Entrepreneurship Packages Presented in the Field of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine

Based on a report by Bazarekar and according to Public Relations Center of Vice-presidency for Science and Technology, a large number of countries have now approached the issue of entrepreneurship, which has contributed to making policies to help develop entrepreneurship in various sectors. Expanding the culture of entrepreneurship, supporting entrepreneurs, providing them with necessary training, conducting appropriate studies and research to remove different economic and social obstacles, are all  of great importance.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most modern issue in this decade. In Iran, too, due to large youth population and unemployment this has been one of the main issue considered in the government’s policy-making and planning. Entrepreneurship accompanied by strategic planning can assist in fundamental advancement towards a booming economy leading to sustainable development goals.

Therefore, National Council for Science and Technology Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine, Vice-presidency for Science and Technology, planned to form a Technical work group on Technology and Entrepreneurship Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine, Vice-presidency. This work group was formed to implement those goals stated in National Document of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine, focusing on expansion and development of the level of technology and the knowledge to produce medicinal plants, assist entrepreneurs as well as increase  employment.

One of the work group’s approaches, is to prepare entrepreneurship packages in various field of medicinal Plants and traditional medicine. Hence, an instruction form based on the views of pundits and members of medicinal plants council has been compiled, and entrepreneurship packages have been duly prepared.

The aims of these packages are to increase efficiency as well as economic transformation in the field of medicinal plants and traditional medicine. All these to meet sustainable development goals, capacity building and empowerment. In fact, entrepreneurship in the field of medicinal plants and traditional medicine can not only be effective in meeting general goals but also, be influential in raising public health and well-being, providing food safety, cultivation, growth and harvest development, processing, raising efficiency as well as improving quality and quantity production.

Presenting key strategies and plans can bring positive changes in policy-making and pave the way for programming and developing entrepreneurship in the long term. Some points can be highlighted, in this regard.

Currently, in addition to unemployment due to high work force in respect to land, and the fact that farming is a seasonal activity, there is always some sort of hidden unemployment during farming period and a form of seasonal unemployment in rural areas. Developing medicinal plants, which bring about employment, can provide permanent employment for some graduates and  provide temporary jobs for seasonal unemployed people.

The aforementioned entrepreneurship packages, will lead to job varieties and fixed incomes for farmers and villagers. Drop in poverty and entrepreneurship development increases farmers’ income per capita and gross national product, savings, investment, consumption and production per capita. In other words, by means of these packages, the rise in farmers’ well-being and standard of living will be guaranteed.

Moreover, Efficiency and benefiting from production resources as well as the country’s potentials, innovation, technology improvement and the rise in patented inventions as well as in the national product are achieved. On the other hand, the decrease in marketing costs, transportation, omission of the middlemen in the medicinal plants production process as well as low medicinal plants waste products, are gained by implementing the entrepreneurship packages.

Three elements are needed to explain a job: job description, its location and goods or services. In the element of job description, business goals, its profitability, legal aspects, type of careers such as manufacturing, providing service or modern jobs, opportunities and promotion are taken into consideration. The element of location takes into account the possibility of investment and its security, its utility, having ample space, its accessibility to the market, having the primary facilities and their availability.

In the element of goods or services, the following are noticed: the advantages of new product and its difference from the existing one, the type, properties and quality of the goods and services, production varieties, considering customers’ financial ability, low prices, high quality and in the end, creativity and innovation.

The entrepreneurship packages in the commercial sector deal with the issue of rivalry, pricing, sales, advertisements and public relations. In terms of competition, the close and indirect rivals are analyzed, the advantages and characteristics of the opponents’ product, stable changes, strong and weak points of the rival as well as their total revenue, are of significance.

What is discussed in the pricing and sales section is business marketing skills and using them in pricing methods and analyzing the rivals’ position. In terms of advertising and marketing, the budget and the variety of advertisement, creativity and innovation together with the manner of advertising, considering the culture and the customs of the society and using appealing phrases, all play a great role in booming of a business.

Entrepreneurship and manpower are directly linked. Therefore, in terms of human resources management, the required manpower, the management and their specialty as well as their practical experience, their responsibility, strong and weak points, and finally their behavior towards other personnel and the customers play a role in thriving of a business. In financial management, setting the budget to start a business, taking into account the amount of capital needed to establish and maintain a business, justifying investment, study and operational costs are reviewed.

Once these issues are put together side by side, there will be a map of prosperity and success in production as well as a perspective of the future and methods used to help flourish a business. Considering the mentioned issues, and the importance of providing entrepreneurship packages, National Council for Science and Technology Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine with the collaboration of experts, faculty members, producers, manufacturers and scholars, started preparing the entrepreneurship packages based on priorities.

Producing aloe vera outdoors in tropical climates, processing aloe vera gel, medicinal plants private educational center, producing peppermint, producing thyme, producing Rosa damascena, producing organic medicinal plants,producing medicinal plants tea-bags, producing medicinal plants transplantation, processing medicinal plants in small rural units, medicinal plants drying and packaging units, producing rosemary, producing Aloysia citrodora, producing essential oil in small rural units, producing dracocephalum, producing viper’s bugloss, alternative cultivation of thyme in rainfed regions, alternative cultivation of cumin in rainfed regions, concentrating medicinal plants extracts as well as producing sage, are among the topics in these entrepreneurship packages.

For more information, those interested can refer to the website of National Council for Science and Technology Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine, Vice-presidency for Science and Technology.