Feasibility Study Report on Expanding Cultivation of Major Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Community Forests of Manang Provincial Government Divisional Forest Office Chame, Manang July, 2020 1 Feasibility Study Report on Expanding Cultivation of Major Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Community Forests of Manang Provincial Government Divisional Forest Office Chame, Manang Cover Photo: Timur seedlings produced at the nursery of Divisional Forest Office Myagdi Published Year: July 2020 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) provides sustainable means of a natural source of high-value industrial raw material for pharmaceutical, agrichemical, food, and cosmetic industries and unleashes new possibilities for higher level of gains for farmers with a significant scope for progress in rural economy. To achieve the national ambition of "Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali" through forestry, government of Nepal has initiated cultivation and domestication of MAPs in private, public and community lands. However, due to lack of scientific data on organized and sustainable cultivation, lack of social awareness in plant use, market and proper management, the numbers of trading MAPs are decreasing at an alarming rate. Realizing the urgency of cultivating high values MAPs in Manang, it is imperative to identify the probable cultivating MAPs and the sites that can provide benefits to the locals and the governments. Toward these ends, this study was designed to seek feasibility on expanding cultivation of major MAPs in four community forests of Manang. For this, data were collected through direct field visit and available grey literatures which were analyzed in Microsoft Excel and Maxent. Of the 25 commercially available NTFP species of the district, 10 cultivable MAP species were found suitable for cultivation in the study area. These species were further ranked and prioritized to 6 namely Chiraito, Kurilo, Nirmansi, Satuwa, Sugandhawal and Timur having high economic importance and were identified feasible for cultivation in community forests of Manang. Divisional Forest Office Manang should design and implement programs to boost up cultivation of high value medicinal and aromatic plants in the district. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. 2 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... 4 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................... 4 1.3 STUDY AREA ..................................................................................................... 4 2.1 DATA PREPARATION ........................................................................................ 7 2.2 FORMAT DESIGN AND FIELD ORIENTATION .................................................... 7 2.3 DATA COLLECTION AND COMPILATION .......................................................... 8 2.4 RANKING OF THE SPECIES ............................................................................... 8 2.5 IDENTIFICATION OF SUITABLE HABITAT .......................................................... 8 3.1 CHIRAITO ....................................................................................................... 10 3.1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 10 3.1.2 Habitat and distribution .......................................................................... 11 3.1.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 12 3.1.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 13 3.2 KURILO ........................................................................................................... 14 3.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 14 3.2.2 Habitat and distribution .......................................................................... 15 3.2.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 16 3.2.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 17 3.3 NIRMANSI ...................................................................................................... 18 3.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 18 3.3.2 Habitat and distribution .......................................................................... 20 3.3.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 21 3.3.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 21 3.4 SATUWA ........................................................................................................ 21 2 3.4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 21 3.4.2 Habitat and Distribution .......................................................................... 23 3.4.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 24 3.4.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 25 3.5 SUGANDHAWAL ............................................................................................ 26 3.5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 26 3.5.2 Habitat and distribution .......................................................................... 27 3.5.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 28 3.5.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 29 3.6 TIMUR ............................................................................................................ 29 3.6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 29 3.6.2 Habitat and distribution .......................................................................... 30 3.6.3 Uses ......................................................................................................... 31 3.6.4 Cultivation ............................................................................................... 32 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 34 Appendix 1. Details of exported NTFPs of the district by fiscal year ................... 37 Appendix 2. Listing of Commercially important NTFPs from the study area ....... 38 Appendix 3. Prioritizing commercially important NTFPs from the study area .... 39 Appendix 4. GPS location of each CFUGs of the study area ................................ 40 Appendix 5. GPS location of available NTFPs in each CFUGs of the study area .. 41 Appendix 6. List of 30 species of medicinal plants for research and development. ............................................................................................................................. 42 Appendix 7. Prioritized NTFPs for cultivation and research (MOITFE, 2019) ...... 43 Appendix 8. Annual allowable quantity of NTFPs of Manang (MOITFE, 2019) ... 44 Appendix 9. Commercially important NTFPs of Manang (MOITFE, 2019) .......... 45 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Study area. 11 Figure 2. Chiraito plant growing near rocky area. 17 Figure 3. Potential cultivation site for Chiraito. 18 Figure 4. A mature Kurilo plant. 21 Figure 5. Potential cultivation site for Kurilo. 22 Figure 6. Blooming plant of Nirmansi. 25 Figure 7. Potential cultivation site for Nirmansi. 26 Figure 8. Satuwa growing near damp rocky area. 28 Figure 9. Potential cultivation site for Satuwa. 29 Figure 10. Blooming plant of a Sugandhawal. 32 Figure 11. Potential cultivation site for Sugandhawal. 33 Figure 12. Seedlings of Timur grown in nursery. 35 Figure 13. Potential cultivation site for Timur. 36 4 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND All products other than timber, fuel wood and fodder are classified as Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Nepal. Among these NTFPs, the most important category is the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs); commonly known as Jadibuti or Jaributi in Nepal. As adopted from the definition of medicinal plants specialist group (2007), MAPs are the plants and mushrooms traded to produce pharmaceuticals, dietary supplement products, natural health products, cosmetics and other personal care products, and culinary products. Out of the total plants recorded from Nepal, 1624 plant species have medicinal and aromatic importance and are being used by local communities to treat various ailments, and more than 100 plants or plant parts are annually traded to more than 50 countries abroad from Nepal (Ghimire et al., 2016; Pandey and Shrestha, 2018). In the mountainous regions of Nepal, 10-100% of households are reported to be involved in commercial collection