Renuka Singh, MoS for Tribal Affairs, Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Pravir Krishna, MD, TRIFED were present at the occasion. Munda released the ‘Flyers and Reports on bamboo and bamboo omics, lac and honey on the occasion. National Workshop was organised to fine-tune its action plan on the Promoting Tribal Enterprise on Bamboo, Honey, and lac.

 During the inaugural session, Arjun 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 as well.

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. The major part of it comes from Apisdorsata. As per the latest government estimates, large scale employment in the beekeeping sector is estimated to generate around 3 lakh man-working days by maintaining 10,000 bee colonies. The honey is an excellent source of earning and TRIFED is committed towards Prime Minister’s vision of a “Sweet Revolution” by way of making people prosper through production and trade in honey. The tribals can be provided with training along with tools and kits for scientific extraction/collection and processing of honey from the beehive and thus the tribal SHGs can play a crucial role in this regard. 

As per the bamboo, sector is concerned India is the world’s second-largest cultivator of bamboo after China, with 136 species and 23 generals, out of which about 19 care indigenous spread over 13.96 million hectares. According to the Union Ministry of Agricultural and Former Welfare, India’s annual Bamboo production is estimated at 3.23 million tons. The bamboo is used in different types of products and it is a very good earning option for the tribals, for which necessary seed money, facilities, and expertise needs to be provided to tribal artisans. The Bamboo Enterprises can give immediate results leading to substantial increase income of tribal artisans.

   With the Lac resin, it was earlier imported in sizeable quantity to Europe from India along with Eastern woods. It has been seen that the Lac is mostly cultivated by poor tribals to supplement their agricultural income. Lac cultivation in India is mainly confined to the states of Jharkhand which contribute 57% of the total production, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 24% and the balance 19% is contributed by Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal.

This cultivation has proved to be a subsidiary source of income for the tribals. Presently Indian lac export is almost non-existent, which needs to be revived, as its availability and possibilities of cultivation in tribal areas has a great potential in creating livelihood and income generation opportunities for tribal communities.

The Minister said that the 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.

Addressing on the occasion, Renuka Singh 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 and is the mainstay for their family income who are living in and around the forest belts.

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