Munda inaugurates ‘National Workshop on Tribal Enterprise’

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda on August 8, 2019, inaugurated a “National Workshop on Tribal Enterprise with focus on Honey, Bamboo and Lac” organised by TRIFED and M/o Tribal Affairs here.

Renuka Singh, MoS for Tribal Affairs, Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, M/o Tribal Affairs, and Pravir Krishna, MD, TRIFED, were present on the occasion. Munda released the ‘Flyers and Reports on (1) Bamboo and Bamboonomics  (2) Lac and (3) Honey, on the occasion. National Workshop was organised to fine tune its action plan on the Promoting Tribal Enterprise on Bamboo, Honey and lac.

Delivering inaugural address, Munda said that the focus of such efforts should not be confined to job creation only but should focus on fulfilling the needs of the market. Support system and research should be market driven and equilibrium should be maintained between the demand and supply in the market. For these products, markets should be innovation and research based. The quality and prices of the products should also be maintained properly. The tribals should be treated as entrepreneurs and efforts should be made to upgrade them in technology.

MoS Renuka Singh, in her addressing, said that such initiatives will strengthen ‘Van Dhan Vikas Kendras’. The integration of ‘Van Dhan, Jan Dhan and Pashu Dhan’ will reform the lives of tribals considerably. Van Dhan scheme has the cluster of Self Help Groups to support tribals, she said.

Khandekar, in his welcome address, said that the reason behind Bamboo, Honey and Lac taken up for Van Dhan Scheme is that these commodities are already having existing markets which enable producers i.e. tribal entrepreneurs catch on to the chain of procurement- primary level processing-storage value addition and marketing.

After inaugural session, Technical Sessions were held on the Bamboo Products, Lac Products and Honey in which experts presented the success stories, production, use and business related to these products.

The National Workshop was an initiative to formulate a strategy for establishing tribal enterprises based on skill and local resources available particularly in Bamboo, Honey and Lac. At the workshop, National and International experts deliberated and gave their views and ideas for establishing implementable and commercially viable Tribal Enterprises, according to a PIB release.

India is the world’s second largest cultivator of bamboo after China with 136 species and 23 general (out of which about 19 are indigenous) spread over 13.96 million hectare. As per the latest data from the ‘National Bee Board’ under the Department of Agriculture, the country’s total honey production reported in 2017-18 was 1.05 lakh metric tonnes compared to the 35,000 metric tonnes in 2005-06.  Lac cultivation in India is mainly confined to the states of Jharkhand which contributes 57% of the total production  followed by Madhya Pradesh at 24% and the balance 19% is contributed by Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal.