India’s largest science-based Ayurveda company, Dabur India Limited, has joined forces with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) to launch a huge project. This project will use agroforestry to improve tree, fruit, medicinal, and aromatic plantation practices on farms outside of forests in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Tamil Nadu.
The initiative will be very important for increasing tree cover outside of designated forest areas and on farmlands. It will also go a long way toward helping India meet its goals for reducing climate change in the forestry sector, while also helping people live sustainably.
“Nature is the heart of our business at Dabur. With a range of products made from natural ingredients and based on nature, we rely on nature’s gifts to keep our promise to bring holistic health and well-being to every home. We are used to taking care of natural resources in a sustainable way, and we encourage everyone in our value chain to do the same. Dabur is happy to work with CIFOR-ICRAF to promote agroforestry and trees in places other than forests. Mohit Malhotra, the chief executive officer of Dabur India Ltd, said, “This is a step forward in our plan to protect ecosystems, stop land degradation, and slow down the loss of biodiversity.”
Under this project, Dabur will focus on bringing selected medicinal tree species and medicinal plants into cultivation. They will also set up satellite nurseries in states to make sure that good planting material is available for the selected plant species.
CIFOR-ICRAF is in charge of putting the Trees Outside Forests in India (TOFI) Program into action. This is a five-year program run by USAID and India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as part of a bilateral agreement on Sustainable Forestry and Climate Adaptation. The main goal of the TOFI program is to plant a lot more trees outside of forests. This will help people make a living and improve ecosystem services in the seven states that are taking part: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. The TOFI Program will be used to start the first part of the partnership with Dabur.
Dr. Ravi Prabhu, Director General a.i. of ICRAF, said, “We are happy to work with Dabur India Limited, which is India’s top science-based Ayurveda company. We hope that through this partnership, small farmers and tree growers in the participating states will be able to make the kinds of tree-based raw materials that Dabur needs. This will not only help improve the smallholders’ incomes, but it will also encourage the sustainable production and harvesting of tree-based products with medicinal value and help India reach its larger development goals and NDC targets.
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