A REVIEW ON MECHANISM FOR MARKETING OF MINOR FOREST PRODUCE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO ENHANCE TRIBAL ECONOMY

Every individual or nation growth and development depends majorly on the livelihoods carried out by those individuals’ and the support provided to such livelihoods in all aspects. In India, as per Government of India estimates about 125 million and 112 million total tribal and rural tribal populations are there in 2020. In these, nearly 50 percent of the tribal population live in forest areas. The tribal communities who live in forest areas depend extensively on the resources of forest for livelihoods and income generation on Minor Forest Produce (MFP). With the enactments of PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 the forest dwellers are legally authorized with the possession and governance of the MFP. But, they have been suffering with many problems to produce minor forest products like legal issues, permissions, support price, financial-aid, marketing, branding and selling. This paper contributes to elaborate the provisions made by the government to overcome the challenges facing by the forest dwellers regarding MFP through a centrally sponsored scheme ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’. Started in 2013-14 with 10 Minor Forest Produce items covering 9 States impacting approximately 1 Lakhs tribal families the scheme is now expanded to 22 States covering 87 MFP items impacting 25 lakhs families. Total procurement has gone up from Rs. 30 crores in 2014-15 to Rs. 1870 crores in 2020-21.