On May 26, 2020, Ministry of(M/O) Tribal Affairs has notified an Inclusion of 23 additional Minor Forest Produce (MFP) items and stipulation of their Minimum Support Price (MSP) under the Central government-sponsored Scheme(2011) titled “Mechanism for Marketing of MFP through MSP and development of value chain of MFP” .
About the inclusion
Aim- to address several issues of exploitation by local traders, ensuring fair returns on their produce.
Reason- To enhance the number of items from 50 to 73, considering the difficult situation due to COVID-19 pandemic & the potential of the M/O scheme to offer the needed support to the tribal MFP gatherers.
Key Points
i.The ministry has given States the flexibility to fix MSP upto 10% higher or lower than MSP declared by the Government
ii.Of the 23 items some agricultural produce like black rice(Oryza sativa L) and johar rice(Oryza sativa), are not commercially grown in the North Eastern part of India but are grown in the wild in forests. Hence the specific items will be treated as MFP items for the North-East.
iii.The other MFP items & their MSP will be applicable throughout the country. These items include- Van Tulsi seeds (Ocimumgratissimum), Van Jeera (Vernonia anthelmintica), Tamarind Seed (Tamarindusindica) among others.
For further details, refer https://tribal.nic.in/writereaddata/Schemes/MSPforMFPMoTA26052020.pdf
About the Mechanism for Marketing of MFP through MSP and development of value chain of MFP scheme:
i.Introduction & aim-The Centre had introduced the scheme in 2011 to provide a social safety net to these underprivileged forest dwellers, and to aid in their empowerment.
ii.Nodal agency– Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India(TRIFED), the apex national organisation involved in the improvement of the livelihood and empowerment of these tribal people is the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme.
iii.Benefits-It has helped to improve the lives of the tribals & has offered basic support to the tribal gatherers
iv.Start-ups-1,126 Vandhan Kendras have been set up as Tribal start-ups onboarding over 3.6 Lakhs beneficiaries. Many of these units have commenced production and started sales of their value-added products.
Background
- The previous notification was issued on May 1, 2020, in which the MSP revisions for the existing 49 MFPs were announced.
- The increase across various items of MFP ranged from 16% to 66%. (in some cases such as Giloe, the increase has been up to 190%). The increase is also expected to provide an immediate and much-needed momentum to procurement of Minor Tribal Produce across all States.
About M/O tribal affairs:
Union Minister– Arjun Munda(Constituency- Khunti, Jharkhand)
Minister of State– Renuka Singh Saruta (Constituency- Surguja, Chhattisgarh)
