PM VAN DHAN YOJNA

  Jul 01, 2020

What is PM VDY?

Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana (PMVDY) is a Market Linked Tribal Entrepreneurship Development Program for forming clusters of tribal SHGs (Van Dhan Vikas Kendras) and strengthening them into Tribal Producer Companies has been launched with participation from all the 27 States from the Country.

Tribal producer companies are similar to Farmer producer companies in their conception, aim is to increase bargaining power and income of primary producer through value addition and larger share in value chain through enhanced bargaining power.

The scheme is to be implemented by TRIFED. 

Clusters of Tribal SHG    Tribal producer companies

One Tribal SHG of 30 members   Van Dhan Vikas Samuh 

10 Van Dhan Vikas Samuh            Van Dhan Vikas Kendra

What is a Van Dhan Vikas Kendra?

The establishment of “Van Dhan Vikas Kendra” is for providing skill upgradation and capacity building training and setting up of primary processing and value addition facility.

Under Van Dhan Vikas Kendra, 10 Self Help Groups of 30 Tribal gatherers is constituted.  They are then trained and provided with working capital to add value to the products, which they collect from the jungle.  Working under the leadership of Collector these groups can then market their products not only within the States but also outside the States.   Training and technical support is provided by TRIFED.  It is proposed to develop 30,000 such centers in the country.

The Van Dhan Vikas Kendras will be important milestone in economic development of tribals involved in collection of MFPs by helping them in optimum utilization of natural resources and provide sustainable MFP-based livelihood in MFP-rich districts.

What is three stage value addition, role of private entrepreneur and government in PM VDY?

The stock after primary processing shall be supplied by these SHGs at Van Dhan Vikas Kendra to the State Implementing Agencies or direct tie up for supply to corporate secondary processor.

For creation of secondary level value addition facility at district level and tertiary level value addition facility at State level, Big Corporates shall be involved under PPP model. This PPP model will be based on utilizing Private entrepreneur skills in undertaking processing as well as marketing of the produce. These will be sophisticated large value addition hubs managed by Private entrepreneur.

Central/ State Govt. support in terms of creating infrastructure and providing enabling environment for undertaking value addition of systematic scientific lines. 

What are objectives of PM VDY?

1. Increase tribal income through Value Addition, Value addition assumes critical importance in ensuring remunerative prices to the tribals in this approach. Three stage value addition would be the corner stone for enhancing incomes of the tribals under the scheme.
2. The programme aims to tap into the traditional knowledge and skill sets of tribal people by adding technology and Information Technology for upgradation of output at each stage and to convert the tribal wisdom into a remunerative economic activity
3. seeks to promote and leverage the collective strength of tribal people to achieve a viable scale.

What is minor forest produce and its importance for tribal?

MFP

An important source of livelihoods for tribal people are non-wood forest products, generally termed 'Minor Forest Produce (MFP)' means all non-timber forest produce of plant origin and will include bamboo, canes, fodder, leaves, gums, waxes, dyes, resins and many forms of food including nuts, wild fruits, Honey, Lac, Tusser etc. 

Importance

1. The Minor Forest Produces provide both subsistence and cash income for people who live in or near forests 
2. Minor Forest Produce (MFP) starts with the word “Minor” but is a major source of livelihood for tribal who belong to the poorest of the poor section of society. 
3. The importance of Minor Forest Produces for this section of the society can be gauged from the facts that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on Minor Forest Produces for food, shelter, medicines and cash income.
4. Tribal derive 20-40% of their annual income from Minor Forest Produce on which they spend major portion of their time. 
5. This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the Minor Forest Produces are collected and used/sold by women.

What is TRIFED?

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) came into existence in 1987. It is a national-level apex organization functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

TRIFED is engaged in marketing development of tribal products and provides marketing support to the products made by tribals through a network of retail outlets, which presently consist of 29 of its own outlets located throughout the country and 14 State Government organization’s Show Rooms.

The core objective was institutionalizing the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and Surplus Agriculture Produce (SAP) collected/cultivated by tribal as tribal are heavily dependent on these natural products for their livelihood. However, they did not use to get remunerative prices due to middle-men and unscrupulous traders exploiting the naiveté of Tribals. TRIFED also works as an agency to the FCI for procurement of Wheat and Rice. 

Objectives

1. The ultimate objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products such as metal craft, tribal textiles, pottery, tribal paintings and pottery on which the tribals depends heavily for major portion of their income.
2. TRIFED acts as a facilitator and service provider for tribes to sell their product.
3. The approach by TRIFED aims to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.
4. It also involves capacity building of the tribal people through sensitization, formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and imparting training to them for undertaking a particular activity.

Functions

It mainly undertakes two functions

1. Minor Forest Produce (MFP) development
2. Retail Marketing and Development of tribal products