The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been working on ways to ensure that the forest produce —Van Dhan —grown by tribals is well-compensated and recognised for its value and has a minimum price benchmark
Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram believes that while tribal people have been growing medicinal plants, they are as yet unaware of the actual value of their produce. He was speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under the Ministry of AYUSH, to promote Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) forest produce for livelihood development among tribals.
Oram said, “This MoU will help them realise the potential of their produce and assist them to get the true remuneration of their product. Through the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the focus of the government has shifted towards Van Dhan and this MoU seeks to further his vision. Just like yoga, which had been present in India for centuries, but gained prominence only after it was properly marketed, it is time to properly market the medicinal and aromatic plants grown by tribal people to help these products attain prominence.” He forecasts that through such efforts, with time, thousands of crores worth of investment will be driven in this sector and these products will soon reach the international arena.
The Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik, explained that the MoU will help in employment generation, skill upgradation of tribal people and will prove to be beneficial for them.
Since most of the tribal people are associated with farming, this MoU is a step in the direction of achieving the vision of the Prime Minister of doubling the income of farmers. The idea is to strengthen the supply chain management for such produce and allow the tribal population attain good remuneration for their produce. This collaboration is also an important step in mainstreaming the tribal community by empowering the tribal gatherers engaged in collection and sale of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP).
The MFP is a major source of livelihood for tribals living in the forest areas. Their importance can be gauged from the fact that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFPs for food, shelter, medicines and cash income. Tribals derive 20-40 per cent of their annual income from MFP collection and sales. This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected and used or sold by women. MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country.
Under the scheme—Mechanism for marketing MFP through minimum support price (MSP) and development of value chain for MFP—the government is providing a fair price to MFP gatherers to enhance their income levels and ensure sustainable harvesting of MFPs.