World Chambers Competition
Best job creation and business development project
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture Iran
FINALIST
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by
Drought 0 www.sccim.ir World Chambers Competition 2017 Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Executive summary of the project Iran has been faced to the water shortage as a limiting factor of agricultural activities due to locating in the arid part of the world. Fars province, located in the southern part of Iran, is also struggling with water shortage problem because of continues drought happening in this province. Destroying effects of drought on the agricultural activities and consequently reducing efficiency of agricultural activities have harmfully influenced the rural community's livelihood and employment and consequently have created social problems for them. Therefore, identifying and developing drought tolerant crops such as medicinal plants and replacing high water consuming conventional plants with these drought tolerant crops is one of the basic solutions for managing water crisis in the agricultural sector. Increasing the share of medicinal plants in cultivation pattern and agricultural stockholders’ income and helping medicinal plants producer in marketing, supplying, and exporting their products can revive Fars province agriculture. Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture with establishing the headquarters of medicinal plants in Fars province in cooperation with its partners in 2015, tried to develop cultivation and export of medicinal plants, increase rural employment and farmers’ satisfaction, provide farmers’ livelihood, and revive the province agriculture. To achieve the abovementioned goals, the headquarters focused on encouraging the farmers to cultivate native and exclusive species of the province medicinal plants, step by step training and supporting the target community, and increasing demand, development, and extension of medicinal plants. Identifying, introducing, and organizing the domestic and international target markets for the medicinal plants which are the main factors affecting on development of medicinal plants cultivation and production, and sustainable job creation were other objectives of this project. The headquarters focused on issues such as encouraging, training, and supporting farmers, ranking the medicinal plants for cultivation based on their priority, improving public knowledge about medicinal plants, preventing raw medicinal plants selling, improper distribution system of medicinal plants (groceries), poor performance of some businessmen at the beginning of its establishment. Therefore, four sub committees including technical committee of medicinal plants marketing, technical committee of education and extension, technical committee of production and processing, and technical committee of research and talent were organized as the first step. The most important and effective activities conducted in the expert committees were including organizing the first conference on medicinal plants in Fars province, setting up the pavilion of medicinal plants in the twelfth exhibition of flowers and plants, providing a comprehensive database, evaluation of market needs, organizing meetings and training workshops, preparing videos, reports, and extensional publications, and supporting medicinal plants production and processing. The medicinal plants headquarters has had considerable findings during its two years life so that medicinal plants area of cultivation increased from 975 to 2920 hectares. Production of medicinal plants also increased for 1534 tons. On the other hand, almost all the townships of the province joined to the medicinal plants cultivation program after two years. Export value of medicinal plants increased for four million dollars in the first year and five million dollars in the first half of the second year. In the meantime, 7,100 and 4,300 person-day jobs were created in the first and second year of committee establishment, respectively. The employment capacity of medicinal plants processing units increased from 843 to 1019 people. During this period, 51 new distribution units (groceries) started to work all over the province and 112 new jobs were created.
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Introduction The pattern of agricultural production in Iran and in Fars Province from past till now has been oriented to the production of the high water consuming crops such as maize, rice, sugar beet, and vegetables which some of these crops have had the largest share in the exported agricultural products; while, water Shortage has been one of the most limiting factor of crop cultivation in Iran. On the other hand, drought phenomenon has had many harmful effects on the rural community and farmer’s life such as increasing unemployment, immigration to cites, poverty, and social exclusion and decreasing life quality, social dignity, efficiency of agricultural activates, and life satisfaction. For example, the immigration rate of Korbal region in Fars province has been increased by %47.53 in recent years which clearly shows the negative effect of drought on the rural community and farmer’s livelihood. Finding drought-tolerant plants and replacing the conventional crops with these plants is one of the most effective ways to manage the water shortage crisis and overcome the drought dilemma in the agricultural sector. In this regard, increasing the share of low water consuming medicinal plants in the Iran and Fars province planting pattern is recommended by scientists. Drought tolerant medicinal plants can produce considerable yield and provide economic income for farmers. On the other hand, medicinal plants active ingredients can be increased under controlled tension which can improve economic efficiency of these crops. In the meantime, because of proved harmful side effects of chemical medicines, medicinal plants have been interested in the developing countries and these herbs are used in their raw and processed forms in a large scale. Therefore, Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture established the Fars headquarters of medicinal plants in 2015 by focusing on rural employment. Fars province (Shiraz is the capital of this province) is the fourth biggest province in Iran and has been located in the southern part of the country. This province is considered as the pole of agriculture in Iran because of its size, climate diversity, and soil fertility. This province with producing %12 of country total agricultural products has the first place among all the provinces in Iran. However, agriculture and rural livelihood in this province are facing to some serious problems because of significant decline in precipitations in recent years. This province has also more than 150 known species of medicinal plants and it is possible to plant more than 300 endemic species of medicinal plants in the province. Medicinal plants headquarters started its activities using climate and scientific potentials of the province in medicinal plants cultivation by focusing on increasing rural employment, improving rural livelihood, and preventing immigration from villages to cities. This project is a symbol of perfect cooperation and interaction between Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, the private sectors, and governmental agencies in all levels.
The budget allocated to this project: 97000 $
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Project Objectives The main objectives of this project were to develop cultivation of medicinal plants which have comparative advantage for production in Fars province and replacing the high water consuming crops with this kind of medicinal plants, boom the province agriculture, and consequently create sustainable jobs for rural community and improve their livelihood. To achieve the abovementioned main objectives, the following sub objectives were pursued in this project:
- Improving the knowledge of target community regarding medicinal plants to increase demand for these crops and develop the cultivation of medicinal plants - Trying to organize, detect, and introduce the domestic and international target markets for the medicinal plants - Taking the maximum advantages of the existing capacities of the indigenous and exclusive genetic resources of medicinal plants in Fars province - Strengthening of medicinal plants production and knowledge based management in the medicinal plants section and optimum utilizing from the capacity of specialized human resources in the province - Organizing and supporting education, research, and technology development systems in the medicinal plants area - Improving governmental and nongovernmental supports from investment in the area of the medicinal plants cultivating, processing, and supplying
Project Benefits
Benefits for farmers: Employment development, new jobs creation, and life quality improvement Benefits for exporters: Achieving admirable situation and proper share of the medicinal plants global market Benefits for processing and packaging units: Accessing to domestic raw materials, increasing the marketing of products, and increasing production capacity Benefits for public: Preventing and treating some diseases without side effects, cheaper treatment, and improving level of community Protection of environmental resources: Conserving water resources due to low water requirement
Project partners - Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture -Agricultural Organization of Fars province -Fars University of Medical Sciences and Health Services -Department of Natural Resources and Watershed -Fars Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Educational Center -College of Agriculture of Shiraz University 3
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
-Industry, Mine, and Trade Organization -Private sector representatives active in the field of processing of medicinal plants
Formation of medicinal plants committee in Fars province Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture established the marketing committee of medicinal plants parallel to formation of medicinal plants headquarters in Fars province in cooperation with its partners by focusing on medicinal plants development in February 2015. This committee was supposed to bring all actors in the field of medicinal plants in Fars province together and improve the connections between governmental and nongovernmental sectors acting in this field. In order to develop medicinal plants cultivation, the medicinal plants headquarters focused on the following activities as the first step:
1-Encouraging, training, and supporting farmers One of the most essential and basic issues that the headquarters of medicinal plants focused on, was encouraging and pushing farmers to cultivate the low water consuming medicinal plants, training them during different stages of planting and harvesting of these crops, and supporting them in marketing and selling their products. 2- Ranking the medicinal plants for cultivation based on their priority Ranking the medicinal plants and giving priority to those are compatible to the climate condition of Fars province, can be cultivated instead of high water consuming crops, have comparative advantage, and provide sufficient income for farmers is necessary. 3-Improving public knowledge about medicinal plants Annual consumption of medicinal plants in Iran is 25 grams per capita; while, it is 900 and 2500 grams per capita in Europe and America, respectively. One of the existing problems is the lack of awareness and knowledge in Iran about properties of these herbs and vital role of these plants in community health. There is also no enough knowledge about proper utilization of these herbs. Besides, herbal medicines are not prescribed for patients, because physicians have no enough knowledge about herbal medicines and their properties. Therefore, providing physicians and publics with sufficient knowledge and information about medicinal plants and their properties and proper utilization of these herbs is necessary.
4-Preventing raw medicinal plants selling Supplying medicinal plants in the raw material form has damaged the medicinal plants industry in Fars province. Medicinal plants in the most parts of the country, including Fars province is conventionally Harvested (without using mechanized systems) and exported to the outside of the province in the raw form without proper packaging and suitable processing technologies, and consequently with low added value. Focusing on this problem and trying to solve It can improve the province situation in the domestic and international markets of medicinal plants. 5-Improper distribution system (groceries)
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Producing and distributing System of medicinal plants in Fars province is not in acceptable condition, so that more than 90% of these products are distributed by groceries without taking the hygienic issues to the account. Therefore, the grocery holders should be trained at the beginning and during their activities. 6- Poor performance of some businessmen Sometimes, Iranian traders and exporters improperly store and transport the medicinal plants and their processed products due to their ignorance regarding the methods of collecting, storing, packaging, transporting, and marketing of medicinal plants. Therefore, these materials cannot meet the required standards of the international markets. For this reason, training Iranian traders and exporters of medicinal plants is very important and necessary.
Formation of expert committees Based on the abovementioned priorities, the headquarters of medicinal plants established four expert sub-committees as follows: 1- Technical committee of medicinal plants marketing: With the aim of trying to organize, identify, and introduce target domestic and foreign markets for medicinal plants 2- Technical committee of education and extension: With the aim of improving knowledge of the target community in order to increase demand, development, and extension of medicinal plants 3- Technical committee of production and Processing: With the aim of improving level of supporting and organizing medicinal plants cultivation in accordance with the detected priorities 4- Technical committee of research and talent: With the aim of scientific evaluation of research projects with commercial potential in the field of medicinal plants
Activities conducted in the expert committees 1- Organizing the first conference on medicinal plants in Fars province: Shiraz Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the project partners, organized this conference on January 24, 2017 with themes of changing the people mentality in consuming medicinal plants, changing farmer’s attitude, changing the cropping patterns, replacing the conventional cropping system with medicinal plants, and changing in outlook of the investment, production, and export of medicinal plants by participating policy makers and actors of agricultural and medicinal plants field in Fars Province. The main emphasis of the conference was cultivation of medicinal plants introduction and extension, and supporting scientific and technological innovation in production and supplying the medicinal plants products.
2- Setting up the pavilion of medicinal plants in the twelfth exhibition of flowers and plants In this exhibition which held in the Fars permanent International Exhibition in Shiraz from 24 to 27 January 2017, some producers of medicinal herbs and medicinal plants processing industry were attended for the first time and received considerable attention from the visitors. In the medicinal plants pavilion, some experienced experts in the area of medicinal plants in addition to introducing seeds, herbs, and processed products of these plants, and distributing brochures and free books to the visitors, offered some scientific consultation in the field of planting, utilizing, and properties of 5
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
medicinal plants to the visitors. At the end of this exhibition, the medicinal plants pavilion was selected as the best booth by the exhibition organizers based on the quality of provided services. 3- Providing a comprehensive database This database consists of data of units engaged in Fars province classified by townships and type of activities, including producers, processors, and traders which collected by Shiraz Chamber of Commerce for the first time to provide effective services for the actors of this field. 4- Evaluation of market needs The following research works have been done regarding market needs: - Preparing the list of needed items of medicinal plants grocery Union - Identifying buyers who are willing to order medicinal plants products - Identifying the international companies that are active in the medicinal plants market and providing the order registering system and domestic producers with a list of these companies. - Negotiating with the companies from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Germany (three companies) as well as the Chamber of Commerce of Afghanistan to connect them to the domestic producers. 5- Meetings Organizing 15 meetings by committee of medicinal plants marketing with the actors of medicinal plants marketing field including producers, exporters, and processors of these herbs to identify the obstacles and problems and provide appropriate solutions for these problems. 6- Training workshops - Holding of 58 theoretical and practical scientific workshops in the area of planting and harvesting medicinal plants having priority in 30 townships of Fars province with participation of farmers, rural women, experts, and other stakeholders in each township, and cooperating in holding Rose festival in Darab and Firozabad cities. - Holding a three months compulsory training course entitled "knowledge of medicinal plants and nature” in cooperation with University of Medical Sciences and the Chamber of Trade under the supervision of experienced instructors for the distribution units prior to get activity permission. - Organizing training workshops for traders and retraining of those who responsible for the distribution centers and groceries in order to improve the knowledge and standard of their performance. 7- Videos and reports In order to utilize the maximum capacity of the cultural making organizations, especially social media (television, radio, …) and municipalities in medicinal plants education and extension, 20 movies, training clips, and special reports regarding the medicinal plants such as lemon verbena, medicinal pumpkin, stevia, saffron, ... were provided and spread out. 8-publications Some manuals and technical and extensional reports about the medicinal plants were published for the stakeholders of each township based on the priority of medicinal plants and the potential of each township. 9- Supporting medicinal plants production and processing In order to support production and processing of medicinal plants, the following actions were conducted: - Zoning the province climate condition and introducing appropriate medicinal plants according to the climate condition of each zone. - Preparing, providing, and revising comprehensive plans of medicinal plants and saffron - providing guidelines for the rose and medicinal plants seedlings production.
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
-Determining the medicinal plants water requirements and sharing these data with experts and applicants for developing medicinal plants -Providing subsidies of about 600 million riyals for the medicinal plants such as medicinal pumpkin, lemon verbena, myrtle, garden thyme, saffron, and rose in 2015-2016 cropping season. -Offering a grant from the funds of the provincial credit agreements for developing flowers and ornamental plants to the medicinal plants. -Developing of Saffron cultivation in 11 townships of Fars province including Abadeh, Estahban, Bavanat, Sepidan, Marvdasht, up to 125 hectares. -Developing and extending cultivation of medicinal plants including asafoetida up to 900 hectares, flix weld up to 250 hectares, medicinal pumpkin up to 50 hectares for the first time, according to the private sector order and demand. - Providing liquorice seed, reviving this medicinal plant, and returning it to the cultivation and production process 10- Research and Talent In this regard, efforts made to organize and orient the student's thesis to the area of medicinal plants having priority in Fars province.
Results of the project till now 1- Increasing the cultivation area and production of medicinal plants in Fars province According to Figure 1, the cultivation area of medicinal plants in Fars province has been increasing over the last 5 years, but the slope of this increment has been slow until 2014 which is the start point of medicinal plants headquarters activities. A significant increase in cultivation area of medicinal plants has been observed from 2014 to 2015 so that cultivation area of these plants has increased for 1810 hectares in 2015 compared to 2014 which shows the positive effect of medicinal plants headquarters activities on the development of medicinal plants cultivation in the province.
Fig. 1. Variation of the medicinal plants cultivation area from 2012 to 2016 in Fars province
2920 On the other hand, the production 2785 of medicinal plants and herbs has increased from 3751 tons in 2014 to 5285 tons at the end of 2015 under influence of activities of medicinal plants committee in Fars 975 province (increment of 1534 tons). 650 764
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2- The townships producing medicinal plants in the province According to information obtained, 22 0ut of 30 townships of Fars province were active in the field of medicinal plants production in 2014 (prior to the establishment of medicinal plants committee); while, the number of active townships in the field of medicinal plants has increased to 29 in 2016. 7
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
3- Increase in export of medicinal plants Due to the extensive efforts of Committee of Medicinal plants marketing in identifying and evaluating the medicinal plants target markets, export value of medicinal plants increased for four million dollars at the end of 2015 compared to 2014 in Fars province (Fig. 2). According to the existing data (data are not shown), the export value of medicinal plants during the first half of 2016 (6 months period) has increased for five million dollars compared to the similar period in 2015; therefore, there has been a significant increase in the medicinal plants export in 2016. It should be noted that data of licorice and its products which accounted a substantial annual volume of export of medicinal plants in Fars province have not been considered in these results.
Fig. 2. Variation of the value of medicinal plants export from 2012 to 2016 in Fars province
Million dollars
4-Increase in rural employment The first and the most important mission of medicinal plants committee has been creating of jobs for rural community across the province. This committee created job for 7,100 and 4,300 persons in its first and second year of establishment by encouraging and motivating farmers to increase the cultivation area of medicinal plants, and helping them in marketing of their products. It should be noted that, these figures are only related to the production of medicinal plants.
Fig. 3. Job creation by producing medicinal plants from 2012 to 2016 in Fars province
day
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Person
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
5- Increasing employment in processing industries of medicinal plants There are 32 active processing units for the medicinal plants in Fars province right now. There were 843 people working in these processing units in 2014. This employment capacity has increased to 1019 person during two last years due to efforts of medicinal plants marketing committee and considerable increasing in production of these herbs.
6-Increase in the number of distribution centers of medicinal plants (groceries) and employment in these units During two years activity of the medicinal plants committee and efforts of this committee to extend the consumption culture of these herbs, 51 new distribution units (groceries) have started to work all over the province. Therefore, the number of distribution units has increased from 459 in 2014 to 510 in 2016, and 112 new jobs have been also created in this period.
Conclusions Despite the remarkable efforts made by the committee of medicinal plants to improve the situation of medicinal plants in international markets and create sustainable job for rural community, we believe that we are at the beginning of the way. This project with cooperation of all partners could achieve significant gains during the short period of its life, but our goals are far beyond what has been achieved so far. Initiation the largest trade center for medicinal plants in Shiraz is our next plan for the near future. We hope that the progress of this project can improve the situation of medicinal plants of Fars province and our country in the international markets and create productive and sustainable employment for our farmers and artisans.
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Appendixes
First conference on medicinal plants held in Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Holding the related fair to medicinal plants
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Meetings of medicinal plants
Marketing committee of medicinal plants in the Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Training workshops of medicinal plants in Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture
Meeting with the Chinese delegation on trade of medicinal plants in Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
Meeting with the Afghan trade delegation in connection with the trade of medicinal plants in Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture
Fields of medicinal plants in Fars province
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
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Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
The titles of extensional reports published by Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture 1- Measuring devices for measuring water consumption the surface irrigation method 2-The methods of conservation tillage 3-The sensitivity of flow control structures in irrigation networks 4- Bor Nutrition 5- Irrigation management of farms and gardens by measuring crop leaf temperature 6-Bor Toxicity 7-Estimating soil moisture in field capacity and permanent wilting point of Fars province soils with simple equations 8-As a L.Gundelia tournefortii browsing the medicinal plants of genus cynara in Iran 9-Introducing different methods of polluted soil improving 10-Principles and tools of farms and gardens irrigation management 11-A manual for direct seeding (no-tillage) 12- A manual for reduced tillage 16
Shiraz Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
Supporting the Medicinal Plants Production and Marketing in Order to Help the Farmers Affected by Drought
13-The role of tillage implements and seedbed preparation in the control of soil salinity 14-The pattern of soil wetting in the subsurface drip irrigation system 15-Methods of measuring the concentration of heavy metals in soil 16-Non-destructive new technologies in seed evaluation 17-Introducing water metering devices in irrigation canals
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