Leveraging NTFP market linkages to reduce agrarian distress among forest dwellers in Jharkhand

Introduction: The program addresses the lack of community-based institutions of forest dwellers that can intervene in markets for non-timber forest products (NTFP). Through the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA), forest communities have been granted substantial rights to manage and use forest resources, including the extraction of nontimber forest products (NTFP). However, the incomes that forest dwellers earn from these economic activities are very meagre due to the strong cartels of traders-cum-moneylenders. Government of Jharkhand schemes, such as the Van Dhan Yojana, which provide grants to communities, are not well-known and poorly implemented.

Aims and Objectives:

• The Project aims to increase the income of NTFP producers/collectors from the sale of NTFP.
• In addition, while women are the main producers of NTFP, the limited returns from NTFP restrict women’s empowerment. It also seeks to enhance women’s empowerment and extend it across household, community and market levels.

Methodology: Building community-based institutions, such as cooperatives, producer companies, federations of self-help groups (SHGs) or collective marketing by Gram Sabhas will strengthen forest dwellers’ position in the market.

After trying out marketing through groups of SHGs, the project has adopted collective marketing by Gram Sabhas. It is expected that Gram Sabha-based marketing will give producers sufficient sales volume to have a greater impact on realised prices. In the last season (June 2024), it was observed that such Gram Sabha-based collective marketing of sal seeds led to price increases not only for the concerned Gram Sabhas but also in the area market, as traders increased prices to compete with the Gram Sabhas.

Updates: Starting from SHGs, the project moved up to mobilising Gram Sabhas to take up the aggregation, processing and marketing of NTFP. For this purpose, Gram Sabhas need storage and processing facilities, as well as working capital. In Simdega, farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) have been organised in three blocks. They are in the process of raising working capital and securing processing space from the district administration. empowerment. It also seeks to enhance women’s empowerment and extend it across household, community and market levels. Methodology: Building community-based institutions, such as cooperatives, producer companies, federations of self-help groups (SHGs) or collective marketing by Gram Sabhas will strengthen forest dwellers’ position in the market. In the Ranchi district, the project has approached the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for similar support and is setting up FPOs. These organisational and financial steps will ensure the sustainability and even upgrading of the interventions after project closure. As the project has ended, it has been decided to form an NTFP Forum with organizations involved in supporting NTFP producers. Currently, IHD is also creating audio-visual documentation of the project. This will be used for large scale dissemination once completed.