The national conference on Seabuckthorn here came out with a roadmap on cultivation of the shrub on 30,000 hectares of land in five Himalayan states, including Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, J&K (Ladakh) Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

This would not only lift the economy of farmers in cold deserts, protect the environment, but help in retaining habitation along the international border. Seabuckthorn has medicinal properties, food value and it helps in conserving soil fertility.

According to president of Seabuckthorn Association of India, Dr RC Sawhney, the roadmap, which was discussed by experts, farmers and other stakeholders, would be submitted to the Government of India and the respective state governments for approval.

The roadmap would first be presented before the Himachal Governor, Acharya Devvrat, who had expressed concern over the slow pace of development on Seabuckthorn cultivation.

The three-day conference, which concluded here on Thursday was attended by over 100 scientists from India and Nepal, some farmers and representatives from the industry.

The delegates hammered that while researchers in universities and institutes have developed technologies for seabuckthorn cultivation and value addition, the government is yet to make any investment on seabuckthorn cultivation over last two decades. So far, all the plans in this regard have remained on paper. It was only recently that Government of India has put Seabuckthorn under a particular scheme for subsidy in the horticulture department in five Himalayan states, but it is just the beginning.

Dr Virendra Singh, Organizing Secretary of the conference and seabuckthorn expert, who was coordinator of research project taken up by 12 departments at CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya (CSKHPKV, said studies conducted on genetic diversity of seabuckthorn population had discovered high yielding genotype “Drilbu” for cultivation on community land.

He said Dr RK Rana propagated 240,000 saplings of improved seabuckthorn under ICAR funded scheme, which were planted on forest land by over 400 farmers in 120 hectares in Lahaul valley with 52% survival rate.

Dr Singh told that his university has raised a germplasm bank on seabuckthorn and has imported 12 Russian varieties for farmers, which are going under field testing. Fast propagation methods from micro-cuttings and softwood cuttings and plantation of seabuckthorn without irrigation on dry sites have also been developed.

A team of scientists, including Dr YS Dhaliwal, Dr Ranjna Verma, Dr VK Sharma, Dr SP Tyagi and Dr Mandeep Sharma from Palampur University have developed 16 vitamin rich food products, seven animal and poultry feeds and five herbal medicines from seabuckthorn for domestic animals. Three companies have approached Palampur University for transfer of technologies.

The Palampur University has also developed a model on value chain on seabuckthorn on marginal land, which has been appreciated by ICAR, which asked the five Himalayan states for up scaling by developmental agencies. Besides, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed seabuckthorn drugs for rapid acclimatisation of Indian army for faster movement in high altitude areas of Himalayas.

The DRDO officials informed about the forest department has allowed cultivation of seabuckthorn by farmers on marginal land as a horticulture crop under a horticulture scheme. The demand for Seabuckthorn by industry was also discussed.