“The empowerment of the tribal people is the main objective of TRIFED. All our efforts, be it in getting better prices for their produce, helping them add value to the basic produce, or enable them to get access to larger markets, are targeted at achieving this.The Van Dhan Yojana in particular is playing a transformational role in turning around the rural tribal economy.”
Shri Pravir Krishna, Managing Director TRIFED was speaking as the Chief Guest in the inaugural session of the International Conference on “Rural Transformation: From Natural to Cultural on May 5, 2021.”
The International Conference on Rural Transformation: From Natural to Cultural has been organized by Center for Rural Development and Innovative Sustainable Technology (CRDIST), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and is an online conference being held on May 5 andMay 6 2021. The themes being discussed in this two-day online conference include transforming rural livelihood generation; hard and soft infrastructure planning and implementation; convergence of traditional and modern technical knowledge for social well-being; sustainable natural resource (water, forest, land) planning and rural health and hygiene.
During the inaugural address as Chief Guest, Shri Krishna largely spoke about the transformational role of Van Dhan Yojana in changing the rural forest dwelling tribal economy. He explained the rationale and the concept behind the Van Dhan Tribal Start-ups programme. The Van Dhan tribal start-ups programme or Van Dhan Yojana isa component of the the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ Scheme. A flagship scheme of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs,drawing its strength from The Forest Rights Act of 2005, it aims to provide remunerative and fair prices to tribal gatherers of forest produces, almost three times higher than would be available to them from middle men, trebling their incomes. The Van Dhan tribal start-ups, also a component of the same scheme, is a programme for value addition, branding & marketing of Minor Forest Produces by establishing Van Dhan Kendras to facilitate creation of sustainable livelihoods for the forest-based tribes.It further complements MSP beautifully as it has emerged as a source of employment generation for tribal gatherers and forest dwellers and tribal artisans.
";
