(IPC, Jakarta) Members of the Executive Committee of the Para State Agriculture (A Secretaria de Estado de Agricultura-SAGRI) has recently organized a meeting on 23rd February in Belem, Para, Brazil, aimed at discussing and drawing up the policy for the development of Medicinal Plants and Herbs industry.

According to SAGRI Para, the output of the discussion will be placed for consideration and approval by the Legislative Assembly of the Para Sate by the first half of 2010.

The proposed policy is expected to provide guidelines of the sector to ensure the sustainable use of biodiversity and further development in the production chain of the industry. A further study on the Medicinal Plants and Herbs will be further carried out by the Para State Agriculture in addition to the earlier study conducted by the Museum Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) on the scientific proof on the efficacy of the medicinal plants and herbs grown in the state of Para.

The Executive Committee, with the members comes from SAGRI, State Government Departments (Segovia), Public Health (Sespa) and Development, Science and Technology (Sedect) have also decided to hold a Sector Consultancy Seminar on 25th March with the participation from the farmers and other parties involved in the production of Medicinal Plants and Herbs in Para State.

The state of Para is also the most important growing and producing area of pepper accounting for more than 80% of the total pepper output from Brazil. Other smaller producing states of pepper in Brazil include, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Maranho.

The IPC Secretariat would like to congratulate the concerned government agencies in Para State for initiating this programme.(IPC/io@ipcnet.org)