Kathmandu, September 1

Dabur Nepal Pvt Ltd today signed a memorandum of understanding with the Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, to establish a fellowship programme offering scholarship to a deserving full-time research student for his/her PhD in medicinal and aromatic plants research.

The fellowship programme has been instituted in the name of Dabur India Ltd’s former chairman emeritus Ashok Chand Burman. Dabur Nepal will provide about one million rupees to the Central Department of Botany for this fellowship programme.

The university will be responsible for distributing the fellowship to selected candidate as per its rules and regulations.

The selected candidate of Central Department of Botany will conduct research jointly on the selected species of medicinal and aromatic plants of the Himalayan region in Nepal. The selected research fellow will have access to Dabur’s state-of-the-art greenhouse facilities.

Head of Dabur Nepal’s Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Department Dr Pankaj Prasad Raturi will be the co-supervisor for the research work, said a press release issued by Dabur Nepal.

“Ashok Chand Burman Fellowship for PhD has been initially instituted for three years. ‘Plants for Life’ was a dream project of late Burman, whose vision of rejuvenating the fast-receding herbal flora of Nepal led to the establishment of a state-of-the-art nursery in Banepa in 1997.

Through this nursery, Dabur Nepal has been providing agriculture technology for cultivation of medicinal plants, ensuring availability of healthy saplings, providing linkage with farmers and, above all, ensuring financial returns to farmers,” said Dr Raturi.

“Considering the huge potential of medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal, Dabur Nepal and Tribhuvan University have joined hands to launch this PhD programme.

Fellowship and the scientific outcome of the research shall benefit multiple stakeholders, including farmers, students, academician and scientists working in the field of medicinal and aromatic plants in the Himalayan Kingdom,” Dr Raturi added.

Nepal is known to be home to several rare and precious medicinal and aromatic plants. Dabur has been working towards cultivation and conservation of these rare herbs for the past two decades through its greenhouse facility in Banepa.