ADILABAD: For the first time in the State, tribals in erstwhile Adilabad district are making six different products from amla (Indian gooseberry) such as pickles, powder, supari, candy, moorava and murabba and marketing them in Utnoor Agency areas.
The Tribal Development Fund (TDF) with assistance from NABARD raised mango and amla plants in around 500 acres in 2013. Amla trees raised in 200 acres have been yielding a healthy produce for the last two years. Though there is a good market for mangoes, there are hardly any takers for amla.
To promote amla marketing, the Centre for People’s Forestry (CPF), which was founded in August 2002 and is spread across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Odisha, appointed a resource person from Jalna district in Maharashtra, to train tribals in preparing these six items. After the training, five women made the product and marketed them on a pilot basis.
Adilabad District Collector Sikta Patnaik and ITDA project officer K Varun Reddy, who inspected the centre, said there is a plan to supply these products to schools and anganwadis as they are rich in vitamin C on the lines of supply of ‘ippa laddus’.
About 10 tonnes of amla yield every winter is turned into tasty candies, murabbas and pickles by the women who store and market them during the entire season. Expanding the operation under the aegis of CPF, the five women gave training to their counterparts in 22 villages. To improve the livelihood of the tribals, eight vermi compost units have been set up. They generate about 200 kg of organic waste which is sold to those engaged in organic farming.