MSP on minor forest produce: MP beats Centre

But low procurement,no publicity result in marginal benefits for tribals.

While the Centre is likely to soon fix a minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce (MFP),a measure that will help increase income levels of millions of tribal across the country,Madhya Pradesh has quietly gone ahead and announced the MSP for lac and chironji. Though the MSP announced for the two minor forest produce by MP probably the only state to do so was not very high in the first season,the initial trend suggests the tribal population benefitted,marginally though,from the exercise.

The moment the MSP was announced,the market rate went up leaving the Madhya Pradesh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Co-op Federation Limited with negligible quantity of the produce to procure.

MP had announced Rs 120 per kg for lac cultivated on kusum trees,Rs 100 per kg for lac cultivated on palash trees and Rs 80 for one kg of achar-guthli which bears chironji.

Story continues below this ad

The federation could procure only 16.60 quintal of achar guthli because traders offered up to Rs 110 per kg. Similarly,the federation could not procure more than 8.5 quintal of lac because the market rate rose up to Rs 160 per kg.

Our procurement was negligible in the first season,but we are not complaining because the tribals have got more money,the very idea behind announcing the MSP, Federation MD Dr P K Shukla told The Indian Express. He admitted the procurement mechanism was not in place in the first season,but it was a learning experience and next time,it will be systematic.

Anurag Modi of Shramik Adivasi Sangathan,however,is not impressed with the claim,saying not many were aware of the MSP declared by the state and the MSP was so low that the state could not have had much to show with the symbolic procurement. If MP was serious it should have publicised the MSP,and not fix the rate prevailing two years ago.

The state government is aware that the trade in minor produce is susceptible to fluctuations and the MSP may not always be less than the market rate. Contractors and middlemen,having learnt from the first season,could manipulate the trade to their advantage in the forthcoming seasons.

Story continues below this ad

MP will soon announce MSP for five more produces such as Mahuva flower,Mahuva gulli and Harra. MPs initiative follows an exercise by the Centre,which had in August 2010 set up a committee headed by economist T Haque to introduce MSP for non-timber forest produce. The committee has submitted its report and recommended constitution of a Central agency to fix the MSP. Once the Centre fixes the MSP (its likely to be more than what MP has announced),states will receive an advisory,and MP will have to revise it.

At a recent meeting with the Centre,states had argued that the state corporations be compensated for the losses should the market price fall below their procurement price.