The opportunities and challenges of producing medicinal and aromatic plants

While the demand for medicinal and aromatic plants is increasing the supply of the plants is not that high. Although the producing of the plants is relatively low and the selling price of the product is high. But like producing any other product, producing medicinal and aromatic plants has its opportunities and challenges as well. The opportunities of producing medicinal and aromatic plant can play an important role in contributing to the livelihoods of small-scale or struggling farmers.

A number of opportunities for farmers are: enhancing their knowledge, skills and capacity, because they are producing a new product; when the farmers are not able to produce products in the winter because of the weather circumstances they lose a part of the income, and producing medicinal aromatic plants can take place in more extreme weather conditions providing the farmers with a higher and more regular cash flow; it will increase the farmers knowledge about the advantages of medicinal and aromatic plants and how they influence modern medicine; the production of medicinal and aromatic plants also provide more jobs, as they provide more work;

However, there are some challenges that come with producing medicinal and aromatic plants. The medicinal and aromatic plant you want to produce must be available to produce where you want. You must also have knowledge about growing medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as the right technological knowledge. So therefore, you must do the appropriate research about producing medicinal and aromatic plants. The produced plants must be safe to use, be effective as medicine, and be of good quality. The safety, quality and effectiveness of the medicinal and aromatic plant depend on how it is handled through the manufacturing process