Scientific justification of the need for balanced development of medicinal plant growing

Abstract

Medicinal plant growth plays a significant role in the development of the national economy as a component of the processing industry, agriculture and forestry nowadays. Its resource base is a valuable natural resource, an indispensable functional part of the biosphere, and the basis for maintaining the potential of human health. An important aspect of balanced development is the preservation of medicinal plant resources in the natural conditions of their growth to preserve the species composition of commodity products and the biological diversity of the ecosystem. The global trend, including Ukrainian, testifies to the rapid increase in the importance of preserving the species diversity of the natural fauna and wild herbs in particular. There are two directions of medicinal plant cultivation: the use of natural plant resources (the collection of wild species) and the cultivation of medicinal plants. The specificity of the development of this industry directly depends on the way of its management for the production of medicinal plant material, about 160 species of wild plants and about 60 species of cultivated medicinal plants are currently used. That is, over 70% of medicinal plants are wildlife, and they constitute the fund of comprehensive renewable resources of the state that are harvested in Ukraine, ad this, in turn, attaches great importance to this area of harvesting of medicinal plants, since it is predominant. The following research methods were used to perform the tasks set in the work: economic-statistical, abstract-logical, system-structural and comparative, graphic and design-constructive, and others like that. The current state of medicinal plant growing shows a significant gap in production processes, logistics, environmental management, certification, and other financial and organizational aspects. Solving of these issues will contribute to the development of the greening agriculture, the development of rural areas, the stabilization of the volume of cultivation of medicinal plants, and the regulation of market relations for the production of medicinal plants. Additional attention needs to be paid to the systematization of priorities, and search for ways to optimize the direction of development of medicinal plant growth in order to balance. In particular, taking into account the ecological, economic, and social features of the development of this industry involves solving the problems of preserving the natural resources of medicinal plants, the instability of the volumes of their harvesting and growing, the low weight of environmentally clean (from chemical and radiation pollution) quality of products that meet the quality requirements for its certification, as well as the low level of innovation implementation in the development of Ukrainian industry.