of lack of drugs in hospitals. Let’s have industries here also that would allow us as farmers to sell these plants direct to pharmaceuticals to also ease the turn around time of getting drugs in our facilities.” Said Ngatia.
Rahab Wairimu another farmer from Laikipia county, says the success of herbal plants farming in central Kenya is a signal to government, that the country could sustain herself in terms of medical prowess.
” We want this country to be like India, which is the world’s best medical center”.
The AGM also saw farmers trained on better ways to farm the plants, to supplement their income.
About Author
