Aloevera Cultivation

Aloevera Cultivation
Aloevera (Aloe barbadensis) is a

popular medicinal plant. It belongs to
liliaceae family. It is a perennial plant,
growing to the hight of 1 - 2 ft. Its
leaves are long and thick, juicy with a
wheel like phylotaxy. The two sides of the
leaves have thorny structure with a
thorny tip. The inner substance of the
leaves is jelly like, with bad odour and
bitter in taste. The length of the leaves
ranges from 25-30 cm., while the breadth
ranges from 3-5 cm. Normally it flowers
during October to January and the long
inflorescence has a large number of small
pink flowers all around. Fruits are
developed during February to April. It is
normally not propagated through seeds.
Vegetative propagation is easy and
convenient. Of late, because of sky
rocketing price of allopathic medicines
with its known side effects, medicinal
plants and ayurvedic medicines are
becoming popular. World trade worth
about 80 million US$ dollars exists now
and this is likely to increase by 35-40
percent within 5 years. USA dominates
the market (65%) while India and China
have a share of 10 percent each which
could be enhanced by its commercial
cultivation.
Soil and Climate
Aloe vera is found to grow in hot
humid and high rainfall conditions. It
is grown in all kind of soils but well
drained soil with high organic matter, is
most suitable. It grows well in bright
sun light. Shady conditions results in
disease infestation It is highly sensitive
to water stagnation. Therefore, well
drained high land should be selected for
its cultivation. A rainfall ranging from
1000 1200 mm is ideal for aloevera
cultivation.
Seedling Preparation and Planting
Since it is difficult to grow aloevera
from seeds, seedlings are normally raised
from roots of the plants. Sucker itself
can be used as seedlings as in Banana.
Rainy season is ideal for sucker
plantation. A spacing of 1.5 x 1 ft, 1 ft x 2
ft or 2 ft x 2 ft is followed.
Land Preparation
About 2-3 ploughings and laddering are
done to make the soil weed free and
friable. Land leveling is then followed.
Along the slope, 15-20 ft apart drainage
are made.
Application of Plant Nutrients
Before land preparation, about 8-10
tonnes FYM/ ha is applied. Before the
last ploughing, 35 kg N, 70 kg P2 O5, and
70 kg K2 O/ha are added. For
controlling termites problem, 350-400 kg
Neem Cake / ha may be applied. In
September October about 35-40 kg N as
top dressing may be applied. If the soil is
rich in organic matter, N dose can be
reduced.
Irrigation and Interculture
After 40 days or so weeding and
earthing up are done. Earthing up is also
practised after top dressing of fertiliser.
Aloe vera is slightly tolerant to drought,
but very sensitive to water stagnation.
Therefore, proper drainage is more
important than irrigation. As per need
light irrigation during drought is enough.
Plant Protection
Aloe vera is infested by various insets
and pests Special care is needed for their
control in medicinal plants like aloevera
where the juice of the leaves are directly
Cultivation of Medicinal Plant

Success Stories of Two Farmers
B.C. BISWAS
Consultant, FAI, New Delhi
Cultivation of medicinal plant is gaining ground because of the sky rocketing prices of allopathic
medicines
which also have side effects. Cultivation of medicinal plants is economically very attractive. Success
stories of
two farmers, one cultivating Aloe vera and other cultivating drumsticks, are mentioned in this paper.
Fertiliser
use in aloe vera is low, but the profit is quite high which could be ploughed back to cultivate some other
high
value high fertiliser requiring crop which in future would help in fertiliser marketing. Fertiliser use by the
farmer in case of drumstick is quite high. Some suggested lines of work for future is also mentioned.
T
2 FERTILISER MARKETING NEWS March 2010
taken as medicine. Clean cultivation,
interculture operation, regular and need
based irrigation, application of adequate
organic manure, treatment of suker before
planting, and cultivation of aloevera in
sunny conditions are conducive for
healthy growth of the aloe vera crop. Use
of organic source of plant protection
materials like raw garlic juice, neem oil
(10,000 ppm) 2-3 ml / lit, tobacco extractant
20 ml / lit gave reasonably good result.
Yield
Harvesting of leaves starts after 7-8
months of planting. Sharp knife is used
for harvesting. Care has to be taken to
reduce the loss of juice from the cut
portion. If harvesting is done once in a
year, October November are the best
period for harvesting. Second year gives
maximum yield and for about 4-5 years
good yield could be harvested. After
harvesting leaves are dried in shade and
then in sun before storages. Flowers are
collected in December January and
preserved after proper drying. Yearly 100
115 quintals raw leaves and 350 400
kg flowers / ha are obtained. (3)
Medicinal Quality
Both the juice of leaves and flowers are
used as medicine, but medicines are
prepared from leaves. Intake of juice of
leave, improves hunger, and helps in
digestion. Juice when mixed with sugar
cures cough and cold. Besides these,
it also cures nervous weakness,
asthma, Jaundice, etc. The leaf flesh
(about 7-8g) mixed with honey, taken in
morning and evening cures constipation.
Besides, it is good medicine for many
other diseases.
It contains various organic compounds
which cures diseases. Of these, the main
use is aloine. Besides, these it contains
12 types of vitamin, 20 kinds of amino
acids, 20 kinds of minerals, 200 different
types of polysaccharides, and various
kinds of glycol- protein which are used for
human health. Aloine A, and Aloine B, are
principles of the ayurvedic medicine. (3)
Economics
Expenditure to be incurred for Aloe vera
cultivation normally amounts to about
Rs.1,10,000 / ha. The expected income with
a yield of about 110 115 quintal would
be about Rs. 340,000/ha. The net profit
would be about Rs.230,000 /ha/year. In
addition to monetary benefit, social
benefit would be anormous. Better
management can results in much higher
income and net profit.
Success Story of an Aloe vera Farmer
Jakir Hussain of village Seoraderiya,
block Amta 2, Post Office, Barda, district
Howrah, Pin 711 401. (Mobile
09732449555) is a progressive farmer of
his locality. He has three brothers and 22
bighas of land (2.93 ha) in a joint family.
Traditionally he grows rice, potato and
other vegetables. With the help of
the local ADO office, he has
participated in many training programmes,
workshops organized by the state
department of agriculture and other
agencies. To meet the crop needs he also
used organic manures / vermi
compost etc. prepared by him. (7)
When he was convinced about the
profitability of aloevera cultivation, he
decided to grow this crop. He collected
the suckers of aloevera from Narendrapur
Ram Krishna Mission in the South 24
Parganas and Sriniketan (district
Birbhum) Visva-Bharati, West Bengal.
After a year of cultivation, he could get a
good amount of profit. The produce is
purchased by the Centre for Rural
Development, (CRD) of Jadarpur
university which provides technological
advise for the cultivation of medicinal
plants and their agro-processing. He
harvests the crop at two months interval.
Since produce is purchased by the
university, he has virtually no problem of
marketing.
He plans to start a agro-processing unit
of his own in future. For the benefit of the
readers the method of cultivation adopted
by him is mentioned here.
Techniques Adopted
1. Land Preparation.
2. Application of about 8 tonnes vermi
compost / ha during last plough.
3. No fertiliser or chemical was applied.
4. The application of kg vermi
compost / sucker was applied after
establishment of the sucker. The
application was again repeated.
5. Hand weeding was followed.
6. Proper drainage facility was provided.
7. Irrigations (except during raining
season) were provided as and when
needed.
8. Number of plants / ha were 2625.
9. Harvesting started after 8 months of
planting.
10. In first year three cuttings were
given.
11. Yield / ha was 39.4 tonnes of leaves.
12. From 2nd year on ward 5 cutting were
expected.
13. In three years 13 cuttings are expected
14. In three years 170.62 tonnes of yield
per ha is estimated.
Estimated income is mentioned in
Table 1.
Table 1 Economics of aloe vera cultivation
Item Cost (Rs / ha)
1. First year expenditure 2,25,000.00
2. 2nd year cost 75,000.00
3. 3rd year cost 75,000.00
Total cost in 3 years 3,75,000.00
Estimated income 25,59,000.00
(in 3 years)
(Price Rs.15/kg)
Profit at the end of 21,84,300.00
3 years (estimated)
4. Profit / year / ha 719,766.00
(average)
Source : (7)
FERTILISER MARKETING NEWS March 2010 3
In addition, 5-7 suckers are obtained
from each plant every year. Therefore,
in 3 years about 15 suckers are normally
obtained. The sale of sucker (Rs. 5/
sucker) per year / amounts to
Rs.65,625/-.
Marketing of medicinal plants is
very important. Food crop has
universal demand. The same is not true
with medicinal plant. In case of
Mr. Hussain, the university is
purchasing, so he has not to face any
problem. Mr. Hussain has not used any
fertiliser, but organic manure has been
used. Therefore, directly it may not an
increased the fertiliser demand, but the
higher income generated may be
ploughed back in the cultivation of
some other crop like vegetable
needing higher doses of fertiliser and
higher credit. Therefore, indirectly this
is also likely to increase fertiliser
consumption.

Aloevera Cultivation

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Aloevera Cultivation

Aloevera (Aloe barbadensis) is a

Cultivation of Medicinal Plant

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