A small initiative of district administration undertaken three years ago to protect the interest of small and marginal mango producers of Mayurbhanj has started paying off.
For the first time a company has been formed and farmers are marketing their produce through their own company, ‘Mayurbhanj fruits and vegetables producers company’ which came into existence since November 17, 2015.
Through their company while their varieties of mangoes are reaching Delhi, Jamshedpur and Bokaro, the farmers are registering a good profit.
The interesting part of the company is that it is wholly managed by the tribal producers themselves and they have engaged a young MBA student passout of North Orissa University to look after their marketing and other management affairs. The company now has 362 producers members.
“The district administration helped us to form a registered company initially to export mangoes; now we are picking up vegetables too and marketing them outside the State. The producers are getting genuine price after formation of the company,” said managing director of the company Jitendra Hembram.
It all started about three years back while incumbent district Collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil happened to come across a patch Basketala under Bangriposhi block, with tree bearing quality mangoes mainly Dasheri and langra.
He could learn that there are about 1,800 mango trees which are grown by 43 farmers on their own land. Further he was shocked to know that they were severely exploited by the traders of UP and Bihar.
“These traders then used to come from UP and Bihar and were paying some advances around Rs 50 per tree to the tribal mango tree owners during Makar Sankranti in the second week of January and they leave a caretaker to protect the mango flower against insects and fog etc and collect the mango during harvesting,” said the district supply and marketing society chief executive Kesab Jha.
“They were exploited to the optimum level and after district Collector Patil’s intervention, their interest not only could be protected, their produce is now being sold in Delhi’s Mother Dairy. Initially, they were marketing through mango producers group; now they are doing it through their company,” he said.
Giving them a market linkage opportunity in the initial year 2013- 14, while they could send 12 MT to Mother Dairy, subsequently, their export quantum increased each year. last year they earned a profit of Rs15 lakh with harvest of around 83 MT and shared the amount among themselves. A mango producer Shakra Hansda, got highest amount Rs1.4 lakh as share followed by Kisan Murmu with Rs1.3 lakh profit. This year while the harvest so far has been 32 MT, 11 MT has been already sent Mother Dairy.
In 1994-95, the mango plantation was undertaken in the patch under Bangiriposhi block under Employment Assurance Scheme.
Ever since these trees bore fruit, they were exploited by the middlemen and traders not finding proper marketing opportunities. They are not only given training on mango tree protection, better yield and packaging etc, they also got opportunity of exposure visits to different places through ORMAS, Orissa Rural Development and Marketing Society etc.
The district Collector after writing to the Divisional Railway Manager, Chakradharpur addressed the issue of transport to protect the perishable goods. The Horticulture department provided them with the facilities for grading , packaging and cold chamber.
“This facilities worth around Rs18 lakh are given by the Deputy Director (horticulture) Dharanidhara Patra. They are of immense help to us,” said MD Hembram.
District Collector Patil said, “The farmers can’t get their price unless they operate in a group. So, the company consisting of groups has been formed. Now they are directly in touch with the market and reaping the benefits.”
“All these measures were taken to prevent the farmers from exploitation. With this success, we are planning to undertake Maize in 400 hectares of land,” he said.