Background
Herbal, medicinal and aromatic plants, often called ‘botanicals’, are part of our folklore, history, and increasingly a part of our household medicine chest. In the U.S., aligned with increased attention to food safety, consumers and suppliers alike are striving for more accurate identification and labeling, standard characterization of active chemical constituents (and impurities) and recommendations for the method of administration of the substances. Many botanicals originate in the Arab world, along with the original characterizations of their use from oral and written history. Producers in the countries of origin could add value to their raw materials through preliminary processing and more accurate characterization of their products before they are exported to European and U.S. markets. In order to promote Moroccan medicinal, herbal and aromatic plants, a project funded by USDA-FAS (Foreign Affair Services) is being implemented in full partnership between Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), ICARDA, ARS (Agricultural Research Services, USDA, USA) during 2005-2008. |
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The overall objective of the project is to support the conservation, management, and sustainable utilization of medicinal and herbal plants in Morocco while ensuring effective in-situ protection of threatened habitats and ecosystems. The project will focus on rainfed area dominated by cereal cropping system, the most severely affected region by the FTA, due to the lack of income alternatives in this region. Medicinal plants offer one of the few viable cropping alternatives to grains in this area.
The goals of the project are as follow :
- A comprehensive diversity collected and conserved; endangered species identified; niches of biodiversity identified for in-situ conservation; a herbarium and database established; genetic variability assessed; promising genotypes with chemical and medicinal properties identified.
- Degree of cultivation, marketing and processing assessed; constraints to the sustainable development of the sector identified; the cultural role of medicinal and herbal plants assessed; recommendations for research, policy and management made.
- A mechanism established for coordination and information exchange within and among countries, and creation of a safety duplication of ICARDA germplasm with germplasm gathered from Morocco as well as from Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and from other arid and semi-arid areas.
- Improved techniques for commercial production developed.
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The overall objective of the project is to support the conservation, management, and sustainable utilization of medicinal and herbal plants in Morocco while ensuring effective in situ protection of threatened habitats and ecosystems. The project’s specific objectives are to :
- Prepare a national database on indigenous medicinal and herbal plants, with a view to assess their usage, status, and ecosystems;
- Conserve, manage, and sustainably use, both in situ and ex situ, medicinal, herbal and aromatic plants in arid and semi-arid areas;
- Institutionally strengthen collaborating agencies, i.e. scientific research institutes, faculties of pharmacy, extension services, universities, NGOs, etc. to add value to medicinal herbal and aromatic plants through processing, chemical analysis and marketing;
- Improve public awareness of the importance of medicinal plants and build on traditional knowledge and cultural heritage.
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Participants
- The Centre d’Aridoculture (Arid Agriculture Center) is part of the Institut National de Recherche d’Agronomique (INRA), the major research body of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Center was created in 1980 by USAID and the Mid-America International Agricultural Consortium (MIAC), a 5-state consortium comprising Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Because of this connection, INRA Settat has long had close links to US scientists.
- The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is one of 15 international agricultural research centers that make up the CGIAR system. Based in Aleppo, Syria, ICARDA has a regional office in Tunisia that has been working with FAS / RSED for several years. ICARDA is currently managing six 108-funded projects for RSED in Tunisia, including a project similar to this one on medicinal plants.
- USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) will provide expertise and guidance for this project.
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