Project Area

Mayurbhanj district is situated in the northeastern part of the state of Orissa, bordering the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. About 57% of the population in the district belongs to the Scheduled Tribes and 7% to the Scheduled Caste. Winrock International India (WII) has been working towards the development of forest resources, strengthening of community-based forest management institutions and livelihoods of the forest dependent people in Mayurbhanj for over 8 years now.

Context

The area under discussion is mostly rainfed; therefore as an alternative livelihood option there a significant dependence (to the extent of 1/3rd of their cash income) on NTFP (Non Timber Forest Produce) collection and sale. The major NTFPs available in the area are Sal (Shorea robusta) leaves and seeds, Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) flowers and seeds, and Chironji (Buchanania lanzan). Apart from these some medicinal herbs like Kalmegh (Andrographis Paniculata), Baidanka (Mucuna Pruriens), and Bichuati (Tragia Involucrata), among several others, are also grown in the proximity which inhabitants use as local curatives. The value chain for most of the NTFPs in this region are more or less same, with a slight change, for some (like Sal leaves) extensive value-addition takes place and the finished products are transported to different trading destinations, whereas in the case of Sal seed and Mahua flower, much of the produce reach the adjoining trading hubs such as in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand respectively and even to the national markets like Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad; and in the case of former even exported to countries like Germany and France in the European Union.

Problem

Sale of most of the NTFPs is done without much processing or value addition at “primary collectors’ level” and their access to end consumers is limited to the sale of produce in surrounding villages and weekly markets. A major portion of their produce is sold to the intermediaries like commission agents/village level agents and small traders who operate in the area. Thus, although these products reach a very large market, the market is geographically very limited as far as the primary producers are concerned. In other words, the NTFP value chains are very large and fragmented, though the role of primary producers ends at the very beginning where the returns are the lowest. The NTFP collectors lack awareness on collection and sustainable harvesting, processing, quality control, capacity to add value and trade. There are no specialized/technical agencies for building community skills for sustainable NTFP collection and value addition available at the nearest community outreach. Located in remote areas, the primary collector is not aware about the extended nature of NTFP value chains and does not have information and access to high value markets. The intermediaries, highly secretive and exploitative in nature, often take advantage of the market information to take secure high returns on NTFP commodities. Low capacities of NTFP producers and their support occupations make it difficult to access distant high value markets.

A Solution

As evident, the interplay of issues governing livelihood of the primary collectors of the area demands something more than “individual entrepreneurial aptitude”. Therefore after much deliberation and field research, it was decided to go ahead with the concept of “collective action” for empowering people in the area. Field and Market research suggested that selective NTFPs when taken up within the domain of collective value addition and marketing will ensure the three fundamental centralities viz. “domain centrality, member centrality and patronage centrality”. This gave birth to “Disha Cooperative Ltd.” which is a community owned and professionally managed enterprise and acts as a value addition and marketing federation of primary village societies. Ownership of the enterprise by community ensures that surplus generated from the cooperative goes back to the primary collectors, which was earlier being siphoned of middle men. A democratically board elected by primary collectors who are members of cooperative governs the activities of cooperative for best interest of members both individually and collective as a whole. Professional management is intrinsic part of Disha Cooperative to ensure that as an enterprise it works with best business practices.

For the initial few years, WII is providing the professional support for incubation and as cooperative’s operations stabilize, WII will facilitate hiring of professionals for the cooperative who will manage it from then on.

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