<span style="color: #222222;">Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh today inaugurated a training programme on the  Sandalwood Farming and Management of its health via video conferencing. It was inaugurated in association with the Institute of Wood Science and  Technology, IWST, Bengaluru. The programme is structured around the basics and benefits of Indian sandalwood, seed handling, nursery techniques and managing the health of the plant.<br />''<br />''Addressing the gathering, the Union Minister lauded this free of cost training initiative which will help attract the youth towards sandalwood farming, revive this declining art and help reposition India as a market leader in the trade.<br />''<br />''Sandalwood has been long associated with the Indian heritage and culture, as the country contributed 85 per cent of the world' sandalwood trade erstwhile. However, off late this has been declining at a fast rate. With anti-bacterial, anti-biotic and anti-cancer benefits amongst others, sandalwood finds its uses in pharmaceuticals, personal care and furniture.<br />''<br />''Globally, India and Australia are the largest growers of sandalwood, while the biggest markets lie in the United States, China, Japan and the Indian domestic market. While the world sandalwood market stood at  300 million US dollars in the last year, the  World Trade Research pegs the market size at 3 billion US dollar by 2040.</span><br />