Perceived Social Empowerment Status of the Medicinal Plant Growers
N. Suganthi *
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore-641003, India.
P. Balasubramaniam
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore-641003, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The indigenous systems of medicine in India are Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani which is practised from ancient times. India and China are the two major countries having 40 per cent of the global diversity and are known as the house of medicinal plants. Most of the medicinal plants are gathered from the forest areas to meet the demand of the medicinal profession, which becomes exhaustible if overused and sustainable when used with care and wisdom. Hence, it is important to take efforts to grow them as commercial crops. Several theoretical concepts to measure empowerment of farmers have been identified and proposed world wide, very few studies have been conducted to measure their empowerment. This paper presents the Perceived Social Empowerment status of medicinal plant growers.
Keywords: Medicinal plants, social, empowerment, demand