Arjun Munda lauds Van Dhan Vikas Yojana, know the IAS officer behind this

New Delhi: The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda reviewed the progress of various schemes and activities being implemented for the empowerment of tribals by TRIFED on Tuesday. "It is noteworthy that TRIFED has been consistently bringing out new initiatives that take care of all aspects of tribal empowerment. Through this innovative connect programme, now information dissemination can happen both ways and lead to further development of initiatives and help our tribal brethren," said Munda praising the efforts put up by TRIFED.

Van Dhan introduced as 'Tribal Start Ups' for value addition, branding, packing and marketing of Forest and other tribal produce through tribal gatherers. "Under the Van DhanYojana, the establishment of 37,872 VDVKs have been sanctioned against the Sankalp Patra target of 50,000 VDVKs in the Tribal area, which are subsumed into 2274 VDVK Clusters directly benefitting 6.76 Lakh beneficiaries/ Around 1200 VDVK Clusters are operational. The target of setting up of 50,000 VDVKs incorporating 10 Lakh tribal entrepreneurs has to be completed by 30th July 2021" said Pravir Krishna (IAS), Managing Director TRIFED. "Under Retail Marketing, a total number of 140 Tribes India Outlets have been opened till date that has made a total sale of Rs.55.43 Cr" he added.

Van Dhan Vikas yojana was ideated and initiated by Pravir Krishna only with the idea of improving the livelihoods of the tribal population and bettering the lives of the underprivileged and beleaguered tribals. Krishna had then joined TRIFED as MD.

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Munda reviewed various activities and initiatives under "Sankalp Se Siddhi – Mission Van Dhan" of TRIFED. "Over the past two years, The 'Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP' has impacted the tribal ecosystem in a major way. Under the MSP for MFP scheme, cumulative procurement of Rs.1841.74 Cr has been made by States i.e. Rs.321.02 Cr using GOI funds and Rs.1520.72 Cr using State funds in last two years including Rs.821.48 Cr during the current financial year" mentioned an official press statement by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

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"This has helped in ensuring fair and remunerative prices to tribal gatherers for their produces and also raising market procurement at prices above MSP announced by the Government. Started in 2013-14 with 10 Minor Forest Produce items covering 9  States impacting approximately 1 Lakhs tribal families the scheme is now expanded to 22 States covering 87 MFP items impacting 25 lakhs families" it added.

Total procurement has gone up from Rs. 30 crores in 2014-15 to Rs. 1870 crores in 2020-21. A phenomenal increase in the value of procurement by private trade has also been reported.

Ministers of State for Tribal Affairs, Smt Renuka Singh, and Bishweswar Tudu were also present at the review meeting held at the TRIFED office headquarters.

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