We welcome all concerned with our development visions to become our Partners.
Vanamoolika Herbals – Wayanad Vanamoolika Samrakshana Sangham
Vanamoolika Herbals – Wayanad Vanamoolika Samrakshana Sangham
Situated deep within the lush green Western Ghats, a UNESCO biodiversity hotspot, Vanamoolika has been tirelessly working towards a noble vision: to preserve the rich medicinal plant heritage of Kerala while promoting sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Over the past 35 years, we’ve made significant advance in achieving this goal.
The Wayanad we see today is the result of the tireless efforts of hardworking farmers who have built their dreams here. Wayanad’s economy is largely agrarian.
The Wayanad of grandma’s stories is vivid – a place where rain showered 24/7, and the sun rarely entered through the dense forest. This wasn’t a story from 1,000 years ago; it was the reality just 50 years ago.Medicine was hard to find and too costly.
Even a small illness caused big worry.when children fell sick, families had to travel far—through forests filled with wild animals—just to reach a hospital.Modern medicine was hard to reach and costly. Traditional herbs were slowly being forgotten.We knew something had to change.We wanted to bring back the value of our medicinal plants and make healthcare affordable again. We also wanted to support women and help communities grow stronger.since the women lead the family it was important to empower women.
That’s when Vanamoolika was born—a small but powerful idea. It started to grow like a tiny seed. A group of people began saving rare plants, teaching women to grow herbs, and making natural medicine affordable again.it is always easy to prevent disease that cure .Ayurveda is focused on this concept.it is better to be healthy than to get treatment once we are ill. initially we started training small group of women.expanding to production unit later.
Protecting Nature : We care for over 700 types of healing plants in our 4-acre center.
Helping Women Grow : We train and support women to earn, learn, and lead.
Farming the Natural Way We train and support women to earn, learn, and lead.
Working Together :
Our programs help people take care of their health, land, and future.
Vanamoolika is more than a project.
It is a symbol of hope, unity, and strength.
Together, we are building a healthier and greener tomorrow — led by women, powered by nature.Today, Vanamoolika stands tall like a strong tree. It reminds everyone that even in tough times, care, courage, and community can heal and change the world.
Vanamoolika have a large-scale production unit to process herbal healthcare, nutraceuticals, food products, ayurvedic medicines and cosmetic products. Now we are producing about 180 ayurvedic and food products, all by organic, and HACCP international standards. This factory belongs to 375 local women and Vanamoolika as Non-Profit-Organisation provides them the facilities to run this enterprise.
In Kerala the number of industries harvesting medicinal plants is growing. Most of these businesses disregard all aspects of sustainability and community. Wild harvesting of medicinal plants from the forests, which is cheaper than their cultivation, is out of control. The result hurts natural biodiversity and is leading to an alarming rapid decrease not only of species and yield but also in quality of products.
Kerala in Southwest India is part of the West-Ghat, one of the eight most important UNESCO biodiversity hotspots in the world. Unsustainable wild harvesting and the use of pesticides in large-scale mono-crop plantations are causing a massive loss of plant and animal biodiversity – a dreadful development not only for nature but also a threat for small farmers’ livelihoods
Was mooted for an alternative intervention with the proclaimed vision and missions and over one and half decade now we have been working to revitalize the traditional and indigenous herbal health care system and empower the grass-root communities to independently employ it to tangibly contribute in the aspired sustainable socio-economic development process of theirs. Thus Vanamoolika attempts not only to conserve and preserve more than 600 species herbal plants and over 300 bio-species; but also, to disseminate the knowledge about them and motivate and empower the people for application of the same in their health care and food systems.
Vanamoolika carry out this development intervention through the 25 Women Self-Help Groups ( WSHGs) organized and 10 Tribal Colonies identified and facilitated across the district for the purpose. Apart from motivating the people for developing herbal gardens, technical trainings are also provided for making different home-remedy herbal formulations and processing the herbal raw materials for value additions from commercial point of view. Thus herbal gardening fetches additional income to the member families. With practical experiences and learning over the last 16 years, it has in possession researched documents on the medicinal and nutritional effects and qualities of over hundred herbal plants, traditional cereals & pulses and corns. The Nutrivita food compound (powder form) formulated by Vanamoolika out of these experiences and researches is earning wider demands.
Another important intervention the organization is having is the promotion of organic cultivations. Over 1700 small/ marginal farmers in the district have been facilitated to switch to organic cultivations and helped to avail Organic Certification for their products which benefit them economically and as well develop the family / community health situations.
Though there is rich herbal wealth in the form of medicinally useful species in the district there have been bare minimum attempts to use it in the economic development programmes for the benefit of the agro-rural communities of the district This developmental potential has been highlighted in the Report of the M S Swaminathan Commission on WTO concerns in Agriculture Trade Security System of Kerala (January 2003). The Report says, ” It would be desirable to develop the region extending from the Silent Valley Biosphere Reserve up to Wayanad as a ‘Herbal Bio-Valley’, on the model of the Silicon Valley of USA for Computer Software. The herbal bio-valley should provide the biological software essential for a dynamic medicinal plant industry”. For, Wayanad is one such Center of “biological soft-wares” in the State, and falls in the list of 29 Plant Diversity Centers identified from Western Ghats.
For the past 5 years and more, Vanamoolika has been in a strenuous effort to tap these potentialities for the socio-economic development of the grass-root communities of the district and in partnership with State implemented Central Development Project ‘Rashtreeya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY), the organization is about to realize this dream. With an integrated approach in the development of a dynamic herbal medicinal system at the rural level, and addressing the various components of commercialization like the production and marketing, Vanamoolika is in the process of implementing a participatory project with the concerned stakeholders.
Now a days the modern medicine is very expensive and the poor people cannot approach for a treatment for their common diseases. In 1940s and after the allopathic medicine become popular because of easy administration and sudden cure and easy availability. But the medical industry is now one of the profits making industry. According to Indian culture and concept, treatment is not for profit. It is a service and it is a gift of god. The ayurveda is a part of veda.
The earlier people used the traditional systems of medicines using herbs was very effective and very cheap. It has the history of 5000years. Now vanamoolika is trying to revitalize the traditional use of herbs and the ailments using herbs for the benefits of the poor. Also for any systems of treatment the herbs are the basis of the production of medicine. So we are trying to generate awareness for the conservation of herbs and traditional use of herbs.
Our district of wayanad there is an identified 700 medicinal plants. But many of them are endangered; many of them are threatened species. Many are not known its medicinal value and the importance of the plants. So unknowingly the people destroy it. We are trying to conserve the threatened species by educating the people. Vanamoolika have a conservatory garden with 700 rare medicinal plants. We are multiplying these rare plants in the nursery and distributed to the farmers for insit-to conservation and cultivation.
Vanamoolika is providing technical guidance and marketing channel to the farmers who are willing to cultivate medicinal plants as an agriculture crop. All the trainings and service are free of cost
Vanamoolika started a new venture. Promotion and cultivation of organic medicinal plants by small farmers and women SHGs with buy back agreement. The procured raw material is processed as Ayurvedic medicine. Many farmers are getting income from medicinal plant cultivation.the food crops and spices are organically cultivated by the farmers and certified by the certification agency INDOCERT. 850 farmers are been clustered and internal control systems are organized. So that ICS can assure the quality and can procured without loosing the tracebility. After marketing, the profit will be shared with the member farmers. This may be the first and unique venture in agriculture sector.in India
25 women self help groups each group with 15 members are cultivating medicinal plants. They are getting a substantial income by cultivating medicinal plans in their own farm. Secondly they are preparing nutraceuticals and cosmetics in their own group, after selling it locally they are earning money. These members are also working in vanamoolika central processing unit, and they are drawing salary. Hence there is an employment generation among rural women groups.
Vanamoolika is given the attention to process the above given products in large scale. Herbs can cultivate in large scale by the farmers, Vanamoolika have a large-scale production unit to process Herbal healthcare and cosmetic products
Voluntary service on organic farming and organic certification is another service provided by vanamoolika. We conduct seminars and trainings, which help organic farmers. The training includes certification process, ICS inspectors training, vermi compost, biodynamic compost and other on farm compost methods,
As supportive structures to the planned pro-rural interventions, A 2 acre Conservation plot along with a Centralized Nursery for viable & threatened Herbal species and Food / horticultural / spices Crops has been developed by the organization and a GMP standard Herbal Medicinal Processing Factory is being instituted for large scale productions of herbal medicines using the organically cultivated medicinal plants by the benificieries / cosmetics in demand world-wide. The productions of the factory will strictly follow the warranted and lawful International Voluntary Standards & mandatory Codex Alimentarius & NSOP, EU, and USNOP standards and as well of local Voluntary Standards for organic productions. Along with is the intensive involvement of the organization for the expansion of its participatory rural agro-base by building up the awareness at the grass roots and their micro-organizations.
We welcome all concerned with our development visions to become our Partners.