No market linkage, Kalahandi NTFP vollectors left high and dry

 For a considerable section of population here, forests are their lifeline.

Kalahandi has 2,331 sq km of forests including 369 sq km of dense forest and 749 sq km moderately dense forest, as per the Forest Survey of India report of 2011.

 There are 1,427 forest fringe villages out of the 2,099 inhabited villages of the district, as reported in the present working plan of the Kalahandi-North and Kalahandi-South divisions.

 And most dwellers of these villages depend on Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) for sustainence. NTFP includes tamarind, Mahua, amla, harida, bahada, reetha, Sal leaves, sabai grass, wooden apples, satabari, neem, karanja seeds, ananta mula, Nageswar flowers, wild turmeric, wild tulsi and Dhatuki flowers.

These have diverse uses, for example in food, fodder, fibre, fertilisers, herbal medicines and even cosmetic products. 

However, the existing State mechanism has been inadequate in assisting the primary collectors of

NTFP.

Even though these items are used by companies to develop highly-priced products that are much in demand in urban markets, the poor collectors fail to reap the profit.

 Ironically, the panchayat samitis of the district have not fixed the minimum support price (MSP) for NTFP since 2010.

In November 2010, MSP of 69 NTFP items were finalised by district administration basing on the price fixed by the blocks and the price chart was released on January 27, 2011. Unfortunately, no step has yet been taken since then for their price revision.

Worse, prices of different items vary from block to block which often results in marketing problems.

 For instance, rate of Mahua flowers per kg declared in Bhawanipatna, Karlamunda, M Rampur, Lanjigarh, and Jaipatna blocks is `31, ` 15, ` 11.50, ` 21 and ` 12 respectively. As far as amla is concerned, price per kg in Bhawanipatna, M Rampur, Narla, Lanjigarh, Kalampur, Thuamul Rampur, Jaipatna blocks is ` 16, ` 7.50, ` 5, ` 8, `19, ` 10 and ` 10 respectively.

 Satyanarayan Pattnaik, secretary of ‘Sebahagat’ - an organisation dealing in empowerment of tribal beneficiaries through livelihood programmees - said there isn’t even any mechanism to monitor marketing system for NTFP.

As a result, NTFP items are sold at throwaway prices and in some interior tribal pockets, barter system is in vogue.  “There is need for systematic steps through government initiative for sustainable harvesting protocols, value addition and appropriate market linkage. Role of gram panchayats is limited only to issue of licence to traders. Unfortunately, fool-proof procurement system with strong market mechanisms and value addition are yet to be evolved,” he said.

Biswanath Hota, a former deputy conservator of forests, said a resource inventory of locally available NTFP is yet to be done.  Similarly, sustainable harvesting of NTFP is not adopted leading to destruction of many species while collecting the products and income from the primary collection is nominal in the absence of value addition of the products. He said Kalahandi has 37 out of 41 threatened medicinal plant species of the State. It is mostly due to lack of sustainable harvesting, protection and promotion of plant species.

 “Massive plantation and preservation of NTFP under various afforestation programmes, training people dependent on NTFP on sustainable harvest and value addition of the products for better income and centralised controlled marketing system can only change the situation,” he said.

The loopholes

* Panchayat samitis of the district have not fixed the MSP for NTFP since 2010

* Worse, prices of

different items vary from block to block, resulting in marketing problems

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