Inclusion of 23 Minor Forest Produce items and stipulation of MSP launched

This recommendation of additional items on 26 May 2020 is over and above the previous notification issued on May 1, 2020, in which the MSP revisions for the existing 50 MFPs were announced.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs has announced Inclusion of 23 additional Minor Forest Produce (MFP) items and stipulation of their Minimum Support Price (MSP) under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme titled "Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and development of value chain of MFP".

This decision enhancing the coverage from 50 to 73 items comes in view of the exceptional and very difficult circumstances currently prevailing in the country on account of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the potential of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs scheme to offer the much-needed support to the tribal MFP gatherers.

This recommendation of additional items on 26 May 2020 is over and above the previous notification issued on May 1, 2020, in which the MSP revisions for the existing 50 MFPs were announced. The increase across various items of Minor Forest Produce 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 the procurement of Minor Tribal Produce across all States.

14 of the newly added items, otherwise agricultural produce, are not commercially grown in the North-Eastern part of India but are found to grow in the wild in forests. Hence, the Ministry has favourably considered to include these specific items as MFP items for the North-East.

Further following 9 items available in forest areas across India have also been included in this notification with Minimum Support Price :

Van Tulsi seeds (Ocimumgratissimum)

Van Jeera (Vernonia anthelmintica)

Tamarind Seed (Tamarindusindica)

Bamboo Brooms (Thysanolaena maxima

Dry Anola (Phyllnthusemblica) (Dry)

KachriBaheda (Terminalia bellerica)

KachriHarra (Terminalia chebula)

Seedlac (Kerria lacca)

The Ministry has provided flexibility to States to fix MSP upto 10% higher or lower than MSP declared by the Government. This notification is aimed to address several issues of exploitation by local traders, ensuring fair returns on their produce.

The Central Government had introduced a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for a select list of MFP through "Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce through Minimum Support price and development of Value Chain of MFP" Scheme in 2011 to provide a social safety net to these underprivileged forest dwellers and to aid in their empowerment.

TRIFED, as 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. The Scheme has been a resounding success in offering basic support to the tribal gatherers and has helped in improving their lives. 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.

(With Inputs from PIB)