Traditional Herbal Medicine practitioners in the Banda District of the Bono Region have lauded the idea of establishing a centre to produce herbal medicine in the area.

According to them, the soon-to-be-constructed ultra-modern herbal production centre will enable them to produce wholesome herbal medicines whilst ensuring quality branding.

The Chairman of the Banda Traditional Herbal Medicine Practitioners Association, Peter Kwabena Diekube, made the commendation during a meeting at Banda Bofie to discuss the modalities for the project implementation.

Hope Alive 360 Foundation, a non-profit organisation s to establish the ultra-modern herbal medicine production centre at Banda Bofie in the Bono region to ensure that the forest vegetation is protected well.

The project is being executed with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Small Grant Programme as part of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Mr Diekube said when completed, the centre will accelerate the production of standardised medicines.

According to him, it will cause people to appreciate and patronise herbal medicines in the country.

He appealed to the government to extend its 1 District 1 Factory project to every district to boost herbal medicine production for local consumption and export.

Executive Director of Hope Alive 360 Foundation, Amos Baffour-Mensah, said even though Herbal medicine practice is an age-old profession, the quality of the various traditional Ghanaian herbal preparations has been a thorny issue over the years.

According to him, many herbal medicine practitioners lack the facilities to produce wholesome oral medicines whilst others continue to struggle with Ghana Standard Authority over the certification of their products.

He said the sustainability of herbal medicine practice is at risk due to climate change and human activities, leading to some medicinal plants on the verge of extinction.

“It is to fix these challenges that UNDP through GEF is supporting us to improve the quality and availability of herbal medicine through natural regeneration, sustainable agroforestry practices, good practices of production and packaging of herbal medicine," Mr Baffour-Mensah stated.

He added, “Hope Alive 360 Foundation is further helping to build and sustain capacities of Traditional Herbal Medicine Practitioners in the Banda District whilst supporting sustainable livelihood enterprise development towards promoting biodiversity conservation within the landscape”.

Mr Baffour-Mensah, therefore, underscored the need for stakeholders, including the Herbal Medicine Practitioners, chiefs and the Banda District Assembly to support the project.