A small white-flowered plant in the dry lands of Barmer district of Rajasthan is changing the lives of farmers here. Called Shankhpushpi or Convolvulus Pluricaulis , the flower is an ancient medicinal plant that once grew in the wild here. Now a joint effort by FMCG firm Dabur, ICRISAT and the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra, has seen farmers reaping rewards.

One of them is Giana Ram, a 55-year-old farmer in Dhirasar village who has a four-hectare farm. Earlier he grew pearl millet and legumes in an unscientific manner. Successive droughts had pushed his family's annual income down to ₹40,000, increasing their debt. Today, he has adopted an integrated farming system, growing pearl millet, fruit trees and intercropped legumes and medicinal plants. Now his annual farm income is between ₹1.30 lakh- 1.35 lakh. Shankhpushpi alone, as a rain-fed intercrop, fetches him ₹30,000 per hectare.

The flower is used by Dabur for its baby massage oil Lal Tail, says Dr N B Brindavanam, Advisor, Bio-resources Development at the Dabur Research and Development Centre. In 2008, Dabur began exploring Barmer to cultivate Shankhpushpi. “Medicinal plants are a major resource for us. It was necessary to intervene as it was becoming hard to find. It was important to get the right Shankhpushpi from its endemic zone,” says Dr Brindavanam.

Arid Barmer was by no means an easy place. With an annual rainfall of barely 280 mm, and mostly sandy soil, the area was not an ideal cultivation ground.  Initially Dabur tried to get the farmers to do mono cropping. But that did not meet the livelihood needs of the people. It was then that Dabur sought technical help from bodies like ICRISAT, and the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra, and also involved an NGO Society to Uplift Rural Economy (SURE).  “ICRISAT gave us a key input suggesting we intersperse the medicinal plants with two more species,” says Dr Brindavanam.  The recipe worked. Today there are 55 villages stretching from Barmer to Jodhpur, growing Shankhpushpi as an intercrop.  The medicinal plant requires little maintenance, says Pradeep Pagaria of KVK. Intercropping is done with castor, guar and pearl millet.

 “The Shankhpushpi crop requires water during sowing and once the seed germinates, the need is similar to any dry land crop’s,” says Shalander Kumar, scientist at ICRISAT. Production has increased from 25 metric tonnes in 2014-15, to  45 metric tonnes in 2015-16.  “Despite scanty rainfall, we have not seen any fluctuation in the production,” says Dr Sarvepalli Badari Narayan, Head, Bio Resources at the Dabur Research and Development Centre.

Now two more medicinal plants that are local to the region – Arna, a hardy plant used for fencing and Jeevanti, a climber - are being introduced. From 20 farmers in 2014, today 300 farmers are adopting this integrated farming model.   

 “There is no wasteland in India, only wasted land,” sums up Dr J LN Sastry, head, healthcare, Dabur Research & Development Centre.

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