Amid the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on lives of people, TRIFED have aided the tribal people in employment generation in these difficult times.

What is TRIFED?

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) was established in August 1987 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 as a national-level cooperative body functioning under the administrative control of the ministry of tribal affairs.

It’s basic mandate is bringing about socio-economic development of tribals of the country by institutionalising the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) & Surplus Agricultural Produce (SAP) collected/cultivated by them.

The objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products on which the lives of tribals depend heavily as they spend most of their time and derive major portion of their income. 

The philosophy behind this approach is to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.

The approach involves capacity building of the tribal people through sensitisation, formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and imparting training to them for undertaking a particular activity, exploring marketing possibilities in national as well as international markets, creating opportunities for marketing tribal products on a sustainable basis and creating a brand.

Adapting “Vocal for Local”, a mantra in these troubled times into “Go Vocal for Local Go Tribal – Mera Van Mera Dhan Mera Udyam”, TRIFED has put in place several path-breaking initiatives, in addition to its existing flagship programmes and implementations, that have emerged as a panacea for the distressed tribals in such times.

Key achievements in the last four months

1) TRIFED has embarked on an all-encompassing digitisation drive to only promote tribal commerce and also map and link its village-based tribal producers and artisans to national and international markets by setting up  e-platforms benchmarked to international standards. The strategy is aimed to effectively promote tribal commerce.

2) It is in the process of digitising all the information related to the forest dwellers associated with the Van Dhan Yojana, village haats and their warehouses. This digitisation effort wherein all tribal clusters are identified and mapped using geographic information system (GIS) technology will help bring benefits to these people under the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Abhiyan’.

3) Due to sudden lockdown, stocks by tribal artisans worth Rs 100 crore  were lying unsold. In order to ensure that these stocks got sold and all the sales proceeds go to the affected tribal families, TRIFED purchased more than one lakh items and launched an aggressive plan to market these unsold goods online (offering substantial discounts) through its Tribes India website and also other retail platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and GeM.  The team of TRIFED warriors also joined hands with the Art of Living Foundation to distribute free food and ration to more than 5,000 tribal artisan families.

4) The ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through 
Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ scheme has also emerged as a beacon of change and has impacted the tribal ecosystem as never before. The scheme has injected more than Rs 3,000 crore directly in the tribal economy since April 2020. Aided by the government push in May 2020 wherein the prices of Minor Forest Produce (MFPs) were increased by up to 90 per cent and the inclusion of 23 new items in the MFP list, this flagship scheme of the ministry of tribal affairs, which draws its strength from The Forest Rights Act of 2005, aims to provide remunerative and fair prices to tribal gatherers of forest produces. The price is almost three times higher than would be available to them from middle men, and has helped in trebling their incomes in these times.

5) The ongoing procurement of MFPs under the MSP for MFP scheme in 16 States has hit a record-breaking high with the procurement touching Rs 1,000 crore, and another Rs 2,000 crore by trade over and above the MSP.

6) Among the states, Chhattisgarh has taken the lead by procuring 46,654 metric tonnes of MFP worth Rs 105.96 crore. It is followed by Odisha and Telangana with a procurement of 14,188 MTs of MFPs worth Rs 30.01 crores and 5,323 MTs of MFPs worth Rs 2.35 crore respectively.

7) The Van Dhan Vikas Kendras/ Tribal Start-ups, also a component of the same scheme, further complements MSP as it has emerged as a source of employment generation for tribal gatherers and forest dwellers and the home-bound tribal artisans. As many as 1,205 tribal enterprises spread across 18,500 SHGs have been established to provide employment opportunities to 3.6 lakh tribal gatherers in 22 states. The programme ensures that the proceeds from the sales of these value-added products go to the tribals directly. The value-added products benefit largely from the packaging and marketing that these tribal enterprises provide. Manipur and Nagaland have emerged as examples of states where these startups have bloomed.

8) As many as 77 Van Dhan Kendras have been established in Manipur. They have reported sales of MFP products worth Rs 49.1 lakh since September 2019.  The exemplary food safety and hygiene standards adopted, the superb attractive packaging of the processed products such as Amla juice, tamarind amla candy and plum jams, and the innovative branding and marketing of these products have stood out in particular. A mobile van service has also been started in one of the districts in Manipur to ensure the sale of these products.

9) Systems and processes are being put in place across the country so that the procurement of MFPs become a round-the-year operation and double the present reach to over Rs 6,000 crore (and benefit 25 lakhs tribal gatherer families) from the current level of Rs 3,000 crore. Establishment of 3,000 VDVKs involving nine lakh tribal beneficiaries in the FY 2020-21 is being targeted.

10) As many as 44 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras that will benefit approximately 14,000 tribals were launched in Mizoram.

11) To bring more exposure to the empaneled tribal artisans and to bring their skill sets and products to international standards, TRIFED is also collaborating with renowned designers such as Ruma Devi and Rina Dhaka to train tribal artisans.

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