Trading Pattern of Ntfp and Gum in South Gujarat

A Report

On

Trading Pattern of NTFP and Gum in South Gujarat

Submitted To:
Mr.Pawan Pendkar
Project Officer
DRUVA-BAIF
Lachhakadi.

Submitted By:
Rushabh Shah &
Prakhar Ranjan
Institute of Rural Management Anand(IRMA)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

We are greatly delighted to acknowledge debts to those who immensely contributed to the success of this project.

We would like to thank Mr. Pawan Pendkar, Project Officer at DHRUVA-BAIF, Lachhakadi for giving us an opportunity to work at the prestigious organization and supplying us with all possible knowledge in spite of his busy schedule. We express our sincere thanks to Mr. J.R.Mori, Secretary and Chief Programme Co-ordinator for DHRUVA.

We would also like to thank our institute IRMA for giving us this opportunity for making us visit such a beautiful village and have such a valuable experience.

We are deeply indebted to all the villagers for their co-operation in responding to the questionnaire and also for their hospitality.

1. INTRODUCTION

The term Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) was first coined by De Beer and Mc Demott in 1989.  The expression “Non Timber Forest Product” and “Minor Forest Product” are frequently used interchangeably with continuous debate on what to include in the specified categories. Broadly, Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are any biological product or service other than timber that is produced in natural forests for human and animal usage and are having consumptive and exchange value. So, NTFP includes fruits and nuts, vegetables, mushrooms, medicinal plants, oil seeds, bamboo suits, gum, fibres, eatable green leaves, honey etc.

According to census India 2011, tribal people make up 8.6% of India's population or 104 million people. 14.8% of Gujarat’s population are tribal people. Almost half of them are dependent on forests and NTFPs for at least a part of their subsistence and livelihoods. Out of total 196,024 km² area of Gujarat state, 19112.54 sq. km. Area is under forest cover. If we further classify the forest land, 394.85 sq. km is under protected forest, 4562.51 sq. km. is under unclassed forest and 14155.18 sq. km. is under reserved forest. Rights to all activities like hunting, grazing, etc. in reserved forests are banned unless specific orders are issued otherwise. In protected areas, rights to activities like hunting and grazing are sometimes given to communities living on the fringes of the forest, who sustain their livelihood partially or wholly from forest resources or products.

This forests and NTFPs constitute a critical component of food security and an important source of income for the poor tribal people mainly residing on the fringes of forest. There is a vast economic importance of NTFPs trading, if we as a nation can succeed in providing a proper market along with huge demand generation for trading of NTFPs. People living in the urban areas must understand different advantages be it related to health, nutrition, etc. that they can get by consuming NTFPs. Only then the demand for NTFPs will increase resulting into providing a livelihood for the vulnerable people residing on the fringes of forest. Moreover, fields like herbal medicines, ayurvedic medicines etc. also need to grow which is possible by taking proper care of NTFPs and implementing proper schemes related to it. Thus, NTFPs are also culturally important.

If we understand the growing pattern of most of the NTFPs in the forests of South Gujarat, it is during monsoon season where they can get rain water easily. So, there are no issues related to irrigation facility which is a big relief for a farmer as a cultivator of NTFPs.

Gum plants are also equally important keeping nutrition requirement of the people in mind. Gum of various varieties which could be obtained from the trees of forests, can be used for eating purpose after drying it and mixing it with other relevant ingredients. People of South Gujarat mainly use it to make ‘laddoos’ during the winter season.

We as team of two members did a quantitative survey in the villages of Vansda taluka of Navsari district in South Gujarat to understand the availability and trading pattern of NTFPs and Gum in the nearby markets. The methodology used along with the area covered for our survey is discussed in the further sections.

2. METHODOLOGY ADOPTED

In this project, we were required to scale villages around Lachhakadi. The villages that we covered included Charanwada, KhataAmba, Gangpur, Ghodmal, Mindhabari, Limzar, Jamaliya and the Vansda market. We had already accustomed with the village of Lachhakadi and conducted transect walks, so interacting in the neighbouring villages did not prove to be an issue. That also gave us some understanding of the life style and the ways of the people around here.

We conducted a survey around the domain of work to establish the required insight into the existing trading pattern of various types of gum and the different Non-timber forest produce that are available and being utilised by the people, both, domestically and commercially. In the survey, we tried to find out about the market price, availability of different produces, how do they get utilised by the consumers. During the village survey, we also got an insight about who goes for the procurement of these produce and at what time of the year are the different produce available in the forests.

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