Medicinal and aromatic plants grow wild throughout Nepal, from the Terai to the high mountains. In CCODER's initiation  many communities have learned how to identify, cultivate and conserve these plants. The plants are then sold to pharmaceutical companies such as the Gorkha Ayurvedic Company (GAC). GAC is a medicinal herb processing plant in the Gorkha District. It produces Ayurvedic medicine and was established to promote cultivation and collection of medicinal plants. Research projects for domestication of high altitude plants are also under way.

The medicinal plant program works in a cyclical manner: farmers cultivate and produce the plants; they sell them to the Ayurvedic processing company; the company processes them, using local labor; and finally, the finished products are used in the same villages that grew the initial plants.  The medicines are, of course, also marketed elsewhere to bring in additional income, but the medicinal plant program is a good example of an income-generating activity that keeps the profits in the villages for the villagers – while simultaneously helping them improve and maintain their health.