The Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram today inaugurated the new MFPnet portal of Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED). The MFPnet portal is designed to act as an adjunct and a catalyst for implementing the scheme of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Forest Produce (MFP). It is a one stop destination for all information needs on MFPs and facilitate stakeholders in MFP trade and users to take decisions backed by requisite information. It is intended with the main objective to ensure fair price to MFP gatherers who are mainly tribals, enhance their income level and ensure sustainable harvesting of MFPs. It is initially implemented for 10 main identified MFPs namely karanj seed, mahua seed, sal seed, lac, chironjee, wild honey, myrobalan, tamarind, gums (gum karaya) in 102 districts of eight states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is expected to increase quantum of MFP procurement substantially and thereby benefitting tribal people. The scheme also envisages training of 1,00,000 MFP gatherers of tribal origin on sustainable harvesting and value addition activities.
This portal provides information about TRIFED, MFP, marketing prospects for MFPs, MFP development training and much more domains beside the retail marketing activities.
Moreover, the portal is a network of stakeholders in the trade of MFP which includes individuals, agencies and institutions. It is a platform to collect and disseminate MFP trade related information and latest developments in the field. The information shall be available commodity wise and state wise for different markets. E-mails and SMS about daily market prices shall be sent to all those interested in knowing the market prices and registered with the MFPnet. In addition to information collection and dissemination, MFPnet also has the provision to upload information on buying and selling. People can upload the trade leads about the MFP stock they want to sell or buy directly and the same shall be visible to all other visitors on the site. The person interested to pursue these trade leads can get in touch with each other directly.
Oram said that MFP is a major source of livelihood for tribals who belong to the poorest of the poor section in the society. The importance of MFPs for this section of the society can be gauged from the fact that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFPs for food, shelter, medicines and cash income. It provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for primitive tribal groups such as hunters, gatherers and the landless. Tribals derive 20-40 per cent of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time. This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected, used and sold by women.
MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country.