Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

MEDICINAL WEEDS IN KODO MILLET FIELDS: A SOURCE OF AN ADDITIONAL INCOME FOR CHHATTISGERH FARMERS

P. Oudhia

Abstract

An ethnobotanical study was conducted by the Department of Agronomy, Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur (India) to list out the medicinal weed flora of the Chhattisgarh region and to find out the possibilities of utilizing medicinal weeds in Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) fields to provide an additional income to the farmers besides an effective weed control. The study was done in 6 purposively selected districts. From each selected district, a proportionate was taken to make the total sample size as 1000 respondents. The weeds were collected through intensive visits and informations on potential uses were collected with the help of reference literatures of different medicine systems. The study revealed that out of 42 problematic weeds (belong to more than 16 families) in Kodo millet 37 weeds possess medicinal properties. The study suggested that there is a tremendous scope of utilizing medicinal weeds in Kodo millet fields to provide an additional income to farmers.