The potential of medicinal plant cultivation as an endogenous development strategy -A study based in Chitwan District, Nepal- Author: Adina Roxana Munteanu First Supervisor: William Critchley Second Supervisor: Jetske Bouma Local Supervisor: Dharma Raj Dangol Illustration on the cover: Some medicinal plants popular amongst cultivators, from left to right Aloe vera ; Ocicum sanctum , Matricaria chamomilla , Cymbopogon citratus. Title: The potential of medicinal plant cultivation as an endogenous development strategy -A study based in Chitwan District, Nepal- Keywords: medicinal plant cultivation, Nepal, development A thesis submitted for the master degree in “Environment and Resource Management” at Vrieje Universiteit Amsterdam; Faculty of Life and Earth Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085-1087 1081 HV Amsterdam. July 2010 Dedicated to: my mother, who taught me to appreciate every stage in life & my grandmother, who hardwired the love for land in my soul i Acknowledgements Writing this thesis gave me the opportunity to visit Nepal, an experience that I treasure and that made me a better researcher but also a better person. Many people helped me to succeed in writing this paper, and I would like to thank them as I could never have done any of this, without their support and encouragement. First, I would like to thank my advisor, William Critchley for his optimist tone and continuous support. Thank you for being such an inspiration and for giving me courage to start this research. If I do take the academic path, I only hope that I can be half the teacher and advisor that you have been to me. I would also like to thank Sabina Di Prima , for all the hard work on the field and the valuable advice. You endured the Chitwan heat to help me learn and give me confidence that I can do a good research, and for that I am be indebted to you. Thank you for being, for a few days, my Didi . I want to express my gratitude towards Dharma Raj Dangol, the local supervisor for his continuous support on the field. Thank you for receiving me as a student in your university, for helping me build a network of people that helped me with my research. Thank you for your patience and readiness to help every time. Many thanks to all the other professors and university staff that helped me during my stay in Chitwan, you made my stay enjoyable. I would also like to express my thanks to Jetske Bouma, my second advisor, for providing me with invaluable advice and comments on my research. I’ve also been fortunate to find group of great friends in Chitwan. They are the students who helped me with primary data gathering and translation: Kiran Baral, Dipak Bhattarai, Deepak Raj Joshi, Ananta Subedi and Roshan Subedi. Not only you helped me overcome the language barrier, worked with me since sunrise till after sunset, travelled with me until there was no road anymore but you also taught me about the culture and the Nepali way. Moreover, I am deeply grateful for the kindness and willingness to help of all the people I interviewed for my research. Some farmers like Shyam Hada, Nawaraj Adhhikari, Dambar Gurung, Komal Sapkota, Manoj Chaudhary gave me a deep understanding of the local context for which I am truly grateful. Many thanks to all my un-named teachers from Chitwan. Finally, I would like to thank my dear friend and fiancé, Alex Lefter for the continuous support during the entire process of writing this thesis. You gave me the strength to succeed. Thank you! There are many more people that contributed to this journey and research. Thank you all, and I hope this paper will prove that I deserved your support! ii Preface This report is the final thesis for the “Environment and Resource Management” master programme at Vrieje Universiteit Amsterdam. The research was conducted between April 15 th and June 15 th 2010 in Chitwan District, Nepal. The report was completed in the Netherlands in July 2010. The research was carried out under the supervision of William Critchley and Sabina di Prima from CIS-VU. Jetske Bouma, from IVM, was the second supervisor. Dharma Raj Dangol, associate professor at Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science of Tribhuvan University, Rampur, was responsible with external supervision. Although the main purpose of this report is to obtain a master degree, it is hoped that the research per se has value as well. Parts of this report will be distributed to all the parties that solicited information such as farmers, NGOs, and government agencies. Photographs used in this report were taken by the researcher if not stated otherwise. Permission to quote and use the data was requested and received from all the people that mentioned in the report. iii Executive Summary In Nepal, medicinal and aromatic plants collecting and trade are centuries-old businesses and they provide people from rural areas with an important source of income (Olsen & Helles 1997). Therefore, medicinal plant cultivation, as an alternative to wild harvest, can provide income while at the same time helping the conservation efforts. In the scientific literature, there is very little mention of medicinal plant cultivation as a source of income. Moreover, no studies on medicinal plant cultivation in the study area were found. Therefore, the field of medicinal plants cultivation in Nepal was identified as a research gap. This study aims to fill this research gap by gathering information on medicinal plant cultivation and cultivators and by assessing to what extent this activity can lead to development. The study area was shaped by the fact that Rampur, Chitwan District was the starting point of all travelling and by the transportation facilities. Due to the lack of good roads, poor bus schedules, most of the time the only reliable means of transportation was the motorbike. Out of the 37 village development committees in Chitwan District, only 11 are represented in the sample: Bachhayauli, Dibyanagar, Fulbari, Gunjanagar, Jagatpur, Korak, Kalyanpur, Mangalpur, Meghauli, Saradanagar, and Shaktikhor. Primary data was collected between 15 th of May and 13 th of June 2010 in Chitwan and Ghorka Districts. Data was gathered from individual farmers that cultivate medicinal plants, community forest user groups, cooperatives and private companies but also from those that do not cultivate medicinal plants. According to the medicinal plants cultivators, having a good network of other cultivators is important for gathering information on cultivation practices and market. Most of the farmers have less than five years of experience in this activity which proves that this activity quite new in Chitwan District. Moreover, taking into account the cooperatives and the CFUGs that just started cultivation, medicinal plants cultivation seems to be a rapidly expanding activity. However, only farmers that are part of a network seem to be able to increase the cultivation area in time. The main driver for starting medicinal plants cultivation is income generation followed at a certain distance by the healing properties of the plants. The necessary investment per katha /season is mostly less than Rs 3,000 for an individual farmer. However, the income generated by this activity cannot sustain the household. On average the contribution of medicinal plants cultivation is 37% of the household income, and most households rely on at least one more source of income other than medicinal plants. Moreover, the fact that no farmer relies exclusively on the income generated by the medicinal plants and that most of the farmers start with a small area is proof those farmers are risk averse and that they need confirmation of the viability of an activity before investing. Only companies have the financial power to process medicinal plants and therefore they get a higher share of profit. For most cultivators the most important problem is the market, due to the unbalanced supply and demand, which results in fluctuating prices and the lack of transparency of information on the market. Considering the findings from the non-cultivators survey, traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is a relatively unimportant factor in the decision to start cultivation of medicinal plants. Income is the main driver of starting this activity followed by the understanding of the importance of medicinal plants. Moreover, iv people that are willing to start this new activity realize that they need trainings, market knowledge, and approximately Rs 3,000 as the initial investment. The main product of the conducted research is presented in chapter seven, in the form of a project based on the endogenous development framework and the previously presented findings and analysis. The reasons for creating such a project are the recognition of the potential of medicinal plants cultivation as a income generating activity but also a conservation opportunity. From a donor’s perspective, an agency such as Compass that is willing to follow the endogenous development approach, this type of project creates the opportunity to involve people and put them in charge of their own development. The aims of the project are to promote small-scale community-based cultivation; as processing and medicinal plant marketing relieve pressure from wild sources but also to introduce best practices for wild medicinal plant collection and sustainable collection levels. The main objectives of this project are improving livelihoods, conserving and improve local knowledge and practice, preserve the medicinal plants species, and advocate for an enabling environment with the policy makers.