Herbal Gardens of Educational Institutions and Entrepreneurship Development: A Case Study from South India

Abstract : With the objectives of finding out the usefulness of establishing herbal gardens in every district educational institutions of India to further the knowledge of science students, help in the conservation of medicinal plant biodiversity and explore its scope in entrepreneurship development in rural India, an experimental study with 55 medicinal plants of the institutional herbal garden and 30 High school science teachers of class VI to X from Walajabad and Uthiramerur blocks (15 teachers from each block) of Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu, India, was taken up during 2020-2021. The descriptive statistical analysis and inferential T-test exhibited a significant difference between the experimental group and control group of science teachers and revealed that the institutional herbal garden promoted outdoor science education among the students and science teachers. Activity based learning is found enhancing the skills, knowledge, and motivation for better understanding of scientific concepts by the learners. Also, the field study by the learners through the institutional herbal gardens serve as an outdoor science education center, and instill comprehensive understanding on the ecology, morphology, physiology and ethnomedicinal uses of the cultivated herbals. Clubbing the techniques of organic cultivation in the herbal gardens and value addition to the raw drugs of the gardens through the training at district level across India by effective usage of Government projects will help the unemployed and underemployed rural youth to become successful entrepreneurs.