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Nagarjana Aushadhi Vanaspati Farmers Producer Company (NAVFPC)

Nagarjana Aushadhi Vanaspati Farmers Producer Company (NAVFPC) is located in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state, India. Medicinal plants are cultivated in Amravati, Akola and Buldhana Districts of Vidarbha region on large area. It is having semi-arid tropic climate. Long pepper is majorly grown by the small and marginal farmers. These farmers belonging to the “Bari” community as they have imparted the skill to grow this crop from generation together. They have to manage temperature and light beside water according to season. Long pepper’s dried spike, different quality roots and stem, Cassia Tora seed, Mucunapruriens. We are organizing capacity building training & work shop for the growers as well as marketing their products in Pan India. The packaging is of 50 kg per bag by weight packed in waterproof plastic bag covered by reused gunny bag if the quantity is less than 50 kg then we pack as per customers demand.

Role of NAVFPC to improve the Productivity, Quality and Marketing of Long Pepper

Long Pepper is successfully grown in 1000 hectare area of Amravati, Akola and Buldhana districts. The total annual production of dried spicks of Long Pepper is 600 MT. This region is land locked and this crop is irrigated troughout the year majorly by micro irrigation system. The water resources from the dug well or tube well. The Long Pepper is vine in nature and for better production these vines ties vertically on the supporting plant either by natural or plastic thread. This is time consuming labor intensive and skilled work which is perform by ‘Bari’ community people who are the locals of this area. The vine is annual in nature and economic life of the vine is 2-3 years in most of the cases. The planting material of the Long Pepper and its planting area is the same over the decade. Therefore, it faces microbial disease problem frequently. NAVFPC is joining the hands with local agriculture university and others subject matters specialist to find out the non- chemical solution on this constraint. This will lead to improve life of the vine and raise the productivity of the crop. It will improve the farm income and the farmers depend on this crop. This Long Pepper is known with ‘Choti pippal’ in domestic trade as its size particularly length is less compare to other Long Pepper in the trade. Its picking is done form October to January. The spike are dried on open farm ground faces the problem for untimely rains. During picking some spikes are over matured and faces the problem of more moisture during the process of solar drying. In both the condition the spikes holds more moisture and microbial load. This condition is avoided by the many reputed medicinal drug manufacturing industries. We are trying to aware the growers about this situation and trying to improve the crop quality and shelf life. Long pepper spikes are mostly use in medicinal drug manufacturing industries. Whereas its roots, root nodes and stem use for culinary purpose. Dried spikes are packed in plastic or PP bags covered by gunny bags for the safety from the contamination and moisture during transport. This bags contains 50 Kgs of dried spikes.