Understanding Livelihood Opportunities: Mandla District

Madhya Pradesh

Research1

Rajendra Singh Gautam (Faculty)Avinash Kumar (Senior Faculty)

Sanjeev Kumar (Extended Faculty)Digvijay Singh (Extended Faculty)

Table of Contents

1 Rajendra Singh Gautam and Avinash Kumar are Faculty and Senior Faculty respectively of The Livelihood School and Sanjeev Kumar and Digvijay Singh are Extended Faculty respectively from Goat Trust and PRADAN

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ContentsAcronyms 3

Executive Summary 5

The District Profile - Mandla 12

Methodology 30

Subsector Study Report – 1: Goatery in Mandla 37

Subsector Study Report – 2: Mahua in Mandla 58

Subsector Study Report – 3: Vegetable in Mandla 84

Service Sector Study Report – 4: Electrician Trade in Mandla 102

Service Sector Study Report – 5: Mobile Repairing in Mandla 115

Recommendations 122

Special needs of the Community 127

References 129

Annexure 131

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Acronyms ASA - Action for Social AdvancementASER - Assessment Survey Evaluation ResearchB.E.S.T. - Bombay Electric Supply & Tramways Company BCG - Boston Consultancy GroupBHEL - Bharat Heavy Electricals LimitedBOD - Board of DirectorsCARD - Centre for Advance Research and ActionCBO - Community Based OrganizationCGMFP Federation - Chhattisgarh Minor Forest Produce (Trade and Development

Cooperative Federation LtdCII - Confederation of Indian IndustryDDM - District Development ManagerDGET - Directorate General of Employment & Training DTIC - District Trade and Industries CentreFAO - Food and Agriculture OrganisationFES - Foundation for Ecological SecurityFICCI - Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and IndustryFPO - Farmer’s Producer OrganisationGDP - Gross Domestic ProductGDP - Gross Domestic ProductICMR - Indian Council of Medical ResearchIEM - Industrial Entrepreneurs Memorandum IPP - Investment Promotion PolicyIT/ITES - Information Technology and Information Technology enabled ServicesITC - Industrial Training CentersITI - Industrial Training InstituteJFM Joint Forest ManagementJFMC - Joint Forest Management CommitteeJLG - Joint Liability GroupKVK - Krishi Vigyan KendrakWh - Kilowatt-hourL & T - Larsen and ToubroLMI - Large and Medium IndustryLOI - Letter of IntentMES - Modular Employable SkillsMFI - Micro Finance Institute MGNREGA - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ActMKSY - Mahila Kisan Shashaktikaran YojanaMoUs - Memorandum of Understanding

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MP - Madhya PradeshMPCVET - Madhya Pradesh Council for Vocational Training MPMFP Federation - Madhya Pradesh Minor Forest Produce (Trade and Development Cooperative Federation LtdMPPKVVCL - Madhya Pradesh Purva Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company LimitedMPRLP - Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood ProjectMPRLP - Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood ProjectMT - Metric TonneMU - Million UnitsMW - Mega WattsNABARD - National Bank for Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentNAEB - The National Afforestation and Eco-Development BoardNCVT - National Council for Vocational TrainingNGO - Non Government Organisation NIRD - National Institute of Rural DevelopmentNRLM - National Rural Livelihood MissionNSS - National Sample Survey NTFP Non Timber Forest Produce OBC’s - Other Backward CastesPACE - Pratham Arora Centre for EducationPSU’s - Public Sector UnitsR-SETI - Rural Self Employment Training InstituteSC’s - Scheduled CastesSCVT - State Council for Vocational TrainingSDC - Skill Development Centre.SFAC - Small Farmer’s Agri-business ConsortiumSFRI - State Forest Research InstituteSGSY - Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgaar YojanaSHG - Self Help Group SRLM - State Rural Livelihood MissionSSI - Small Sector IndustryTRIFED - The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India LimitedVLSC - Village level Service CentreWEG - Women Enterprise Group

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Executive Summary The District of Mandla is situated in the east-central part of Madhaya Pradesh. The District lies on the Satpura plateau and extends up to last ridges of Maikal hills covering a total geographical area of 8771 Sq. Kms. Its physical features consist of a rugged high tableland in the eastern part of the Satpura hills. A District with a glorious history, Mandla comprises of numerous rivers and endowed with rich forests with 61% of total area of the District is under forest cover. The District lies almost entirely in the catchment of river Narmada and its tributaries. The world's famous Tiger Sanctuary, Kanha National Park located in the District, is one of the hottest targets for both the domestic as well as foreign tourists. The District is also home to Mandla Plant Fossils National Park which has received attention of the geologists, archaeologists and anthropologists for past more than one and a half century. Currently, there are nine development blocks, four tehsils and 1247 villages and 495 Gram Panchayat in the District. According to Census, 2011, the total population of the District is 10, 53,522, forming 1.45 percent of the total population of the state. Mandla is a tribal dominated District with 57.23 percent population is constituted by the tribal. Gond, Baiga and Pradhan are the prominent tribals in the district. The other backward castes (OBCs) and scheduled castes (SCs) constitute 27% and 10% respectively of the population2. Mandla is predominantly a rural district where around 90% population of the District resides in rural and forest areas. Mandla District is one of the oldest Districts of Madhya Pradesh. In spite of the district has rich forest cover, having good annual rainfall and overall good agro-climatic situation, good human resources but the development indicators paint an obscure picture of the district. The present study Livelihood Mapping of Mandla District aims to delve into the reasons of such situation so as to come out with potential subsectors through livelihood mapping and recommend at implementation and at policy level, the necessary changes to improve the livelihood scenario of the district.

1. Livelihood profile of the District

The District abounds in natural resources, and is yet one of the most backward district in the country. Majority of the population (75.54%)3 is living below poverty line. Poverty is high in the district particularly in the remote upland forested areas that have very limited infrastructure and limited access to social services and markets, including education and health care. The position of the district in terms of human development is also ranked lowest among the districts of Madhya Pradesh state. Low food productivity, high dependence on wages and NTFPs, increased sale of fuel wood and high incidences of migration and human resources with limited entrepreneurial skills are some of the critical issues in the region.

The economy of the district is mostly dependent on agriculture and forest resources. Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihoods for a large portion of population however only 23 percent area of the

2 MP State Planning Commission, District Profile, November 20103 Madhya Pradesh District wise poverty estimates, MP State Planning Commission, November 2010, accessed at: (http://mp.gov.in/spb/international-aided-projects/pmpsu/outputs%20to%20b%20upload%2008.11.10/District%20wise%20poverty%20Estimates.pdf

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district is under cultivation that can be attributed to large scale forest cover. Around 54 percent of the poor are landless, 30 percent are marginal farmers and around 16 percent are small farmers4. Mandla is among the few Districts of Madhya Pradesh where 40 percent of the workers are engaged as agricultural laborers, while non-agricultural laborers constitute only 15 percent of the workforce. The high percentage of wage labors clearly underlines the fact that unavailability of skilled manpower, especially among the tribal is a critical development issue.

Agriculture allied activities such as goatery, poultry, dairy, fishery, piggery, etc., are the other subsidiary sources of income for the rural communities. The tribal communities are predominantly involved in NTFP collection, paddy and maize cultivation, goatery, backyard poultry, piggery, etc., while non-tribal communities are predominantly engaged in paddy, wheat, maize and vegetable cultivation, fisheries, goatery, dairy, etc..

Although the livelihood basket of the district has significant contribution from forest based livelihood and agriculture, the district has also seen revival of Lac cultivation by Forest Department, promotion of fisheries, introduction of new technologies in agriculture like System of Rice Intensification (SRI), large scale vegetable cultivation by migrated farmers from Haryana and introduction of systematic vegetable cultivation for tribals by PRADAN. The agri allied activities like dairy is still on the fringes due to poor quality of livestock availability and shortage of fodder in the district.

In addition, being heavily forested district, the forests of Mandla are source of many NTFPs of economic importance. Major of them are Mahua, Tendu leaves, Safed Musli, Kali Musli, Tikhur, Harra, Chironji Bel Guda, Palash, Lakh, Amla, Bahira, Bhelma, Chirota, etc. Forestry is the second largest source of income for the rural communities especially the tribals in the district after agriculture.

As far as industrialization is concerned, Mandla is categorized as an underdeveloped district where industrial growth is at a nascent stage. The major industries present in the area are engaged in stone crushing, rice mills, pulses, sugar and oil, engineering works, aluminum and copper ingots, fertilizer, truck body manufacture, herbal powder, ceramic glazed tiles and dolomite powder. In recent time, however, industrial and service sectors have shown growth; there has been a growth in the number of registered industrial units in the district since 2002-03 (164 in number) to 2009-10 (381 in numbers). There is a proposal for establishment of a 700 MW nuclear power plant in the district5. A food processing park is also scheduled to be set-up in near future. Concomitantly, the employment potential has increased all through.

The socio economic profile of the district naturally encourages promotion of community based organizations (CBOs) to work on the development agenda and apropos to this, the district has witnessed significant SHG movement over a period of time through government and non government agencies. As per recent NABARD data, the district has formed 17,134 SHGs out of which 7881 are women SHGs.

Keeping in view the importance of different sector in rural economy, engagement of rural communities in different activities and prospect of further involvement of rural communities especially women in different livelihood activities, three subsector viz. Goatery, Mahua and

4 MP State Planning Commission, District Profile, November 20105 Chutka N-plant faces local resistance, Business Standard, August 17, 2012

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Vegetable and two service sectors viz. Mobile repairing and Electrician are selected for detailed study to understand how a progressive livelihood pathway for the district can be carefully drafted by suggesting important recommendations in the value chain of those subsectors.

2. Subsectors

1) Goatery

With around 54 percent landless and 30 percent marginal farmers largely belonging to tribal communities (over 60%) and having over 61 percent forest land, goat farming provides a supplementary source of livelihoods to rural farmers. Goat is reared largely by tribals, Muslims and schedule caste families in Mandla. The average holding of goats has been 1 to 3 and most often it has been kept as supplementary source of income. The village visits during the study shown that 25 to 40 percent families have been keeping goats. The determining factor for goat farming has been labour availability in the family, nearness to forest, number of goat rearing family decreases or increases based on season and disease cycle, as many families have lost goats during rainy season.

At pre-production stage, in spite of good forest resources, goat business is constrained by unplanned and low investment. Non plantation of fodder tress and very limited long term investment in infrastructure related to goats like boundary of grazing land, water conservation in open lands are other limiting factors. These are coupled with serious lack of individual level access to financial services like credit and insurance for goats.

At production stage, goat farmers are troubled with lack of goat health care services. Awareness of selective breeding and breed up-gradation of goats has been limited to mere distribution of subsidized Jamanapari bucks in a few pockets.

Goat trading in Mandla is growing but lacks good competition and has been dependent on a limited number of traders. Local goat meat consumption has been low which is reflected by very few meat shops in block/ towns and only four meat shops exist in Mandla. The local demand is not more than 5 to 10 percent of goats availability and largely the trading is towards Hyderabad via Nagpur. Quality of goats from Mandla is not up to export quality, and hence it is largely getting consumed at Hyderabad local market. However Hyderabad has many goat and sheep meat export units and they are willing to procure quality goats if Mandla can produce. At present they are dependent on goats from Bundelkhand and Rajasthan for exports.

Mandla has been showing good indications of women Self Help Groups (SHGs) formation. Goatery can be promoted more systematically by engaging the SHGs. It is possible to work towards breed improvement and large scale production of goats and SHGs can be meaningfully engaged in this. As the market linkages for goat is already established, so with improvement in the quality of goats to be supplied to the markets of Hyderabad it is possible that the goat rearing households at Mandla can realize more income once their goats are accepted for export market.

2) Mahua

Mahua flower, commonly known as Mahua, forms an integral part of tribal livelihood system in Mandla. Mahua is collected by the rural communities for both consumption and sale purposes. It is largely used for making country liquor which is consumed by rural communities especially by the tribal. Mahua is collected from trees located in forest, revenue and private lands and the later two

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contribute higher quantity. Traditional practices are generally in practice for collection, processing and storage of Mahua. The unscientific practices used for collection, processing and storage deteriorate quality of Mahua which results in terms of low price realisation in market. Furthermore, under the subsistence economy, the poor households sell Mahua to petty traders and grocery shop owners in small quantities immediately after collection to fulfill daily household needs. The big traders also place their agents in remote rural areas to get assured supply of Mahua at lower rates. They extend credit to primary collectors in need through their agents and take Mahua in exchange at lowest possible rates. In addition, lack of storage facilities with the poor household also force them to sell Mahua before the rainy season fearing the risk of Mahua getting spoiled. Their know-how on collection, processing and storage is traditional and they lack adequate market intelligence and bargaining capacity for sale of Mahua in the market.

Women play key role in the entire process of collection, processing, storage and sale of Mahua in rural areas.

As the rural communities and particularly the tribals are the largest consumer of Mahua, so, during the off-season their role changes from seller to buyer. They buy Mahua again from the same traders, whom they sell Mahua during collection season and this time they buy at more than double the rates for consumption purposes. This has pushed the tribals more towards the poverty cycle.

Forest department has taken important initiatives recently to promote non-destructive harvesting practices of Mahua, It has also encouraged use of net for Mahua collection, ensure supply of quality Mahua and better price realization to primary collectors. It has also encouraged , constructing pucca platform for drying and cleaning purposes, declaring minimum support price for Mahua, procurement and trade of Mahua through SHGs and primary cooperative societies, construction of godowns and storage of Mahua, etc. In addition, some NGOs like Udyogini, Access Development Services, ASA, etc., have taken initiative for promoting organized collection and sale of Mahua through SHGs and Producer Companies which has started showing good results in terms of higher bargaining capacity of primary collectors,

3) Vegetables

There is a need to achieve the target of 225 million tonnes of vegetable production by the end of 2020 and 350 million tonnes by 2030. This has driven the mandate of increasing vegetable cultivation all across the country and Horticulture Department and Indian Institute of Vegetable Research have started working on this direction in their capacities. It is only possible when the true potential of vegetable cultivation is realized in the areas which have been hitherto limited in spite of good potential. Mandla is one such district which has been using very low percentage of cultivable land for vegetable i.e. 0.5% although it has enough potential to scale up vegetable cultivation. This potential was demonstrated recently when some farmers from Haryana and U.P. migrated to Mandla in search of cheap land, cheap labor and suitable agro climatic zone. They have acquired large plots of land along the Narmada river basin and with the use of appropriate technologies demonstrated the huge production of vegetables. However, the larger farming community in the district is constrained with lack of resources, lack of awareness about the updated agriculture practices, lack of motivation to scale up vegetable cultivation and very limited access to mainstream financial sources for necessary credit. It was learnt during the study that the existing mindset of the tribal farmers itself is a constraint in driving them to move ahead progressively towards scaling up of vegetable cultivation. Some prominent NGOs in the district

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have started showing that if proper guidance and handholding support are given to the farmers by aggregating them as SHGs, (especially to the tribal farmers) vegetable cultivation potential can be adopted more progressively. The interventions are needed at all stages beginning with pre-production stage which requires land leveling, fertilizer doze management through soil testing while use of appropriate technologies like drip irrigation, plant disease management are useful during production stages. At post production stage, the district does not have vegetable storage and processing facilities and absence of same is definitely a limiting factor to catalyze the vegetable production in the district. 3. Service Sectors

4) Electricians

With growth of Indian economy, rapid changes are taking in terms of increasing industrialization, mechanization, urbanization, enhanced income, increasing living standards, growing basic facilities, etc. The transformation of economy has created huge demand for electrician trade for both domestic and industrial purposes. However, the supply side is mostly being governed by government run institutions i. e. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). On the demand side the lack of voluntary training providers in the District has attracted attention of training providers from neighboring states and regions. This clearly indicates the potential of electrician training in the District.

About placement potential for formally trained electricians, the Public Sector Units (PSU’s) like Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Railways, Madhya Pradesh Purva Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Limited (MPPKVVCL), Ordnance Factory etc., remain a top priority. As per feedbacks from the industry, commercial unorganized establishments and hospitality industry, the quality of trained candidates is poor in many aspects. This is due to a host of reasons like poor basic education, lack of industrial exposure, lack of experienced and well informed trainers, out-dated equipments for practical sessions, poor ITI - Industry interface, no training in soft skills and personality development etc.

The initiatives such as Centers of Excellence, Skill Development Centers, Grameen Technician Scheme, Public-Private Partnership in ITI’s etc., are commendable as far as capacity enhancement is concerned but, this has to be in tandem with market demands and employability. In the existing course curriculum, the training of soft skills should be included. These will not only increase employability potential of the trainees but help them in grooming their overall personality as well.

5) Mobile Repairing

The spread of mobile technology has created ample opportunity for employment and self-employment for youth in both urban and rural areas. The employability in mobile repair has been continuously increasing in the district from 2003 when the first mobile shop was opened in the district. A total of 42 shops are in the business of mobile repairing in Mandla town and the rest are engaged in selling mobiles and its accessories. On an average 8 to 10 mobile repairing shops each year are being opening in Mandla city and similar trend is also found in other towns of the district. Each shop is providing employment to 3 to 5 youths especially unemployed educated youth. The market has developed a maturity and all these 42 shop owners have formed an association to negotiate and bargain with the mobile companies and also with the customers. This association was conceptualized in April, 2012.

There are two modes of employment in these mobile shops; one is on fixed monthly income and the other is on the basis of work done or on commission basis. Many candidates who take up a course in mobile repairing prefers to explore mobile repairing as a self employment option. As of now, the

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trade of mobile repair is largely an urban phenomenon. This is mostly due to lack of awareness about the trade and also the location of training institutes. On the supply side, when it comes to the trade of mobile repairing, there are no courses on mobile repairing available in Government and private ITIs. One private mobile shop owner had started training people in mobile repairing under the Rajeev Gandhi Shiksha Mission but, the mission got abandoned and the training centre had to be closed. Informally, there are about four private training centers in the district.

At the policy level, the Skill Development Policy of Madhya Pradesh (2012) mentions the promotion of non-traditional courses like mobile repair in the Government ITI’s, private ITI’s and Skill Development Centers. but, the present training landscape is devoid of any such initiatives. It is expected that in the coming year more focus would be given in inclusion of this course in the curriculum of ITI at Mandla.

The demand supply gap in mobile repair in the district suggested to delve deeper into the reasons for this gap and explore possibilities to bridge this gap by recommending inclusion of this course in the government run ITI and how the quality training providing private institutes should open their branches in the District to tap the good potential of mobile repairing resulting into creation of employment for the youth in the District. .

4. Special needs of the CommunityThe holistic livelihood promotion of the community can only be seen if the overall needs of the community are addressed in addition to focusing on the specific needs through identified subsectors. The community in Mandla is largely represented by the tribals and they are found to be lacking in entrepreneurial acumen, progressive mentality and they are also having comparatively low awareness on ideal health behavior. The necessary infrastructural and services support for health and nutrition facilities also needs to be radically improved for the community. Financial inclusion has yet not reached to the desired stage for the community which is deprived of even the minimum credit support from formal financial institutions. The infrastructure in terms of roads, transport, communication, market is found lacking particularly in the tribal areas of the district which needs to be improved so as to enhance access of the community to the market for availing better prices for their produces. The present subsector study reports of Mandla tries to understand how a progressive livelihood pathway for the district can be carefully drafted by identifying important sub sectors and suggesting important recommendations in the value chain of those subsectors.

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The District Profile - Mandla

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The District Profile - Mandla

1. Brief overview of the District Mandla is a tribal District with rich forest cover and is situated in the east-central part of Madhaya Pradesh and lies between latitude 22° 20' to 23° 22' North and longitude 80° 18' to 81° 50' East. It forms south-east portion of Jabalpur Division. The district lies on the Satpura plateau and extends upto last ridges of Maikal hills covering a total geographical area of 8771 Sq. Km. The extreme length of the district is 133 kms from north to south and extreme breadths is 182 kms from east to west. As a part of Satpura mountain range, it separates the cotton growing southern region from the wheat growing extension of the Malwa Plateau on the north, and is the watershed of three district river systems. The district lies almost entirely in the catchment of river Narmada and its tributaries. There are nine development blocks, four tehsils and 1247 villages and 495 Gram Panchayat in the District. With the promulgation of Madhya Pradesh, reorganisation of district has been bifurcated into the Mandla and Dindori Districts. The Dindori, Shahpura Tahsils and Mehandwani development block formed Dindori district while rest of the area existed in Mandla district. Before bifurcation Mandla was the sixth largest district in the state. The district is an important tourist destination as the world's famous Tiger Sanctuary, Kanha National Park is located in the district. The district also has a National Fossils Park.

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2. History

Mandla is a place of great history. From earliest times until the close of the sixth century A. D. the area appears to have been wrapped in an impenetrable mist of obscurity, cut off by its mountain barriers from the civilization of both the north and the south. From 600 A. D., the gloom though still profound is pierced by a few faint glimmerings of light. The kingdom of Chedi, which corresponded roughly to the central provinces, progressed quietly under the rule of Kalchuri or Haihaya kings. The seat of the Haihayabansi kingdom was Tripuri (Tewar) in Jabalpur District, within a few miles of Garha, the future capital of Garha-Mandla. In 875 A. D., the Haiyaha king Kokalla died leaving 18 sons, of whom the eldest assumed the reigns of government of Tripuri, while the others administered the outlying provinces, of which Mandla appears to have been one. Gond Jadurai was the first of the Garha-Mandla king. Among the various Gond rulers, the queen Durgawati is very famous for her bravery and developmental initiatives. During the fifteen glorious years of her regency the country grew so prosperous that the people paid rent to her in gold mohars and elephants. The Gond rule continued till Marathas controlled the region in 18th century. In the year 1781, the Saugor Pandits took complete possession of Mandla, making it a Subah subordinate to Jabalpur under the Maratha rule. The tract of Garha-Mandla continued to be dependent on Saugor, paying however, a quit-rent to Bhonslas until 1797. The political scene was marked by the absence of a strong sovereign state. The free-booting Pindaris, therefore, took advantage of the situation. The states of things continued until Mandla was ceded to the British in 1818 at the close of Maratha war. Thus, Mandla tract also fell to the authority of the Britishers till independence in 1947 (Gazetteer, Mandla, 2000). 3. Climate Mandla District extends over the highest plateaus of the Satpura ranging from 500 to 887 metres above mean sea level. Thus, in comparison with low laying plains of Jabalpur and Raipur on the north and south it is cool and exhilarating. The climate of the district is characterized by a hot summer season and general dryness except in the south-west monsoon season. The district receives high

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rainfall of between 1400 to 1600 mm of rainfall mostly during June to September. Including rainy season, there are four seasons- winter (December to February), summer, (March to mid June), south-west monsoon (mid June to September) and post or retreating mansoon (September to November) (See annexure – 1). Being situated in tropical climatic zone, May – June are hottest months with an average daily maximum temperature of 410 C reaching a high of 440 C. January records coldest temperatures with an average daily maximum of 260 C and minimum of 7.80 C. The district also witnesses frost in the month of January which is very damaging for vegetables.

4. River

A major part of Mandla District is occupied by Narmada river basin consisting of the north-eastern part of the Son sub-basin and the south-western part of Wainganga sub-basin and south-eastern extent (Seonath sub-basin) of the Godavari basin. The Narmada flows along the greater part of the District and receives water from its tributaries namely Banjar, Burhar, Kharmer, Kikara and the Gour. Among the southern tributaries the Machrar, Chakar, Seoni, and Tar are important. In its tortuous course through the district, Narmada generally flows between high and rocky banks, except for some distance near Mandla, where it flows through rich and fertile plains. Of the rivers not belonging to Narmada system, Thawar and Alone drain the south-west portion of the District. These rivers join Wainganga, Mahanadi rising from near Shahpura, and the Johilla which flows into the Rewa plains, water the north and north-west portion of the district. 5. ForestMandla is endowed with rich forests with 61% of total area of the district is under forest cover. It comes under the administrative control of Jabalpur forest circle. The forests of the district are divided into two forest divisions, viz., North Mandla and South Mandla. Sal (Sorea Robusta) and teak (Tetona grandia) are the main timber trees extensively found in the forest of the District. Besides these, the forests of the district contain Tinsa (Qugeinia dalbergiodes), Dhawra ((Anogeissus latifolia), Dhamin (Grewaia tilloefolia), Bijja (Petrocarpus marsupiam), Lendia (Lagerstromia paryiflora), haldu (Aidna cardifolia), Koha (Terminalia arjuna) which said to be a river side tree and relative of Saj. Salai (Boswellie serrata) is also common tree used to supply aromatic resin which used by the aborginal population for ritual purposes. Among flowering trees, Palas (Butea frondosa) is found in all parts of the District. The tree, besides being put to many fold uses by the people, is an important lac-producing tree. Commonly available Mahua (Vassia latifolia) is most important of the edible fruit trees, its dried fruits form an important part of the food of the people in the countryside, and are also used for distilling the common country liquor. Other fruit trees of the edible variety found in the district are alma (Phyllanthus emblica), harra (terminalia chebula), tendu (Disopyros tomentosa), khaner (Gmelina abrorea), jamun (Eugenia jambolana), and achar (Buchhananania latifolia).Thee fruits of last mentioned tree also yield ‘chinronji which is an invariable ingredient of many a sweet-dish. Under planted tree, mango is very common. Recently, people have started planting Mahua tree owing to its cash yielding nature in lean period.

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In the open areas, Ber (Ficus begnalensis), Pipar (Ficus religiosa), Chhind (Pheonix sylvestirs, Babul (Acacia Arabica), etc. are the common tree found all across the district. Almost all valleys in the south of Mandla have pure Sal forests, whereas in the eastern part Sal trees no longer dominate. In northern, central and western Mandla it is most common to see purely mixed forest (Gazetteer, 2000). 1.1 Kanha Tiger Reserve (Kanha National Park) The world's famous Tiger Sanctuary, Kanha National Park located in the District, is one of the hottest targets for both the domestic as well as foreign tourists. Kanha becomes a tiger land, a home for more than 100 tigers. The area of Kanha Tiger Reserve is 1945 sq. Km. Kanha is a destination for wildlife visitors from all over the world. Kanha was among the first nine Reserves included in the Project Tiger Network in 1973. There are twenty two species of mammals identified e.g. Chital or Spotted deer, Sambar, Barasingha, Barking deer, Chousingha, Gaur, Langur, Wild pig, Jackal, Sloth bear, Wild dog, Panther, Tiger. In addition, there are around 260 species of birds identified, e.g., Peafowl, Jungle fowl, pained spur fowl, grey partridge, Painted Partridge, Indian roller, Racket tailed drongo, Red wattled lapwing, Yellow wattled lapwing. 1.2 Plant Fossils National Park The District is also home to plant fossils. On account of its wealth of Pleistocene mammalian fossils and palacolithic tools of different periods has received attention of the geologists, archaeologists and anthropologists for past more than one and a half century. 6. Social System

As tribals forms the majority of the population, the culture of the district is also accordingly influenced. According to the census report, Gond tribe and Baiga tribe are most significant tribes in Mandla district. In comparison to the other tribes, Gonds are well settled and economically better than any other communities of the area. Gonds were earlier mostly forest-dwellers but are at present settled as agrarian community.. Gonds follow tribal endogamy and clan exogamy. They follow the system of patriarchy. Remarriage and widow marriage is also permitted. The Baigas are the most primitive and interesting forest tribal of Mandla District. In the tribal societies of Mandla District, clans are usually named after some animals or plants. Among the common clans in different Districts are Markam (Mango tree), Tekam (Teak tree), Netam (the dog), Warkara (wild cat) and so on. From these animals and plants a clan derives its name. The worship of ancestors is an integral part of their religion. The Gonds have a highly developed aesthetic sense and celebrate a number of festivals. The influence of various leaders under different situations is also observed. Gonds have a tribal council to settle local disputes of internal nature such as conjugal infidelity and other social matters while they settle the extraneous matters in the presence of Mukadama i.e. the village headman. Folk dance, folk songs and folk music play vital role in the cultural life of the tribal groups in Mandla District. It is through music and dance that they keep themselves occupied in the evenings. Folk music and dance give expression to their innermost feelings, their joys and sorrows, their natural affections and ideals, their appreciation of beauty of nature and war. Every season and every socio-religious ceremony has specific songs. On the occasions of their important religious festivals and marriages, they are found dancing and singing whole day and night.

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Folk dances of the tribal communities are popularly called as `Karma`. Karma is the name of the plant commonly grown in that area. The festivals of Gonds are not so much associated with religion as is the case with most Hindu festivals. Their festivals are in response to the harvest season and local customs. On the whole, their festivals tend to be recreational rather than spiritual. Their festivals are also connected with agricultural cycle. Throughout the year a number of fairs, festivals and feasts are organised in the village. However, their distribution over a year is rather irregular. Hareli is the festival of rain. It is observed in the early period of rains. This is mostly celebrated in the month of July-August. Hareli word is probably derived from Hindi word, `Haryali` which means greenery as in this season vegetation begins to bloom and there is greenery all around. Khyania is another important festival of the region. Mela Madai is a huge fair that is held after the completion of the harvesting of the paddy crop, when the people are free from their agricultural work and their stores are full with grain. After Diwali this fair is enjoyed daily for a week. The head of the village inaugurates the Mela. Chait Gal festival starts from `Sharad Purnima` usually in October and continues up to the `Kartik Purnima` till November. Nawa Feast and Bidri ceremony are other popular celebrations of tribal communities of Mandla District6. 7. Demographics 7.1. PopulationThe population of the district according to Census, 2011 is 10, 53,522, forming 1.45 percent of the total population of the state. Of the total population, 49.88 per cent comprises of male population and rest 50.12 percent is female population. Population density of the district is 182 persons per sq. km which is much lesser than state average of 236 persons per sq. km. 87.64 per cent population of the district lives in rural areas. The decadal growth rate of the population is 17.8 percent in the district. The total number of households in the district are 2, 72,000. Table – 1.1: Demographic profile S. No Indicator Mandla Percent1 Total population 1,053,52

2100.00%

6 (http://www.indianetzone.com/49/culture_mandla_District.htm)

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2 Male population 525,495 49.88%3 Female population 527,028 50.03%4 Rural population 923,309 87.64%5 Urban population 130,213 12.36%7 Child population (0-6 years) 144,799 13.74%6 Growth Rate (%) 17.8%7 Households 272,000

Source: Census, 2011 7.2. Sex ratioAs per the annual health survey, 2010-11, the sex ratio, i.e., the number of females per 1000 males is 1003. The sex ratio is comparatively lower in urban areas at 964 and higher at 1008 in rural areas. The higher percentage of sex ratio in rural areas can be attributed to high percentage (57%) tribal population in the District. In tribal communities, women have high status as compared to the non-tribal communities (See annexure – 2). 7.3. Schedule caste and schedule tribeMandla is dominated by tribal population and the major tribal groups are Baiga and Gond. The tribal groups constitute 57.23% of the total population (See annexure – 3). 7.4.ReligionThe majority of population follows Hinduism. Muslims being the second most important religious community of the district are more or less equally distributed in rural and urban areas, while Hindus and Christians are overwhelmingly concentrated in rural areas. Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains are mostly concentrated in urban areas. 7.5. Literacy The literacy rate, according to Census, 2011, is 68.3 per cent in the District which is lower than state average 70.63%. The literacy rate of male population is 79.5 per cent and for female population is 57.1 per cent. This indicates that still a major portion of female population especially in the rural areas is illiterate (See annexure – 4). 8. Land Utilization

The total geographical area of the Mandla district is 965,559 hectares. Forest dominates land use of the area, occupying around 61.43 percent followed by cultivated land covering 27.75 percent of the area. Of this cultivated land, only 23.73 percent is cropped more than once a year. About 14.59 percent of the area is not cultivable. Other land use in the district includes revenue wasteland (6.28%), cultivable wasteland (2.03%) and other fallow land (2.06%).

Table – 1.2: Land use pattern in Mandla DistrictS. No. Land-use category Area in hectare Percent1 Forests 593,126 61.43%2 Land not available for agriculture 53,342 5.52%3 Other fallow land excluding revenue wasteland 19,703 2.04%4 Cultivable land 19,577 2.03%5 Revenue wasteland 60,673 6.28%

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6 Net-sown area 282,093 29.22% • Area under single crop • 219,055 22.69% • Area under double crop • 68,160 7.06%7 Total 965,559 100.00%

Source: District Planning and Statistical Office – District Statistical Handbook, 2006 9. Physical Infrastructure

In relation to basic amenities, out of total 1216 inhabited villages of the District, 1187 are electrified, 148 have post office and 966 villages are connected with pucca and semi-pucca roads. The length of highways (pucca road) in the District is 1175 km (See annexure – 5). 9.1.Educational institutionsAs far as educational infrastructure is concerned there are 1282 Anganwadi, 1200 Primary Schools, 499 High Schools, 92 Higher Secondary Schools, one Navodai school, six Professional Institutions and six Colleges are available in the District for education of children. Table – 1.3: Educational institutions (2003) S No Educational institution Number1 Anganwadi 12822 Primary School 12003 Secondary School 4994 Higher Secondary School 925 Navodey School 16 Professional Institution 67 College 6Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2007 9.2.Health infrastructure

There are one allopathic hospital, 9 community health centres, 30 primary health centres, 248 sub health centres and 28 ayurvedic/homeopathic hospitals in the district. Most of the hospitals are concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas. The remote rural areas of the district do not have adequate health facilities. Table – 1.4: Health infrastructure S No Hospital Number Beds Doctor1 Allopathic Hospital 1 468 562 Community Health Centre 9 3 Primary Health Centre 30 4 Health Sub Centre 248 5 Ayurvedic/Homeopathic Hospital 28 30 406 Total 316 498 96Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2007 9.3.Water and Sanitation

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Hand pumps are major source of drinking water for the rural population of the District. Hand pumps have been installed in all the villages for the purpose of drinking water. In addition, in bigger size villages tap water is also being provided however, the percentage of such villages is very small (See annexure – 6). The situation of water and sanitation is very poor in Mandla district. Only 12.3 percent households have drinking water facility within the premises. This percentage is very low (7.1%) for rural areas. Similarly, only 13.3 percent households have toilet facility within their premise. Table – 1.5: Water and Sanitation S. No Indicators Percent 1 Households having drinking water facilities within

premises 12.3 %

2 Households having drinking water facilities near the premises

40.1 %

3 Households having drinking water facilities away from the premises

47.6 %

4 Households having drinking water facilities within premises- Rural

7.1 %

5 Households having tape water from treated source –overall

9.6 %

6 Households having tape water from treated source - (%)–rural

4.1 %

7 Toilet facility available within the premises 13.3% 8 Toilet not available within the premises 86.7% Source: Census, 2011 9.4.Banking facility Different banks viz. Commercial Banks, Grameen Bank, Cooperative Banks are operating in the District for facilitating credit for commercial and other activities. Total branches of Banks are 66 which area largely located in District and Block centres. The presence of Banks in remote areas and tribal areas is very less and therefore, the rural communities are largely dependent on moneylenders for credit. Table – 1.6: Bank branches S No Bank Total 1 Commercial bank 342 Satpura - Nramada Regional Rural Bank 173 Cooperative Bank 154 Total 66Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD 9.5.Irrigation facilities Irrigation, in the past, in this District was quite insignificant and remained so through-out its pre-Independence era. Irrigation besides wells, consisted of little else and even that was very much limited because of the difficulties presented by the hilly terrains. In fact, the District topography formed

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a formidable hurdle in the way of quick expansion of irrigation and only works like construction of dams or big irrigation tanks projects could make a substantial difference. All such works were planned and implemented generally by the Fifth Plan period excepting only one medium irrigation schemes of Dhuadhar Tank. Table – 1.7: Sources of irrigation S No Source of irrigation Area (In hectare) Percent 1 Canal 15987 77.83%2 Dug-well 2954 14.38%3 Tank 15 0.07%4 Other 1585 7.72%5 Net irrigated area 20541 100.00%Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD The total irrigated area of total cultivated area in the District is only 7.26 percent which is very less compare to state average of 37.4 percent and mainly comes from canals (77.83%). In the Bicchia block 12.11% area of net sown area has irrigation. Though the percentage of irrigated area seems greater than the district average, it is mostly due to the presence of “Haveli” area where canal irrigation is evident. Table – 1.8: Area under irrigationS No Area under irrigation Area (Hectare) Percent 1 Net irrigated area 20541 7.26%2 Non-irrigated area 262326 92.74%3 Total cultivable area 282867 100.00%Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2007 Although the whole of the District required to be benefitted by the expansion of irrigation, among the area needing it most, could be included the flat area on the left and right banks of Matiyary, both sides of Mandla-Dindori road and Mandla-Kawardha road and the area on the right bank of Thawar river. 10. Occupational break up

10.1. Work participationThe average work participation rate was 51.9 percent in the District. The work participation rate for male was 55.5 percent and 48.3 percent for female which indicate a high percentage of work participation of both male and female workers in the District. The high work participation of workers can be further capitalized through building skill sets of current workers and the youth will join the workforce in the future (See annexure – 1). 10.2. Occupation pattern Among different occupation groups, agriculturists followed by manual labour class form the main economic and professional groups in the District. With increasing industrialization, entrepreneur activities and connectivity of the District with other areas, a gradual shifting of working population to emerging areas of economy especially in non-farm sector is taking place in the District. Table – 1.9: Occupation pattern

S No Occupation Number 1 Farmer 204,0002 Agri. wages labour 192,0003 Domestic industries/enterprises 8,0004 Allied activities 60,0005 Other work 142,000

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Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD 11. Livelihoods

11.1. Landholding patternAround half of the landholdings (48.30%) in the district are one or less than one hectare. This is followed by above two hectare (28.40%) and between one and two hectares (23.30%). In addition, around half of the landholdings comprise 12.10 percent of total cultivable area while 28.40 percent landholdings of more than two hectares comprises over two-third (68.80%) cultivable area in the district. This shows very unequal landholding pattern in the district. Table – 1.10: Landholding pattern S No

Classification of landholdings

Number of landholdings

Number Percent

1 <=1 Hectare 78463 48.30%2 >1 to <= 2 Hectare 37853 23.30%3 >2 Hectare 46283 28.40%4 Total 162599 100.00%Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD 11.2. Farmer category As per land ownership pattern, among the farmer, over two-third (68.56%) are medium famers followed by marginal farmers (15.61%), small farmers (8.62%) and large farmers (7.21%). Marginal, small and semi-medium farmers constitute the majority landholding classes (93%). Table – 1.11: Farmer category S No Farmer category Number of farmer Landholding (In hectare) Number Percent Area Percent1 Marginal farmer 52273 15.61 23272 7.452 Small farmer 28861 8.62 41471 13.283 Medium farmer 229537 68.56 75699 24.234 Large farmer 24125 7.21 171929 55.045 Total 334796 100 312371 100Source: Agriculture Department, Mandla The data indicates that a small percentage of big farmers (7.21%) control major landholdings (55.04%) in the District. Which indicates that major portion of cultivable land is in the hands of very small number of people. 11.3. Agriculture

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Agriculture is the dominant source of livelihood in Mandla. However, the net sown area is only 23%. This is low in comparison to other areas however could be attributed to the high level of forest in the area. Largely, rainfed agriculture is practiced in major parts of the District due to inadequate development of irrigation facilities. The majority of farmers here practice traditional agriculture methods, evident through canal irrigation and low fertiliser consumption. Fertiliser consumption per hectare is just 16 kg, which is one of the lowest levels in the state. A vast variety of crops are grown in the area, with many being endemic to the area. Baigas traditionally practiced a type of shifting cultivation known as “Bewar”, however due to the ban on shifting cultivation this is now very limited. Bewar crops are diverse due to mixed cultivation, use of traditional crop varieties and customary cultivation practices. Though the Gond tribe is agragrian they also practice traditional agriculture, using elements from the forest and limited use of modern implements and inputs. Among the non-tribal communities, Brahmins, Rajput, Lodhis, Ahirs, Kurmis, Kachhis, etc., are the other major communities practicing agriculture in the District and largely in plain fertile areas with advance practices. There are two cropping seasons, the most important one being “Kharif” which is locally known as “Siari”. This season is of greater importance area wise and in growing principle cereals and millet crops. The largest grown single crop has traditionally been the minor millets of “Kodo” and “Kutaki” which form the staple food of most tribals in the area. Rice has now become the most extensively cropped and wheat is now also grown in significant amount in the district. Maize is another staple of the area, grown on “Barri” meaning backyard. This barri is a type of home garden where many vegetables and pulses are intercropped with maize cultivation. Other main crops include red gram, lentil, niger and mustard. With limited irrigation facility (less than 8%), people takes rainy season crop as Kharif crops. 11.4. Fruits and VegetablesAs far as cultivation of fruits and vegetables is concerned, these crops are taken in 15,553 hectare area in the district. Major fruits such as Mango, Anola, Guava, Banana, Kathal, Lemon, etc., major vegetable such as Potato, Tomato, Onion, Green peas, Cabbage, Lady finger, etc., major medicinal and aromatic crops such as Aloe veira, Ashwagandha, Sattawar, Leman grass, etc., major spices such as coriander, chili, turmeric, garlic, ginger, etc., cultivated by the farmers in the district. The area under such cash crops is increasing day by day due to their high demand and thereby better market price. However, majority of farmers are cultivating fruits and vegetables in traditional ways. Under the WADI project of NABARD, tribal farmers are being encouraged and trained for fruit cultivation. Similarly, Horticulture Department has taken initiative to promote vegetable cultivation in the district under National Horticulture Mission. NGOs like PRADAN and ASA also have taken initiatives for promotion of vegetable cultivation in the tribal areas. Under the vegetable cultivation promotion, farmer are trained in systematic cultivation techniques of vegetables like spacing, line sowing, providing support of wooden sticks to vegetables like tomato helped them to increase the production significantly and collective marketing in order to get access to bigger markets and get better price of their produces. Also, some big farmers from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have acquired around 100 acres land and doing vegetable cultivation at commercial scale. They are sending truckloads of produce to Nagpur and Raipur market. Table – 1.12: Fruit and vegetable cultivation

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S No Fruit/Vegetable Area (Hectare) Production (Tonne)1 Mango 1421.00 7830.152 Anola 272.50 3156.253 Guava 530.00 6012.854 Lemon 104.25 806.725 Kathal 334.00 3809.256 Green peas 227.80 2023.807 Tomato 459.00 13728.838 Potato 639.00 10625.969 Onion 347.00 7762.9210 Coriander 259.50 1265.1611 Chili 202.00 2206.2012 Turmeric 35.40 1379.0013 Garlic 69.15 594.85Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD11.5. Agri-allied activitiesAlong with agriculture, agri-allied activities such as goatery, poultry, dairy, fishery, piggery, etc., are the other subsidiary sources of income for the rural households. The tribal communities are predominantly involved in goatery, poultry, piggery, etc., while non-tribal communities are engaged in vegetable cultivation, dairy, goatery, fisheries, etc. Dairy - Animal husbandry is integral part of agriculture sector in the District. Farmers both tribal and non-tribal possess cattle for milk and cow-dung. Among the milch animal, Desi breed of cow and buffalo are predominantly reared in all parts of the district. Buffaloes are particularly reared in plain and irrigated areas by non-tribal communities. The number of cows (local breed) is very high because the preference of tribal communities for cows. Table – 1.13: Details of animal

Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2008

In spite of availability of large number of milch animals, milk production in Mandla district is

limited and the requirement of milk in the district is fulfilled from the outside areas. The major factors for underdevelopment of dairy subsector in the district have been availability of low milk yielding variety of milch animals, lack of green fodder and feed, poor financial condition of rural communities, poor infrastructure for animal husbandry, etc. Goatery - Goatery is a major activity practiced by large number of rural households. For the rural households whose livelihood is primarily subsistence livelihood, goatery is one of the important activities. The tribals treat goatery as an activity which fetches them immediate cash. Favorable climatic condition, availability of huge fodder in forest and common pastures, low input cost, increasing demand for goat meat, better price, etc., have made goatery a preferred livelihood option for the poor and tribal households. Table – 1.14: Details of goat and sheep

S No Milch animal Number Percent 1 Cow 139288 83.80%2 Buffalo 26923 16.20%3 Total 166211 100.00%

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S No Goatery Number Percent 1 Goat 100233 99.49%2 Sheep 514 0.51%3 Total 100747 100.00%Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2007 The annual meat production in the district is around 15.63 lakh kg. However, it was observed that the goats reared in the district are of local breed which have comparatively lesser meat than other breeds of goat in the country. Government Veterinary Department, MPRLP and some NGOs have taken initiatives for breed improvement of goat in the district. Goats are sold in weekly animal haat-bazar organized in various parts of the District including Mandla city. Poultry - This is another major livelihood activity in the district which has been undertaken by large number of rural households especially the tribal households for long. Backyard poultry is largely prevalent in the rural areas. Some poultry farms have also been started by government and private agencies in the district. However, poultry subsector in the district is largely dominated by backyard poultry. The total population of poultry birds was 275912 and annual production of eggs was 949303 lakh in the district in 20087. Due to large scale backyard poultry, the rural communities prefer Desi breed of chicken because of its low input cost and easier poultry management practices involved in its rearing. Chicken is preferred non-vegetarian food among the tribal communities and therefore, poultry is taken up both for self consumption and sale in the market. Demand for chicken is increasing both within the district and outside the district. Intervention has been taken up by some NGOs to promote rearing of Kadaknath breed of chicken which has high value in market due to its medicinal properties. Fisheries - Mandla has a large network of river (11 rivers) and tanks (835 tanks leased out for fishery) which are being used for fisheries activities. In addition, there are reservoirs – one big dam, two medium dams and 52 small dams wherein fisheries activities are undertaken by community groups/cooperatives. The rural communities especially Dhimar, Kewat and tribal are involved in fishery activity for income as well as self-consumption. There are almost 30,000 fishermen in the District. Around 78 fishermen Cooperative Societies have been formed involving 2653 members. Rohu, Katla, Mrigal are the major breed of fish found largely in the District. Some exotic fish breeds like Common-carp, Silver-carp, and Gross-carp have also been introduced. Table – 1.15: Details of fishery S No Details Number1 Number of tanks 8352 River (Perennial and seasonal) 113 Reservoirs/lakes 4 • Big 15 • Medium 26 • Small 527 Hatchery 38 Fish production (In tone), 2010-11 2005.5

7 Mandla District Statistical Book, 2008

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Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD For seed production, 3 hatcheries have been established in Mandla, Niwas and Thawar in the District which are unable to fulfill the requirement of seed. Mandla, Nainpur and Bichhiya blocks have huge potential for fisheries in the District that need to be capitalized. 11.6. Non-timber forest produces (NTFPs)The densely forested areas of the District are in its full bounty of different NTFPs like Mahua, Tendu leaves (Diospyros melonoxylon), Safed Musli (Chlorophytumborivillanum), Kali Musli (Curculigo orchioides), Tikhur (Curcuma angustifolia),Harra (Termenalia chebula) and Chironji (Buchanialanzan). Other varieties like BelGuda (Aglemarmelos), Palash (Buteamonosperma), Laakh (Lacciferlacca), Mohilain (Bauhiniavahili), Amla (Emblicaofficinalis), Bahira (Terminaliabellirica), Bhelma (Semecarpus anacardium) and Chirota (Cassia Toraand) etc. In an overall view of the District, the abundant areas as far as NTFPs are concerned are rated as follows:

a) I - Mohgaon and Paudi b) II - Ghughri, Ghotas, Bichhiya, Mawai.c) III - Babliya, Bakori, Pipariya, Niwas, Maneri, Narayanganj, Chiraidongri.d) IV - Nainpur, Bamhani, Banjar.

Mixed forest provides a vast number of Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) that support tribal livelihood. Tribals, especially Baigas, have an intricate relationship with the flora of the area, which is useful for their daily lives. They use a variety of tubers, leaves, flowers and fruits derived from the forest. The area is rich in medicinal plant varieties which is the main provision of medicine for the local villagers. In the subsistence economy of the District, the contribution of NTFPs in rural economy is second largest after agriculture. The rural communities are involved at large scale in NTFP collection owing to cash yielding nature in the lean period. However, unscientific extraction methods used by rural communities especially the tribal threatened the availability of many NTFPs like Chironji and Amla. Lac used to be available earlier but the production drastically reduced due to decrease in the presence of Palas trees. Forest department have started promoting Lac cultivation in certain parts of the forests where Palas trees are available. 11.7. Non-farm sector and industries Predominantly dependent on agriculture, the district economy encouraged only those industries during the past which were subsidiary to agriculture or were need based. Iron-work, bell metal, leather, ghee, firewood were the only industries, worth the name in the past. Keeping abreast the technological changes that have come in the wake of development since independence these industries by and large continue to hold their important place in the district. In addition, new industries also came with passage of time. There is an industrial area developed in Maneri area of the district wherein 517.21 hectare land is acquired for industry development and out of it 162.36 hectare land has been developed so far. There are six large and medium scale industries and 58 small and micro scale industries which have cumulatively provided employment to 2203 people in the district7. Most of them are established around rice, stone crushing, oil extraction, herbal, dolomite, furniture, etc. In term of industrialization, the situation of Mandla is very poor due to lack of

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connectivity, row material, transport facilities, etc (See annexure – 8 and 9). Table – 1.16: Food processing industries S No Activity Place Number1 Floor mill Mandla, Nainpur, Bichhiya 252 Rice mill Mandla, Nainpur, Bichhiya 63 Pulses mill Mandla 54 Oil mill Mandla, Nainpur 55 Sugar mill Mandla 26 Goud mill Mandla, Nainpur 507 Spices mill Mandla, Nainpur, Bichhiya 12Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD11.8. TourismOn and average it is estimated that around 10,000 tourist visit Mandla every year, out of which approximately 500 of them are foresign tourists. While Mandla has a few interesting tourist spots, most tourists use Mandla as the transit point to Kanha national park. There are around 135 hotels, resorts and guest houses around the Kanha Tiger Reserve. (See annexure – 10). 11.9. LabourDependence on labor is very high in the District. At least one member per household must go out for labor to support their livelihood. We were told that the women would generally go for unskilled labor to agricultural fields of the maalgujaars, whereas the men would look for other labor opportunities like building work, telephone cabling etc., in cities. However, such opportunities are very limited as compared to availability of agriculture labor, which is an age-old system, from the times of Zamindaari. Generally, these people have years-old credits or such subordinated relationships with the maalgujaars, that they are compelled to go for labor year after year. However, things are told be changing now, with the younger generation looking for alternate means of earning and repaying loans than to continue with this exploitative system. The payment for agriculture labor is made in two different modes - either galla i.e. in grain form or the cash equivalent of the prices of those grains in the local market. Generally, the harvest of a crop is paid in galla, which is generally kept for consumption at home, because it amounts to hardly Rs.15-20 per day, whereas it can support consumption for at least 3-4 days. Besides, it can be stored to be sold off for better prices at a later time (Udyogin, 2003). 11.10. Migration Long distance migration for labor is not very high. About 5% population from the area would migrate out to far off places like Nagpur, Chhindwara, Bhopal etc., such families stay out for most part of the year and involve in construction, digging and other activities and come back to the village only in times of festivals. However, almost all households in a village would be present in the village around Mahua collection season. 11.11. Self-help Group (SHG)Under various schemes of Central and State Governments such as Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarajgar Yojana (SGSY), Mahila Kisan Shashakitikarn Yojana (MKSY), Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project (MPRLP), Tejaswini, etc., SHGs of the poor and particularly of women are being formed in the District for empowerment and economic development of the weaker section. The SHGs are being linked with Banks for facilitating credit to the poor.

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Table – 1.17: Details of SHGsS No Agency SHG1 Zilla Panchayat (BPL) 143662 Women and Child Development Department (Tejaswini) 27683 Total 171344 Women SHG 7881Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD PRADAN, an NGO, has formed two SHG federations in Narayanganj and Mohagaon Blocks of the District involving 400 SHGs. Similarly, MPRLP has promoted a Producer Company for collection and trade of NTFPs especially Mahua in Bichiya Block involving 550 members of 48 SHGs. Out of the total 17134 SHGs, 7881 SHGs have been formed involving women in the District. 11.12. Kisan ClubKisan Club is a group of farmers formed at village level by Banks and NGOs for facilitating credit, technology transfer, improve agriculture productivity through application of advance practices, saving and repayment of Bank loans, etc., with support from NABARD. As on 31 March, 2011, total 17 Kisan Clubs were established in the District. Table – 1.18: Kisan ClubS No Agency Kisan club1 Bank 142 NGO 33 Total 17 Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD 12. Poverty context

The District abounds in natural resources, and is yet one of the most backward in India. In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Mandla one of the country's 250 most backward districts. The contribution of the District in gross domestic product of state is merely one per cent. Per capita income in the District is Rs. 8525/- which is very low compared to state average of 13299/- per capita income (2007-08). In terms of per capita income Mandla District is ranked 41 among the 50 Districts of the state. Over 75 percent population of the District is living below poverty line. Low food productivity, high dependence on wages and NTFPs, increased sale of fuel wood and high incidences of migration are some of the critical issues in the region. The traditional occupations of the Districts in general are agrarian cultivation, agricultural labor, grazing, migrant workers, livestock rearing forest-based earnings etc. Poverty is high in these regions particularly in the remote upland forested areas that have very limited infrastructure and limited access to social services and markets, including education and health care. The percentage of people who live under the poverty line is estimated to be more than 70% of the total population. The traditional livelihood options for the inhabitants of the heavily forested-District of Mandla, have been agriculture and non-timber forest products (NTFP) collection and trade. Subsistence agriculture

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being the main practice in the region, only a negligible amount of agricultural produce is left for sale in the local market. Limited knowledge of and limited access to more distant markets compels the farmers to be at the mercy of the middlemen and the traders who determine the price of their produce (Udyogini). The government programs have been struggling to achieve the development goals; agricultural intensification in the upland areas has been difficult due to lack of infrastructure and financial resources. Recently increasing demand for cash crops is rapidly trying to transform the agrarian pattern but basic interventions of watershed arrangements and harvesting is lacking; which do not sustain heavy rainfall drainages and the cycle of agriculture still remains primarily rain fed apart from few pockets. The rural/ tribal farmers are chiefly small or marginal with an average landholding of not more than 1.5 to 2 hectares of land. The farming lacks the normal irrigation support and a very challenging gap is felt in water harvesting and watershed activities in participation of the community.

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Methodology

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Methodology

ObjectivesThe broad objective of the livelihood mapping exercise is to

(i) Provide an end-to-end to solution with respect to financial and non-financial service for Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmer Producer Organisations, and

(ii) Identify vocational skill building opportunities to create employment to the unemployed youth by studying three major livelihood subsectors and two services sector activities in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.

Specific objectives

§ To analyse the role of different stakeholders in Goatery, Mahua and Vegetable sub-sectors.

§ To identify key gaps in the subsectors at different stages of production § To recommend practical and implementable end-to-end solutions to address the gaps and

come up with appropriate institutional design to organise the community§ Appreciate the current scenario of mobile repairing and electrician services in the district

and to understand the potential for employment in near future § Identify the skill gaps in mobile repairing and electrician service sectors and to reflect on

demand and supply side issues to bridge the same. § Understand the special needs of the community with regard to improvement of quality of

life. Shortlisting of sub-sectors and services sector activitiesShortlisting of subsectors has been done on the basis of

(i) Subsectors in which the community is interested to play active role to strengthen their own livelihood portfolio

(ii) Subsectors that contribute substantial income to a large number of people in the District(iii) Subsectors which are traditionally and culturally part of lives of local communities and

have better scope for upgrading and also potential for large scale expansion(iv) Subsectors which have untapped high market potential to enhance household incomes(v) Subsectors which cut across major livelihood sectors like agriculture, agri-allied and

forestry, and(vi) Subsectors and enterprises that are easily acceptable to the communities in question.

Shortlisting of services sector activities/ skilled services have been done on the basis of

(i) Skilled services which have good demand in current as well as in future and fairly remunerative especially to the youth

(ii) Skilled services potential for creating wage employment and self-employment(iii) Skilled services which have limited entry and exit barriers also feasible for the least and

little educated Following the set criteria the subsectors and skilled services shortlisted to study as part of the livelihood mapping exercise are-

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Table – 2-1: Subsectors and service sector activities studied and rationale for short-listing Subsector/ Service sector shortlisted

Rationale for shortlisting sub-sectors and service sectors

Subsector

s

Goatery With around 54 percent landless and 30 percent marginal farmers largely belonging to tribal communities (over 60%) and having over 61 percent forest land, goat farming provides a supplementary source of livelihoods to rural farmers. The tribals treat goatery as an activity which fetches them immediate cash. Favorable climatic condition, availability of huge fodder in forest and common pastures, low input cost, increasing demand for goat meat, better price, etc., have made goatery a preferred livelihood option for the poor and tribal households. However, the goatery subsector is facing various problems such as low quality breed, disease, lack of adequate awareness and education among goat farmers on goat management, lack of scale, poor market intelligence, low price realization in market, etc. Goatery still has high potential to be realized as livelihoods and income source. Study of goatery subsector will give in depth understanding of the subsector, various problems being faced at different levels, interventions made by different organizations for improvement of goatery. This will further help to expand opportunities for livelihoods of the communities involved in goatery subsector.

Mahua Being the forest rich district, Mandla is a good source of various NTFPs. Mahua is such an NTFP which forms an integral part of tribal livelihood system. Mahua is collected for both consumption and sale purposes by rural communities and particularly by the tribal. Women are largely involved in collection, processing and sale of Mahua. However, traditional practices are in vogue for collection and processing of Mahua that deteriorate quality of it and thereby fetch low price in market. Moreover, under the subsistence economy, widespread distress sale is prevalent in the district. Mahua is sold by the primary forest produce gathers immediately after collection in small quantities to petty traders at very low rates to fulfill daily household requirements. Lack of storage facilities with the poor household also forces them to sell Mahua immediately after collection. The same primary forest produce gathers, who are the larger consumer of Mahua, buy Mahua again from the traders at more than double rates after rainy season. This has resulted in terms of unfavourable trade conditions and exploitation of the poor households especially the tribal. The sub sector study of Mahua an attempt to give ideas about the availability, extraction methods on sustainable basis and possibility of promoting organized collection, aggregation, processing, storage and marketing of Mahua through SHGs and their federations.

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Vegetable With growing population, changing economic status and food habit of the people, the demand for vegetable is increasing in Mandla. However, the district is not able to fulfill its demand for vegetable from local production and vegetables are supplied from other areas. Only 0.5% of the cultivable area is under vegetable cultivation whereas, the district has all the potential for vegetable production. Vegetables are not only important as a food but it has strong potential of providing employment to the farmers, input suppliers, traders, storage houses, processing industries etc. The pattern of vegetable cultivation by local farmers has not been very systematic and lacks aggregation at farmer level. The present policies of horticulture/agriculture department, formal financial sources are not very favorable at the farmer level to avail the benefits of the schemes and approach for credit requirement. The sub sector study aims to come out with best practices of vegetable cultivation and possibilities of scaling up of the same. It would seek possibilities of aggregation of vegetables at farmer’s level especially at small and marginal farmers through appropriate institutional development like SHGs/FIGs/JLGs and access to higher markets for getting better prices so as to make it means of promoting livelihoods of small and marginal farmers. The study also aims to come out with policy level recommendation in terms of necessary improvements at government policies like making the subsidies available for JLGs/FIGs level than at individual farmer level and availability of credit for farmers through these community based institutions.

Service sector

activities

Electrician With growth of Indian economy, rapid changes are taking place in terms of increasing industrialization, mechanization, urbanization, enhanced income, increasing living standards, growing basic facilities, etc. The transformation of economy has created huge demand for electrician trade for both domestic and industrial purposes in Mandla. However, the supply side is weak and mostly governed by government ITIs which are not able to produce adequate number of trained electricians particularly to fulfill the demand and expectations of industries and other emerging sectors of economy. The service sector study helps to understand supply and demand patterns, skill sets of existing electricians, skill gaps, status of existing vocational training institutions and the courses offered by them, demand i.e. areas of skills training for the youth to acquire this skill and expect good self employment, industry expectations, and direction for skilling youth in electrician trade for promotion of both employment and self-employment in the District.

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Mobile repairing

Information and communication technology in terms of mobile is rapidly spreading in rural and tribal areas of the country. The spread of mobile technology has created ample opportunity for employment and self-employment for youth in both urban and rural areas. In Mandla district headquarters more than 100 shops are in the business of mobile repairing. On an average 8 to 10 mobile repairing shops each year are being opening in the Mandla city and similar trend is also found in other towns of the district. Each shop is providing employment to 3 to 5 youths especially unemployed educated youth. The mobile repairing shops are providing multiple services i. e., mobile repairing, sale of mobile, sim card, memory chip and cover and downloading and uploading software and other programmes, etc. In recent times, mobile repairing has become a major source of employment and self-employment of youth. However, in absence of any formal training facilities on mobile repairing, the youth are getting training informally through trial and error method. Study of this growing service sector will enhance opportunities to increase employability of both rural and urban youth in mobile repairing in the district. Keeping this, Mobile repairing has been shortlisted for detail study and to make recommendations to enhance the skills of the rural youth in the district.

Sampling StrategyTo understand the subsectors in a comprehensive way, the study locations are identified based the following parameters§ Representation of villages from different blocks as well as different social communities§ Representation of least accessible/remote and highly accessible (to market, communication,

support services) § Intensity and prevalence of the subsector activities§ Representation of villages where different players engaged in the subsector activities

(Intervention villages of forest department, horticulture department, NABARD, CSOs etc)§ Representation of forest and non-forest villages § Across the three subsectors 20 villages include tribal and non-tribal villages are visited

and interactions held with the community. Subsector wise study villages made available in Annexure -11.

MethodologySubsector analysis: The subsectors were studied using standard sub-sector analysis methodology as follows:

1. Selection of subsector 2. Introduction to the subsector3. Draw preliminary subsector map4. Specify environment affecting the key players5. Refine subsector map6. Quantify ‘overlays’ of particular interest7. Analysis of dynamics8. Identify sources of leverage9. Explore opportunities for leveraged intervention/ Choosing intervention point

Service sector analysis: The services sector activities are studied by following six important steps

1. Understanding the broad industry/ service sector growth in the given district2. Shortlisting of the service sector activities for study

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3. Assessment of industry requirement (Demand conditions)4. Assessment of availability of skilled human resources (Supply conditions)5. Assessment of enabling environment 6. Drawing conclusions and recommendations

While adopting different approaches for subsector analysis and service sector analysis, the data collection has been done by using the following tools for both subsector and service sector analysis. Table – 2.1: Data collection methodsSubsector analysis Service sector analysis• Focus Group Discussions

• Individual interactions with the progressive people of the subsector (e. g., farmers, best practitioners, etc.)

• Drawing and refinement of subsector map

• Stakeholder consultations, interviews and discussions

• Transect walk to subsector locations ( primary production, processing and packing etc)

• Focus Group Discussions with youth and their parents

• Trainees including girls•Stakeholder consultations with

industrialists, heads of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), private Vocational Training Institutes (VTIs)

•Consultations with the Industries department officials

• Visits to individual enterprises• Employer (Shop owners)

Significant people interviewedWhile studying the subsectors and service sector activities, diversified stakeholders are consulted including community. More than 20 FGDs and consultations were conducted in different villages for the livelihood mapping and subsector and service sector wise significant people interacted are Table – 2.3: Significant people interviewedGoatery Mahua Vegetables§ Veterinary Department

§Animal Husbandry Department§Traders – Small, Medium, Big Traders

§ Transporter§ Farmers§ SHGs§ DDM, NABARD§ Butchers § Meat shop woners

§ DFOs, SDOs, Rangers and Deputy Rangers of East and West Forest Divisions of Mandla.§ Deputy Managing Directors

MPMFP Federation in East and West Forest Division of Mandla

§ Deputy Director and Assistant Director, Agriculture Department§ Secretary and other office

bearers of Krishi Upaj Mandi.§ DDM, NABARD§ Members of Primary Forest

Produce Cooperative Societies. § Members of SHG and SHG

Federations.

§Assistant Director, Horticulture Department Mandla.

§ DDM NABARD.§District Project Manager

MPRAF (Madhya Pradesh Rajya Aajeevika Forum)

§ PRADAN staff.§Mandla District Mandi (Market) traders.

§ Shopkeepers§ SHG members§ KVK § Farm house owners(farmers

who came from Haryana)§ Local farmers.

§Representative, Mandla

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§ CEO, Zilla Panchayat§DPM and Manager – Livelihood, SRLM, Mandla

§ Members of Producer Company§ Processing Unit managers§ Primary Collectors and Liquor

makers§ Kochiyas § Middleman§ Exporter§ Traders § Shopkeepers§ Godown owner§Representatives of NGOs such as PRADAN, Udyogini, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Access Development Services, ASA, etc.

Tribal Farmers Producers Company Ltd.

***

The Goatery Subsector in Mandla District

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Subsector Study Report – 1: Goatery in Mandla 1. Overview of Goat Meat Subsector1.1 Goat rearing and meat status in India and Madhya Pradesh Goat is considered as one of the earliest domesticated animals since beginning of civilization. With over 140 million goats and with slaughter rate slightly over 39%, rural India’s significant population has been thriving by rearing goats and deriving supplementary critical income. Goat has often performed various roles in livelihoods ranging from supplementing income to working as saving and insurance instrument for poor especially women across the country. As per 17th Livestock census, goat population in the country has increased by 1.33% between 1997 and 2003. The increase has also been reflected in growing market trend. According to the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, Delhi, India will need 248 million goats to meet this demand, which is almost double the number of goats in 2007. Export of meat from India has also shown very positive growth in recent past. The goat meat market is set to rise as the middle class is expanding and meat consumption is increasing. Demand for goat meat and mutton will rise to 12.72 million tons in 2020 against 3.8 million tons in 2010. Between 1990 and 2009, India’s production of goat and sheep meat increased by 17.5%, from 0.6 to 0.7 million tons, as compared to the increase in world production by 26%. A 2008 study reports that 33% of the sheep and 38% of the goat population is culled for meat in the country. An FAO estimate suggests that 718,560 MT of goat and sheep meat was produced in the country in 2009, of which two third was goat meat; this constituted 6% of the world’s chevon and mutton production.

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Livestock contribution to agricultural GDP increased from 13.9 to 23.4% during the same period (Rao et al. undated). Recent estimates from the FAO put the output value contribution from the Indian livestock sector to national GDP at about 40.6% of the total contribution from agriculture and allied sectors. As of 2000 the total value of livestock output was estimated at about US$35 million. The per capita meat consumption in India is estimated at 5.5 kg per year, which is about 50% of that recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Table – 3.1: Distribution of Goat/sheep ownership by farm size in India8 S No Farmer category Ownership pattern

of sheep and goats – All over India

Ownership pattern in Madhya Pradesh

1 Large (more than 25 acre) 4.7% 2.0%2 Medium (10 to 25 Acre) 9.7% 11.9%3 Semi medium (upto10

acre)15 % 29.9%

4 Small (up to 2.5 acre) 19.3% 24.6%5 Marginal (upto1.25 Acre) 46.2% 25.7%6 Landless 5.1% 5.9% Several studies indicate that goat keeping and backyard poultry production are inversely related to socio-economic status and are largely the domains of women (Rangnekar 1998). The state of Madhya Pradesh had 10.21 percent cattle, 7.74 percent of buffaloes, 0.89 percent seep, 6.55 percent of goats and 2.65 percent of pig population of the country (17th Livestock Census). Goat population has increased by 25.8% during 1997 to 2003 whereas population of sheep and pig decreased by 16.5 and 9% respectively. Family livelihood in Mandla depends on a basket of activities and most often all of them are on subsistence level. The rural poor household have diversified source of livelihoods with seasonal variations and this has been more of a coping mechanism against inclement weather and skewed

8 Livestock and poverty reduction in India: Findings from the ODI Livelihood Options Project http://mahider.ilri.org

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market development (Very limited direct access to outside market). Goat is reared by largely tribes, Muslims and schedule caste families in Mandla. The average holding of goats has been 1 to 3 indicating most often it has been kept as supplementary income. As per sample based village visits 25 to 40% families has been keeping goats. The determining factor for goat farming has been labour availability (because goat is totally grazing dependent here), nearness to forest and land holding.

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Landscape of a village in Mandla District with high goat population

Various Markets Retail Retail Hyd Bulk Instt Rural Meat Market Urban meat Market meat market Meat market9

5% 2% 70% 23%Stages Of Value Addition

Selling Processing

Transporting Wholesale Trade Local Trade Goat Rearing Veterinary Services,Breed ImprovementServices, Feed Suppliers, InsuranceServices, Credit 2. Pre -Production stage In the goat rearing activity during the pre- production stage is concern about few aspects like (i) profile of people involved in the goat rearing (ii) capacity of the goat rearers (iii) housing for goats (iv) financial services for establishment of goat unit and (v) awareness and availability of quality goat and breeding buck. 2.1 People involved in goat rearing

9 Hotels, restaurants, cantonment which are organized regular buyer has been catogerised as institutional buyer in present study

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F A R M E R S

Govt. Veterinary Services Dept

Feed Manufacturers

Bank/FIs General Insurance Companies

BUTCHERS

Small traders

Semi Bulk Traders

Goat Meat Subsector Map

Nagpur Bulk Traders

The Tribes, STs and Muslims are largely engaged in goat farming in the District. The goat farming as a family choice is determined by following factors in the District –

a) Nearness to Forest or open grazing land, b) Availability of dedicated grazer in the family, and c) Ownership of other livestock like cows, which grazes with goats.

Most often family invests very low amount through purchase of a kid to start goat rearing or gets as gift during marriage. The families engaged in goat rearing are either landless or marginal land holders. However land holding has no adverse relations with goat farming as observed in sample villages. In visited village almost 25 to 40% families own 1 to 3 goats. Number of goat rearing family decreases or increases based on season and disease cycle, as many families have lost goats during rainy season. However within Gond tribe there are certain segments which has social stigma of not to rear goats. There are significant differences of followers of some sects or family level traditions and livestock rearing is strictly decided by those clan or sect following traditions. A close analysis of such traditions has to be part of micro-planning process for goat rearing beneficiary selection. Mostly backyard poultry are reared for household consumption and goats are reared for cash income through sales. A few cases of goats on shared system were observed but it has been between near relatives and close linkages. Goat rearing and gender role division: At the household level, there is no high differentiation of roles in goat management. Cleaning of shed has been performed by women and males and aged women are involved in grazing goats. Marketing of goats are largely done by male but women have access to such haats. However goat trading in haats has been largely performed only by males.

District has two kind of goat producer – Small farmers: The small farmers who purchase 1 to 3 goats with their own investment sales male and female kids on annual basis based on cash need. As goat rearers in the District are engaged in multiple activities for livelihoods (as much as 5 to 7) dedicated time for goat management is almost negligible. There is hardly any cash investment made in business and sale of kids is only targeted receipt. Men or women used to tether or graze goats in open fields and hardly provides any supplementation (not even in rainy season or post kidding). Commercial goat farmers: Of late, a few commercial goat farms of improved goat breeds have come up in Mandla. However there are just 4 to 5 such farms and have combined capacity of

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Figure 1: Profile of goat rearing family in Mandla

less 1000 goats (less than 1% of total population). 2.2 Capacity of the goat rearers It has been observed that goat rearing as a critical supplementary income source has seen a changing pattern of feed and diseases. However knowledge and skills of community has not grown proportionately and have presented a gloomy picture for families involved. It seems traditional system of support has become defunct and government or outside support has not reached till date. There has been hardly any effort to build community capacity on goat farming on technical or institutional front. The major capacity constraint has been observed in following areas –

a) Acute Knowledge and services gap in Vaccination and preventative health care of goats, b) Low focus on Rainy season feed management, c) Absence of Financial services (credit and insurance).

2.3 Goat housing and sanitation management It has been observed that tribal households are generally clean and goat houses are kept sanitized. Most of houses have separate animal sheds and it is on right elevation and with working sunlight management. However a bit modification in terms of ventilation can make it perfect for goat. As area has high temperature variation, provision of bedding shall be critical in winter season. 2.4 Financial servicesThere had been various schemes and projects for tribal and BPL families, however financial services to interacted goat rearers have been very low. Access to credit has been very low (1 out of 20 families interacted in 4 villages) and access to insurance has been nil. Informal credits has also been very limited availability due to high risk involvement in business as goats are prone to seasonal diseases and health care services are almost nonexistent as of now. A focused work on first aid care and preventative practices can only facilitate such trust building between goat farmer and financial institution. 2.5 Awareness on identification of quality goats Goats observed in the area has been invariably found underfed and of low genetic potential due to inbreeding and indiscriminate selection of does and bucks. There has been hardly any community capacity building program on quality goat farming. Even market forces (like high price) have also not favored the same due to low door step price. This has made activity operating at much below level of potentials in the area.

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Clean Goat house by the side of own house

Cross bred Vs Local Male kid

Government has distributed Jamanapari Bucks at a nominal cost to goat farmers in the area; this has resulted in a few cross bred progeny. However there has not been any systematic data available with department about performance of such cross bred. Community perception on such buck induction is fraught with suspicion as survival of inducted bucks had been very low (may be due to low health care). Community recall kids born have been of higher body weight but suitability of this breed to the region is a question in their mind. It has been learnt during study that goats of Dindori and Shadol (a boarder District) are taller and better than Mandla and that may be used for breed up gradation as traders prefer to purchase those goats. 2.6 Constraints at the pre-production stageIn the goat rearing activity the major constraints identified at pre-production state can be classified in following heads – A. Financial constraints –Financial services for goat business have not been coming from formal sources and very low resources have been mobilized from informal sources. Staring from quality doe and buck induction, investment is required for housing and working capital. At community level, critical investment is missing on capacity building, grazing land & fodder development, goat health care services and input management and critical market infra structure development. B. Non financial constraints (knowledge, Skills and attitude for Goat Enterprise) –There has hardly been any investment and serious effort on developing capacity of goat farmers and its collectives for taking goat rearing on scientific and help them for systematic process and access better and profitable markets. Major constraints on this front as identified were –

a) Lack of regular knowledge and information access to goat farmers about improved feeding, breeding and health management ,

b) No innovations on Rainy season feed management ,c) Reduction in grazing land and wrong selection of plants for fodder availability, d) Reduction in high quality fodder plants in backyards, and e) Reduction in breed quality due to high in breeding.

3. During production: 3.1 Subsistence level of goat rearing Vs enterprise management Goat farmers in the district have been a subsistence activity and fits well into their livelihoods basket. At present perceived risk in the business is very high due to absence of input linkages, knowledge and skills on management principles and shrinking resources (grazing lands). Subsistence makes a sense from pro poor perspectives as investments without risk management can be more dangerous to livelihoods security. However growing market and cost of human resources makes it imperative to arrange such services and there is high probability that a section of rural youth will undertake it as an enterprise option at household level.

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3.2 Community awareness on goat rearing and management3.2.1 Vaccination of goats: Community awareness on identification of symptoms of communicable diseases and vaccination schedule has been abysmally low in the area. As on November, 12, Local Veterinary has done most of vaccination (H.S, B.Q, and FMD) which largely pertains to large ruminants but vaccination of ET, CCPP, and Goat Pox has been reported as Nil. PPR vaccination is reported as 400 against a population of over 1 lakh goats. This clearly depicts the state of affairs and indicates status of most critical services. The problem lies on demand side also as adoption of vaccination requires to work both on demand and supply side. This was evident while we had interaction with Tolaram of Katangtola village of Mahgaon block, who had lost 7 goats last year due to PPR and had sold rest 12 goats @ Rs 400 to get whatever sum he could recover. The community is not aware that vaccination is important to prevent the diseases, thus many times the goat are prone for health diseases and that lead to high mortality rate. As per the community the mortality rate among the goat is around 20 to 25 per cent in normal cases and in the case of PPR the mortality might be very high, which was almost loss of total herd for a few families. There is critical lack of vaccines and vaccinator availability on supply side and awareness and adoption of such practices on community demand side. 3.2.2 Feeding practices: The community feed the animals from the waste lands and forest lands especially during summer and winter seasons. As it is difficult to rear the animal in waste lands and forest lands during rainy season, this season has been a most difficult season in the area. There is hardly any exact alternative feed people have adopted on scale apart from feeding some leaves of trees around homes. It has been noticed that goats generally get weak in this area during rainy season and mortality in this season is very high. Existing goat feeding system is 100% dependent on grazing to forest and common lands and supplementation of feed at home or supplementation with salt and minerals is almost nonexistent. Reason of non adoption of supplementary feeding may be because of following reasons- a) Investment is required for stall feeding that

the community is not in a position to invest b) Present market price of goats in the area is

not competitive to the investment made for the stall feeding.

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Due to severe diarrohea and fever last year, lost 7 goats in 3 days and sold 12 goats @ Rs 400, i. e., in the price of chickens there was no help in sight and local medicines did not work

Tolaram, Katangtola, Mohgaon, An Ex Village Sarpanch

c) The community is aware about fodder quality of local fodder but an urge to increase number of quality fodder is almost non-existent.

3.2.3 Disease occurrence among the goatHigh mortality and morbidity has been perceived as greatest risk by the community in Mandla District. As the community is not aware of the name of the different diseases occurring during different seasons, the signs and symptoms were collected and further tried to understand the actual diseases occurring to the goats and the same is depicted in the following table. The constraints in terms of institutional and technical were also furnished in the given table. Annual Goat Disease severity cycle in Mandla Table – 3.2: Major diseases S No

Majorly occurring diseases

Month of high severity

Constraints (Institutional)

Constraints ( Technical)

1 PPR (Viral) Early Rainfall, Winter, Sub acute form throughout the year

Collective vaccine demand is very low

PPR vaccine supply in the District is low (Just 400 PPR vaccines in year 2012 )

2 Bloat (Gas formation)

Winter Absence of village based extension services

Poor feed management condition

3 Enterotoxaemia Early Winter Low feed quality awareness

Post harvest grain availability and open grazing

3.2.4 Access to veterinary services a) Veterinary department: There exist a total number of 12 veterinary hospitals and 34 OLDs in the District and one each in each block and in some blocks more than one. It has been observed that there are just 50% technical staff with District against sanctioned. Focus of department is more on large ruminants and somewhat poultry, but goat improvements or diseases are hardly valued. District Hospital has disease diagnostic labs and basic facilities but block level hospitals are ill equipped. b) Private medicine stores: The veterinary medical shops are rarely exists and the general medicine stores maintain the veterinary medicines in their stores. There is hardly any shop below block level towns and it is access to such medicines is very limited due to absence of proper transport from visited sample villages. The promotion and protection of goat health by utilization of the veterinary services is depends on two main factors they are (i) supply of services (ii) demand of the services. In the supply side the animal husbandry department, veterinary hospitals are the key players and from the demand side the goat rearing community is the key player. Though the veterinary department failed to make available of vaccines for the goats, somehow if demand is strong private players could make available of medicines for treating the diseases. District has acute problems on both sides, on one side goat

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farmers are ignorant about need of vaccination and preventative practices, government as service supplier hardly has any concern for goat farmers and lacks physical and institutional infrastructure to provide it. Such low awareness on community side and ill equipped service status is playing real damage to the development of goat based livelihoods in the district. There is not much difference in the way of rearing the goats across the three different visited areas. Goat producers and mostly their level of understanding on goat production and management have been found similar. Very limited information access coupled with low market value of product is perhaps restraining adoption of improved practices at farmer level. 3.3 Risk mitigationPresent risk management strategy as represented by Tolaram is to sale the goats when disease spreads in nearby villages. However price realized has been a through away price. Against the community projected annual mortality rate i.e. 20 – 25 per cent among the goat, the community has not adopted any risk mitigation methodology like goat insurance. Again in promotion and adoption of risk mitigation practices like “goat insurance” the demand and supply factors are playing a vital role. Lack of awareness among the community on the need and availability of insurance services the community has not made any effort to insure their goats. Similarly the limited community readiness to buy the insurance services, high operating costs to reach the goat farmers made the insurance companies not to enhance reach of their products. It has been found that there is no attractive scheme from the government to motivate the community to bring in to the fold of the insurance ultimately to mitigate the risk. 3.4 Constraints at the production stagea) Fear of disease outspread and high goat mortality has been working against reliability of goats

as enterprise option for families and rural youths.Non Castration of bucks has been a serious loss of body weight gain, meat quality and women friendly handling of goats.

b) Reduction of fodder providing tress and grasses in forest area, availability of fodder is getting reduced, making goat rearing work a more manila and drudgery. The goat rearing activity has been integral part of the livelihood portfolio of BPL families in the District, the limited ability of investment and poor entrepreneurial ability of these sections strongly impacted on the goat rearing subsector to limit as a subsidiary activity rather than independent and potential entrepreneur activity.

c) Low Community awareness and information access - The community awareness on goat rearing and management is very low and the both supply and demand side factors are equally responsible for this. At the demand side the community is not aware of the need of scientific approach in goat rearing, need for utilization of veterinary services to improve the goat health and prevention of diseases. On the supply side the animal husbandry department, veterinary hospitals could not even reach the community with their services due to several reasons. As an ultimate result the primary producers have to take up more risk to take up the activity.

The under attention on supply and demand of services (lacuna at both points) has resulted in under performance of this subsector and have restricted it just as a subsistence and subsidiary livelihoods. The non-existence of risk mitigation services may cause the poorest of the poor sections to further go down economically due to the death of goats.

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4. Post production/ trading level 4.1 The District level Haats and monolopised market At the post-production stage, Mandla has very unique business process and perhaps differs from its nearby districts also. Interestingly local goat meat consumption of Mandla is low. District headquarter has four goat meat shop under one small roof. Their combined daily sale is hardly 10 to 15 goats, which is very low in comparison to other places. There are hardly 1 to 2 block town meat shops, which sales 4 to 5 goats per day. Based on local estimates, hardly 5% goats are consumed locally and majority of goats (70%) goes to outside state to Hyderabad and state capital markets. Most of Mandla goats get collected through small traders located in each block (on around cluster of 50 to 100 villages). Small traders/ Aggregators sale collected goats to bulk traders, which takes live goats to Nagpur and then feed it to Hyderabad market including export houses at Hyderabad. However bulk traders in Mandla are hardly two or three in number and share of a single trader is more than 75%. As per rough estimate, a single bulk trader (main trader) handles 3 to 5 truck loads (500 to 1000 goats) per week and sale them to Nagpur based trader, who takes it to Hyderabad. Such monopoly in goat trading is perhaps a unique trend of Mandla. Present Trader has set up network local aggregators and provides a fair price apart from loan and credits in need to keep them loyal. District level Haat - District level Haat operates once in a week near stadium in Mandla town. It attracts hardly 20 to 40 small traders and some goat farmers. It is auctioned by Nagarpalika through a tendering process. A levy for sale and purchase through this haat has been imposed by person who pays auction amount. However ownership of haat has been retained by same bulk trader since last 5 years. As he has above 75% share of goat traded out, he uses it more of a collection ground and due to his volume and competitive price less than 10% goats are sold to other parties. District level haats have following facilities –

a) Open space and tree shadows to keep animals

b) Central location so transport is easy However there is no drinking water facility and sheds for goats. The haat is no way concerned with providing first aid services to animals in case of illness due to hard climatic conditions like hot summer, heavy rains to cold winds etc. It is also observed that the sheds are not available even for 50 goats in the District level haats and farmers have to transport back goats in case it is not sold. 4.2 Trading of goatTrading of goat at Mandla District is taking place at two levels

a) Trading at District level Haat (estimated 5 to 10%).

b) Trading through cluster based agents (80 to 90%).

133Figure - 2: It is time to mark purchased goats

A Muslim Youth taking goat farm on mini commercial scale

At two levels same kinds of buyers are involved so goat trading in Mandla is highly monopolized. Trading at local haats/ markets: District level bulk trader is the main buyer from this haat however some goats are also purchased by local meat shop and retailers. Local traders: The local traders are basically like two categories (i) Goat rearers, people who want to rear goat at their households come to the haat and buy the goats in very small number like 1 – 2 goats. (ii) The another category is like people who visit the haats and buy the goat to supply to the goat meat shops in town, but this kind of local traders are found in very less in numbers. Bulk traders: It is found that the Bulk traders largely procure through cluster based agents, who collects it door to door from remote villages. Trading to outside markets: The goat from the District is largely meeting demand of Hyderabad market via Nagpur. Bulk trader at Mandla purchase goats from clusters based agents and from Haats and supply it to Nagpur based goat traders, who in turn take it to Hyderabad. So pulling force for the Mandla goat is Hyderabad market, which cater to export market to Middle East and South Asian countries. 4.3 TransportThe transport at seller front has been found a constraint for the growth of the subsector. As places are distant reach of direct goat farmer sale is very low and even local goat farmers has to face quite a difficulty in transporting their goats to District haat. All the sellers bring their goats to the market by bicycle and by auto. The bulk traders in Mandla have own trucks and cluster agents had been found using Tata Magic as a dual purpose vehicle (collects goats in morning and uses as public vehicle in day time). It has been observed that normally goat farmers are paying 10 to 20 Rs per goat as transport charges (equivalent to human travel cost on same route and distance), which seems competitive and any other mechanism may cost more than this. 4.4 Price of the goat:The market price of the goat offered to the goat reares has been found comparatively low. The major buyers are local traders, who try to keep the price low to maximize their profits. Alternative sales channel operational at village level are absent and local traders/ aggregators take advantages of same. As local consumption of goats is low, major channel of sales goes to bulk

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traders for outside market. Traders focus on remote places and gullible sellers to procure goats in fewer prices and enhance their margins while selling to bulk traders, who visit them once a truck load is made available. In the entire subsector across the different players the ‘local Traders takes high margin” but Bulk traders earns quite high due to high transaction.

Table – 3.3: The sharing of product value at different levels is depicted below. Player Role Activity Level Turnove

r CycleAverage Input Cost (A)

Average Processing Cost (B)

Average Revenue(C)

Average Margin

Farmer / rearer

Producer

Buys Goat, grows it and sells it

Beginning Few months to an year (2-3 goats a year)

500 Feeding and management cost - Nil

Selling price -1100 to 1200

700- 800Annual income – 2400

Local Trader/ Aggregators

Buyer, Seller

Buys Goats (door-to-door), stores and sell them to Bulk traders

Intermediary

Fortnightly(sells 50 to 100 goats on average)

Rs 1100 to 1200

Local Transportation - 100

Selling price – 1400 to 1500

100 -300 5000 to 30000 fortnightly

Bulk Traders

Buyer, seller

Buys goats, Transports to Nagpur to bigger trader

Intermediary

Weekly (500 to 1000 goats)

Buying goat – Rs 1500

Transportation – Rs 200Police – Rs 20Maintenance - 80

Selling price- 1900

100 Rs 50000 to 100000 weekly

4.5 Estimating the value of the goatThe primary producers have been found in failing the determining the real value (actual market value) for their product/goat. This is because of few important reasons As the goat producers do not have exposure to markets and trends in goat market they are not able to fix the price of the goat. The primary producers are not able to calculate actual costs they have incurred in terms of their time, interest on the principle amount, transport costs incurred to bring the product to the market etc.

a) Limited or lack of information on the market price of the goat being offered in local as well as other nearest haats.

b) Lack of access to required infrastructure like weighing machines to fix the market price on the basis of weight parameter.

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4.6 Constraints at post production/ trading level

a) Absence of competition at trading level and monopolized market has been a symptomatic problem with Mandla goat sub sector

b) Quality of goats has not attracted outside goat traders and a local trader has developed a monopolized market as sales of goats feed to Hyderabad market and local consumption is less.

c) Price assessment is based on meat weight and not live body weight, such estimation works only in favour of traders and simple and uninformed goat farmers perceives deceived.

d) Nonexistence of support services like weighing machines, no information on market prices, demand trends also making the community less confident to determine better price for the goats.

e) Lack of community based institutional structures for aggregation and collective marketing of goats is also key factor for inactiveness among the community either to demand the support services from the government and also to fix better price during sale of goat.

5. Institutional Support mechanismsAlthough tribes had social infrastructure like combined grazing years back but that has crippled down due to social fragmentation and family division. Grazing of 1 to 3 goats is neither economical nor feasible. In the absence of scale goat grazer from families are highly underutilized and hence goat rearing has shown declining trend. 5.1 InfrastructureIn the case of goat rearing activity the infrastructures like collection place, local haats and transport are essential to prevent the risk and also to realize better price for the goat. In spite of goat’s high contribution as critical livelihoods source for BPL families, it has never attracted attention for infrastructure by District planned and implementing agencies. Common goat housing at village level/ panchayat level was never found even the areas where the goat population is high. 5.2 Technology Transfer and capacity buildingThe following are the few institutions for assisting the community in transfer of technology/knowledge and also to build the capacities of the community. Animal Husbandry Department – Department is mandated to provide health care services for goats and provide vaccinations and medicine linkages. It has been also assigned to carry out breed up gradation and services like castration and hoof cutting to goats. However service accessibility and acceptability both is serious problem. Department has only launched a scheme for induction of breeding buck (just 6 to 7 months age) in nominal price. This scheme is also questionable in terms of survival of breeding bucks and impact on ground. Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Program (MPRLP) – Now taking responsibility of implementing National Rural Livelihoods Mission, MPRLP in last years has supported over 600 families to acquire goats as assets. MPRLP has provided a basic training to potential goat farmer and provided funds to goat purchase. However health care and financial services like insurance have been relied on department and mainstreams, which has not worked in present pro poor context.

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Non Government Organizations (NGOs) – There are many good NGOs like PRADAN, Udyogini, FES and ASA working on livelihoods issues in the District. However none of them has worked seriously on goat based livelihoods issues. 5.3 Constraints in institutional supportThe institutions like Animal Husbandry and MPRLP is working with the very less number of households and with more focus on asset building or centralized services, thus poor families due to absence of safety net is not able to participate and take advantages. Besides, scale is too low to benefit a significant number of families. The efforts has not been done to bring the goat rearing households on to one platform to facilitate learning to introduce technology and required changes in the subsector. 6. Recommendations The goat rearing activity as a whole as a subsidiary livelihood option for the poorest of the poor and marginalized sections has been struggling with various constraints at all the stages of subsector include pre-production, during production and post-production stages. Understand the issues closely through the study, the following recommendations made for strengthening the whole goat rearing subsector and further to promote as viable livelihood option to fetch considerable household income at the household level. 6.1 Institionalise collective grazing mechanism at Village level Present individual grazing of 1 to 3 goats by aged women or men is restricting further investment and growth of goat rearing at household level. It shall be imperative to set a system of collective grazing at village level through SHGs and traditional institutions. 6.2 Door step preventative health services through Pashu sakhies and Community Livestock Managers Goat rearing being a critical livelihood activity for poor but having high health risks requires low cost door step first aid services and enhanced access to knowledge and skills. Present study finds that there is absolute lack of such services especially to poor and women goat farmers. Unless an assured and reliable women friendly health and extension services are not established, any investment in goats may be subjected to high risk and can expose goat farmers to indebtness. It is recommended that a village based women led health and extension service model on line of Livestock Nurse (Pashu Sakhi) as propagated by Goat Trust (www.goattrust.org) or Bakari Mitra as propagated by BAIF should be taken on scale in the area. The community needs to be thoroughly sensitized on to find the goat rearing as an entrepreneur activity to arrange better share of the household income. Though the attitude of finding the goat is an ATM (Any Time Money) many times causes limited return on the goat. But an entrepreneur never sells his/her product to fewer prices than its actual value. Therefore building the entrepreneur abilities is vital to bring more professionalism in to the subsector. 6.3 Credit services To assist the community to rear the goats as per their fullest capacity, one of the key constraints found is lack of credit facility. Efforts need to be made to assist the community in accessing the

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credit services on a sustainable basis from the formal financial institutions. As the SHG promotion is getting momentum in the District with the involvement of various players like SRLM, Bank, etc., that opportunity can be effectively utilized for assisting the community to broaden the scope of the goat rearing activity. The unit cost required for assisting an individual household is worked out by having a series of consultations with the community as well as other stakeholders involved in the subsector. The proposed unit is to assist the household with three female goat’s age of one year old. To reduce the risk, vaccination, deworming and insurance services are also integrated in the proposed unit. Table – 3.4: Proposed financial product to assist one householdS No

Particulars Units Cost estimated in Rs.

1 Female goats (1year old) 3 6000.002 Vaccination 2 times 30.003 Insurance 5% on goat cost 300.004 Deworming Two service 20.005 Total unit cost 6350.00 The unit can yield a total amount of Rs.19462 in 24 months as net income.

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Table – 3.5: Projected household economics of goat farming in Mandla Estimated Household Economics of 3 improved goats in 24 Months at MandlaA. Fixed cost For Meat goats Remarks Unit cost No of

unitsCost

A1. Cost of goat 2000 3 6000 A2. Transport 50 3 150 A3. Feeding manger 300 1 300 Total A 6450 B. Recurring cost B1. Feeding cost of adult goats @ 0.5 kg per day at 12 Rs/Kg - Grains for 75 days per kidding

6 675 4050 3 kidding in 24 months

B2. Feeding cost of kids - 0.25 gram for 100 days

3 1500 4500 9 kidding, 15 kids & 100 days

B3. Breeding cost 50 9 450 B4. Health care & Insurance cost 200 6 1200 B5. Grazing charges 450 6 2700 B6. Minerals and supplements 50 6 300 Total B 13200 C. Other costs C1. Interest on capital @ 12% 1548 C2. Depreciation of Fixed cost @10%

1290

Total C 2838 Gross payments (B+C) 16038 D. Receipts D1. Sale of 6 Month old kids (assuming 3 kidding in 24 months) and 1.5 kids as on average per kidding

12 2500 30000

D2. Sale of less than 6 month old kids

3 1500 4500

D3. Sale of milk D4. Sale of manure 1000 Gross Receipts 35500 Net profit in 24 Months 19462 By keeping the poorest of the poor and ultra-poor households in mind the above financial product was developed and two units of support (6 Goats) i.e. Rs. 12700/- can be offered to the households who demonstrate better interest and adoption of best practices in rearing the goats. Housing and feeding manger cost may be mobilized under NREGA. 6.4. Education and training on advocated practicesTo address the knowledge gap of the community in goat rearing and management there has to be developed a systematic mechanism. The key gaps at different levels include-

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a) Live body weight basis goat price determination b) Identification of quality goatc) Preventive health cared) Feeding practicese) Animal health management f) Breeding practices

One of the critical processes that need to be undertaken with goat farmers is a creation of continuous learning and discussion platform. Looking into traditional strength of tribal culture and rich natural resources, a Shepherd’s School (Bakari Paalak Pathshaala) on the principle of collective learning and discussions and experimentation based learning can be facilitated (The Goat Trust –www.goattrust.org has successfully implemented it with 5 partners in Bundelkhand). To address further gaps to develop a cadre of local service provider to the goat rearing community the Pashu Sakhi (www.goattrust.org) model can be adopted. An investment on training tools and materials appropriate to context shall be critical. Competitions amongst goat farmers for improved quality goats and adoption of improved practices should be critical element of approach. 6.5 Role of women in goat trading and marketing Women have been working as producer and their participation in trading has been almost negligible. However women have been seen to participate in haats and taking goat to the nearest market. It has high chance that participation of women in value chain shall help in better access and enhanced participation of women in the business. A focused program around this issue shall be critical and can build both women participation, capacity and make business more profitable due to competitiveness. 6.6. Community based institutional modelDue to lack of community based institutional model the community many times become passive in procurement of goat, in access of services and in fixing better market price for their goat. To address all these issues and to build community’s confidence in managing the subsector the three tier institutional structure may be a feasible and viable structure for promoting the goat rearing activity as a potential livelihood option for the targeted poorest of the poor and marginalized sections.

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Table – 3.6: Community based institutional model Institutional tier

Size/ scope/ Features Expected roles

Self Help Group / Goat Rearers Group (GRG)

Women will be the members of SHGWomen from different SHGs of one village involved or willing to take up goat rearing will only come in to the group fold. Must be from one village and preferably from the nearest living location.

To facilitate Savings and internal lending activityLeverage financial services from the formal financial institutionsPlatform to share and learn from each other specific to goat rearing activity. To help the members in determining the price of the goat before go to the market by using the service made available by the cluster federation.

Cluster level SHG federation

The cluster federation will be promoted for every 5 to 6 villages All the members of the SHGs will be the general body of the cluster federationThe cluster federation will continue like an unregistered body. The executive body will be formed with the 4 – 5 member (one from one SHG) representation from each village.

To support the SHGs in terms of effective management of financial and goat rearing related activities.To assist SHGs in getting link with the banks for credit services. To establish simple infrastructure like weighing machines in each of the village to help the member to estimate actual value of the goat. Conducting village level awareness programmes on best practices. Explore the possibilities for aggregation and bulk salesTo act like a bridge between the SHGs and the block level federation To delivery veterinary services through veterinary nurse system

Block level federation

The block level federation will be on the top of all the cluster federations in the blockThe executive body will be formed from one representative from each cluster federation. Will be a registered entity, can be a producers company/ cooperative federation.

Assist SHGs and Cluster federations in educating the communities on best practices in goat rearing. To workout and initiate ‘community based insurance service’ for risk mitigation. To explore better markets and thrive for enhance the price of the produce To train the Veterinary nurses with the support of the external resource agencies.To coordinate with the haat care takers to ensure better services for the goat sellers. To support the SHG members at the Haats to get better prices. To establish linkages with different stakeholders to realize the training and resources for enhancing the production ability of the members

Strengths of the institutional structure: The proposed institutional structure has been viewed from different dimensions while proposing. The strengths of the proposed community institutional structure are Primarily bringing the women in to SHG fold will help to be in mainstream model which is widely accepted in the country. Being there in the SHG fold the women members will have better opportunity

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to access the credit services from the formal financial services and also have opportunity to leverage the funding support from the BRLP. The cluster federation as a middle level structure takes care of adoption of best practices by the SHGs in terms of both financial and goat rearing activities. Unless this kind of monitoring and mentoring support SHGs cannot run on their own in the initial stages. The key gaps identified in the goat rearing subsector will be carefully addressed by this institutional structure. For example on initiation of the ‘veterinary nurse’ services the mortality among goat will be reduced. Similarly establishment of weighing machines will help the women members to estimate the correct value of their goat. The top institutional structure being a registered entity, coupled with large representation of goat rearers can liaison with various government agencies to leverage schemes to benefit their members. Bringing large number of goat rearers on to a common plat form will give a lead to develop a community insurance model to bring out goat insurance services for goat at affordable price.

***

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The Mahua Flower Subsector in Mandla District

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Subsector Study Report – 2: Mahua in Mandla

1. Overview of Mahua flower (Madhuka Longifolia)

Among different minor forest produces, Mahua flower, commonly known as Mahua, has socio-economic and cultural significance in the life of tribal communities. Mahua collection is taken up by all the sections of rural society. Mahua forms an integral part of tribal livelihood system. It is collected for both self-consumption and sale purposes. It has significant contribution in ensuring livelihood security of the poor households especially the tribals. It has also been used as food supplement by the tribal families and thus contributes significantly in ensuring food security in tribal regions. Keeping the importance of Mahua in tribal economy, during silvi-cultural fallings, Mahua along with other fruit trees are carefully preserved in the natural forests. Mahua is a multi-purposive tree which is used for several purposes like food, edible oil, wood, fodder, liquor making, etc. The sugary flower Mahua (70% sugar content) has been traditionally used as cereal substitute, especially in cereal scarcity months of late summer to early autumn. However, Mahua is largely used for making country liquor. Some tribal households also use Mahua as cattle feed. The oil from its seed is eaten by the tribals and is also used for lighting lamps for worshiping God Shiva. Mahua tree (Madhuca Indica) is native to the Indian subcontinent and grows on rocky and sandy soil in deciduous forests. It is a tropical tree found largely in the central and north Indian plains and forests. It is a fast-growing tree that grows to approximately 20 meters in height, possesses evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage, and belongs to the family Sapotaceae. It is adapted to arid environments, being a prominent tree in tropical mixed deciduous forests in India in the states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Orissa. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa account around 80% Mahua trees in the country. As per various estimates, the undivided Madhya Pradesh state had 3 to 5 million trees of Mahua. The various parts of Mahua plant – such as leaf, oil, fruit, bark, and flower have various medicinal uses. To mention a few leaf is used for wound healing, oil for skin disease and piles, fruit as anti ulcer, bark for anti snake poisoning, flower for as refrigerant and sweet syrup. 1.1.Mahua in Mandla DistrictMandla District is located in central India and forms a sizable market for Mahua in Madhya Pradesh but is able to meet only around 50 per cent of its demand from local production. The rest of the demand is met from places like Shahdol and Anuppur, which fulfils about 20 per cent of the demand, and another 30 per cent is met by Katni, Umariya and Chandri, Bagbahara of Shivani, Bilaspur, Raipur, etc. Within Mandla, the Shahpura - Niwas region provides the maximum quantity (almost 30 per cent of the total demand in Mandla). Mandla contributes to Mahua trading at the national level and is a trade centre for Chhattisgarh as well. The market for Mahua stretches up to states like Uttar

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Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and the demand and price fluctuations are determined by the production and availability of Mahua in all of these states. Due to high demand compared to supply of Mahua in the rural areas and large scale distress sale prevalent in the District in the collection season, primary forest produce gatherer sell Mahua to traders and in the off season they buy Mahua again from the same traders. The two way trade of Mahua has severe implications on the livelihoods of the rural communities especially the tribal and poor forest dwellers. 2. Mahua flower – The subsector

The tribal people rely on the flowers of Mahua which contributes significant income to their family income. It is largely used for making country liquor which is consumed by the tribal communities both male and female during every ceremony festivals, marriages funerals, feasts, etc., and also they offer it to their gods and deities (Gazetteer, Mandla). The Mahua flowers are in dense fascicles near ends of branches, many in number and small in size with yellowish-white colour. The musky-scented flowers appear from March to April. The ingredients of Mahua flower include moisture (18.6%), Protein (4.4%), Fat (0.5%) and Sugar (72.9%), Ash (2.7%), Fibre (1.7%) and others such as Phosphorus, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron and Copper. Mahua is not an intoxicant in itself. It becomes liquor only when it is fermented and other materials are added. Second it is a rich source of sugar and protein. Current uses of this product in various parts of the country are a) Food in raw and cooked form, b) Conversion to alcoholic beverage and c) Cattle feed (Panda et al, 2010). Mahua tree has special significance for tribal and other rural households in Mandla District for its flower which are collected at large scale for consumption and sale purpose. Major quantity of flowers is used in the preparation of the distilled liquors. Products of MahuaMahua drink, Mahua dry fruit and Mahua cake The major processes involved in Mahua subsector are – The major processes involved in Mahua subsector are its collection, primary processing e.g., drying and cleaning and storage at community level, sale of mahua in market by the primary forest produce gathers, storage and resale of mahua by traders to rural communities and final processing in terms of making country liquor by the communities for consumption purposes. The major processes involved in Mahua subsector are discussed under 1) production sub-system, 2) collection sub-system, 3) processing sub-system, and 4) marketing sub-system in details.

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Subsector map of Mahua flower

3.The production sub system

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3.1 Ownership rights for Mahua collectionMahua trees are found in forests, revenue, and private land and more in the latter two. The farmers with higher land size have more Mahua trees. The land owner has absolute ownership of the trees grown in private land. In relation to the Mahua trees grown in forest and community lands, the tribal families which found the tree first claim ownership right on the tree. The early settlers had rights to specific Mahua trees occurring near the village in revenue and forestlands. These rights are only for harvesting flowers but not for fruits and have been practised for generations. When father divides the property among his sons, he also divides Mahua tree between them but keeps some for himself till the end as it becomes an easy source of income. In absence of sons, harvesting rights passes to daughters when they get married (RCDC). The other households accept their claims on the tree and do not collect Mahua from that tree. Under such traditional ownership right arrangement every household has access to some Mahua trees in the community lands and close by forest areas. The households mark the trees to show their ownership. The Mahua trees located in far off forest areas are free to be ventured into, depending on the collectors’ capacity. Recently, the Forest Department has taken initiative to allocate these trees to members of joint forest management committees (JFMCs) for Mahua collection who extend support to forest officials in management of forests. This gives a sense of ownership among the primary collector and help in protecting the tree from any kind of damages. 3.2 Production of MahuaMahua is a medium – sized to large deciduous tree begins flowering and fruiting after the age of 10 years and continues to do so for about 100 years. Mahua trees bloom between March and May, or at least this is their peak season. The flowers mature in about 32 – 35 days. The flowers do not remain on the tree for long, they bloom at night and fall to the forest floor at dawn. The flowering is not uniform and it shows a temporal sequence of floral induction, starting from the top portion to the lower branches and also from more illuminated part to the shaded part of the tree. In both the cases, a gap of about 10 – 15 days occurs in flowering. According to an estimate made by Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, a average Mahua tree yields about one quintal of flower annually. The productivity of Mahua ranges at 10 quintals at 10 years age to 140 quintals at 60 years age. There are three distinct and marked phases of flower dropping which are named as Shuru, Bharwari and Kanwa. • Shuru – this lasts for 5-6 days. During this period, flowers that are collected possess a shrunken

appearance. On drying, flowers collected during the phase yield 25% by weight of total collected produce.

• Bharwari – this stage follows shuru period, and lasts around a week. The qualities of flowers that drop during this period are highest, with yields going up to 50% post drying. They possess a bold and succulent appearance.

• Kanwa – last stage of flower dropping, they indicate end of collection period. The flowers of this stage bear resemblance to that of flowers at initial stage in appearance as well as in yield (Panda, et al, 2010).

However, every year is not a good flowering and fruiting year. According to the villagers, one to two good crops may be expected every three years. An otherwise promising crop is sometimes destroyed by hailstorm before the flower are developed.

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3.3 Constraints at production stagea) Depletion of resources - With increasing population and industrialization, the natural

resource base is depleting day by day. This trend is also affecting the Mahua trees. Though, plantation of Mahua trees under JFM programme is being promoted by the Forest Department. This has been done at few places at very limited scale which need to be scaled up in entire District.

b) Climate change - Increasing risk in Mahua production due to climate change, as the incidents of frost, low rainfall and hail storm are increasing day by day which are causing low production of Mahua.

c) Destructive harvesting practices – The harvesting practices for collection of Mahua seed followed by the rural communities are traditional one passing on from generation to generation.

• Forest fire - One major issue related to Mahua flower collection is the use of fire. Some collectors burn the forest floor under Mahua trees to facilitate flower collection. This practice burnt seeds and seedling available under the tree. Also, sometimes it causes forest fires which destroy natural flora and fauna. In Tatri forest areas, Forest Department has allocated forest trees to individual families for collection of Mahua so that they take care of the tree. Also, Forest Department is promoting uses of net for Mahua collection which save collection time, ensure quality and quantity of Mahua and avoid uses of fire for burning leaves under the Mahua tree. These practices have significantly controlled events of forest fire and need to be scaled up in the entire District.

• Damages to Mahua tree - While collection of Mahua seed, villager many a time cut branches of tree which severely affects production of both Mahua flower and seeds. In addition, they do not leave fruits on the tree that affects regeneration of Mahua species in the area.

4. The collection sub system

4.1.Involvement of rural communityDuring Mahua flowering season of March to May, most of the rural households do not have too much of agriculture work in the fields. The winter crops are harvested and there remains time to start preparing for the fields for Kharif season. This largely remains lean season for a large number of families who don’t have enough land or don’t grow winter crops at all as large portion (over 90%) of Mandla District is rainfed area and thus single crop is taken by farmers. Mahua crop is eagerly awaited by the tribal, forest dwellers and poor. In Mandla District, all sections of rural communities’ viz. tribes, forest dwellers and non-tribals are involved in Mahua collection in the District due to its contribution to cash generation during lean season. The household that possess larger Mahua trees rent out some of them to other households for collection of Mahua on a sharing basis. The households with higher number of working members collect Mahua from the private land of big farmers on half - sharing basis. Before the Mahua collection season start, the households burn off the grasses and clearing up the area under trees, so that the Mahua can be spotted clearly and doesn’t get spoilt because of moisture retention in the foliage. The tribal households, which do not have sufficient trees on their private land or revenue land and have capacity to collect Mahua generally identify tree in remote forest areas and clean the land under tree to collect Mahua. The other family members generally avoid collecting

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Mahua from such trees. However, there always remains competition among rural communities for collection of more and more Mahua from the forest areas. The competition to get the best trees in the forest areas is so strong, that people leave for the forest much before dusk or even stay over the nights in the forest, to be able to collect the best and the most. Mahua starts falling anywhere between 2-3 o’clock in the morning and the sooner it is collected the better the quality. It is said that Mahua is easier to pick when it is freshly fallen than later in the day when the leaves wither off. Also, it becomes necessary to go to the forests early in the morning to compete with the domestic animals that are let off at dusk and would graze off all of the Mahua, it being a delicacy and source of nutrient for the animals. All adults and even children go to collect Mahua leaving behind old. However, it was pointed during discussion with rural communities that women’s involvement in Mahua collection is higher than men. Women involve more in collection of Mahua from trees situated on private and community lands as Mahua collection from these trees remain free from any competition owing to sole ownership of the landowner. 4.2.Collection processesThe trend generally is that Mahua is first collected from own land and then from revenue and forest land respectively. Mahua is collected manually from the ground under the tree. The Mahua collectors use bamboo baskets for collection of Mahua. One adult is said to collect about 2 baskets full of fresh Mahua, making it to around 4 kg dry Mahua (Udyogini, 2003). This is a time consuming process and is difficult to collect entire Mahua from the ground. The fresh Mahua flower falls on the ground at the height of 20 to 70 feet. Around half part of it gets crushed due to collision with ground and which filled up with soil, sand, sticks and other impurities. This portion, later on, becomes blackish on drying and thus deteriorates the quality of Mahua flower. In order to ensure quality of the Mahua flower, the Forest Department is promoting uses of net for collection of Mahua. The uses of net for Mahua collection not only save time of Mahua collection but also ensure quality of Mahua flower which is used for consumption purposes and thus fetch higher prices in market. Also, uses of net protect Mahua flower from domestic and wild animals. However, this experiment is done on a limited scale and need to be expanded. 4.3.Mahua collection The collection of Mahua by rural households varies from region to region and household to household depending upon availability of Mahua trees on private and revenue land and of collectors with households. The households which have more trees on their own private land obviously collect more Mahua. While there are forest areas such as Niwas, Bichhiya, Bamnih, etc., wherein Mahua trees are found in abundance and thus the collection level of Mahua is higher compared to other regions. Table – 4.1: Source of Mahua flowerS No Mahua collection Percent1 Private land 40 to 50 %

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2 Community land 20 – 25%3 Forest land 30 – 35%

Out of total Mahua, around 40 to 50% is collected from private land, 30 to 35% is collected from forest areas and 20 to 25% Mahua is collected from community land. 4.4.Constraints at collection stage

a. Damages by animals - During flooring season, the fragrance of Mahua flower spreads in the atmosphere and attracts domestic and wild animals. The animals both domestic and wild eat fresh Mahua which falls mainly in forest areas and where villagers reach late for Mahua collection.

b. Unsustainable harvesting practices – Mahua flower falls on ground from height of 20 to 70 feet and therefore, a significant portion of it gets damaged through hitting the ground. This on the one hand spoils Mahua flower and deteriorates quality of Mahua flower on the other.

c. Concentration with large farmers – A large number of Mahua trees, which gives better yield in terms of flower and seed, are in private land. Hence, concentration of large number of quality Mahua trees is with large farmers.

d. Less remunerative activity - Although a large number of people are engaged in Mahua collection, in reality it is not a very remunerative activity and therefore, involves women and children more in Mahua.

5. The processing sub system

5.1 Primary processing (drying and cleaning)The major processing activity involved in Mahua sub sector at community level is drying, cleaning and storage. After collection of Mahua, it is dried up in sun light for 3- 4 days to make it suitable for storage or sale in market. Collection and drying of Mahua takes place together and hence each day Mahua is dried up separately. Sometimes, post monsoon rainfall and cloudy weather during collection season affect drying activity and in absence of proper sun drying Mahua turns black and become prone to insect infestation attack. The Mahua is brought home and spread for sun drying on the roof top of the house or open area inside house or any other safe open place which is prepared by spreading cow dung and allowing it to dry off to disinfect the ground. Drying in open space generally includes impurities in terms of soil, sand, sticks, leaves, etc., in Mahau. Sometimes mats are used for drying Mahua. After sun drying, Mahua is kept in bamboo baskets for shade drying for some time before it is stored. The moisture loss after drying the Mahua reduces the weight by upto 65 to 70% (Udyogini, 2003). Women play key role in primary processing of Mahua at household levels. The entire processing mechanisms that are being followed by the people is still the traditional methods that are being adopted from the ancestors. The generations are following the same techniques that are coming from a long time. 5.2. Storage

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Storage of Mahua takes place at various levels. The storage processes determine the quality of Mahua and thus form part of processing activity. After sun drying, Mahua is kept in bamboo baskets for some time so as to maintain its colour. Generally, storage of Mahua is done in traditional way using earthen pots and Bamboo baskets (Doli), etc., which can store Mahua for three – four months safely. In general, alike other agriculture produces storage of Mahua at household level is also done by women. The rural households do not have any separate facility for storage Mahua except the few large farmers who are involved in collection, storage and marketing Mahua. Mahua, which is a major source of cash for tribal families particularly in lean season, is stored by the households for different period of time depending upon holding capacity of individual household. Many a times, the villagers have to sell Mahua immediately on whatever selling rate they get on account of lack of storage facilities. Moreover, storage of Mahua is also supposed to be a very tricky affair, especially during the monsoon months, when there is a possibility of the stock absorbing moisture and hence getting totally spoilt. Mahua is also prone to insect infestation, and has to be stored on raised platforms. Due to various risks involved in storage of Mahua most people find it profitable to sell off the Mahua during the collection season. At village and haat-bazar level, Kuchias store Mahua in cotton or plastic bags in temporary storage facilities available with them. The small and big traders, many of them have storage facilities in terms of godown, stock. They stock Mahua as per their holding capacity and rest supply to commission agents or industries directly in bulk. There is no cold storage available in Mandla District. The big traders store their Mahua in cold storages located in nearby Jabalpur city. The cold storage owner charges @ Rs. 75/- per quintal for storage of Mahua in one season of six months from May to October. Madhya Pradesh Minor Forest Produce (Trade and Development) Cooperative Federation Ltd under its initiative of procurement of Mahua from primary collector on minimum support price is developing facilities in terms of godown for Mahua storage at range level in the District with financial support from Forest Department and TRIFED. Also, old godowns of forest department constructed for storage of NTFPs are being used for storage of Mahua in forest ranges where new godowns have not been constructed so far. The SHGs and primary cooperative societies have been provided container of steel for storage of Mahua. However, most of the containers have not been distributed to SHGs and are still with the forest department.

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5.3. Brewing 5.3.1. Making country liquor Large scale brewing bhattis are not licensed in Madhya Pradesh state and therefore small scale brewing at household level is very popular. Preparation of Mahua liquor is very common among the tribal and is prepared in every second tribal house of Mandla District. It has great importance in social life of tribal and works as bonding agent among different tribal communities. In every function, they join together to drink beverage. Mahua is daily consumed by the tribals. Women and children are also fond of this beverage. However they consume in small quantity particularly during ceremonies or festivals. Mahua distilled beverages are prepared from dried flower bud (corollas). The liquor is collected in pot, white, in tube (nala) method, a tube is connected to the pot in which liquor comes out by the help of tube and stored in pot or cane. The dried corollas are kept in pot and some water is added. The pot is closed by the air tight cloth and kept for 4-6 days or till it starts odour or smelling then the pot is kept on chullah (stove for distillation). On this pot, another pot is placed and above this another pot is placed in which the cold water is filled. The junctions of these, pots are tied tightly by air tight cloth. The vapour passed through the middle pot strikes the bottom of the upper pot in which is the cold water is kept. The vapour cools and droplets collect in the middle pot. In closed system, in middle pot (Paina) a small pot called dokli is placed in which the liquor is collected. Country liquor of one year old Mahua gives good flavor and hence generally people prefer to use one year old Mahua for liquor making so as to get quality country liquor which fetches good market value. In Mandla District, tribal women are also involved in the process of liquor making. 5.3.2. Business of liquor makingMany of the tribal and non-tribal families do not have skills of liquor making from Mahua and therefore remain dependent on others for supply of liquor. This has led many tribal households to adopt liquor making as an income generation activity. Around 10% tribal households in Mandla are reported to be involved in country liquor making for sale and own consumption as well.

Box - 1: Economics of country liquor business, December, 2012

1 kg Mahua → 500 gm pure liquor + 2.5 litre water → Total volume of country for sale

Rs 32/- Rs. 90/-

The tribal households, which are involved in business of making country liquor, consume part of liquor and sell out rest part which is further used for purchasing Mahua for liquor making.

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1.4.Consumption of Mahua at household levelThe tribal households that are involved in Mahua collection are major consumer of Mahua. Mahua flower is used for making country liquor. It is also used as food with other grains and cattle feed. The rural households keep certain part around 25 - 40% of their total collection for self-consumption and cattle feed. Though the consumption of Mahua of rural household is high but they had to sell Mahua in collection season to fulfill requirement of cash for managing household livelihood. In the off season, the same tribal households again purchase Mahua from the traders whom they sell Mahua in collection season. 1.5.Constraints at processing stage There are many constraints associated at processing level in Mahua subsector. The major are-

a) Lack of processing and storage facilities – Mahua is a commodity whose production mahua takes place for few weeks while it is consumed round the year. Therefore, storage of Mahua plays critical role in the value chain. Storage facilities for mahua at household and village levels are lacking. As a result most of the rural communities especially the tribals can not store Mahua for longer period due to risk of damage. There is no facility available at community level where major processing of Mahua takes place. In addition, despite being a major trade centre of Mahua, there is no cold storage available for storage of Mahua in Mandla. The big traders store Mahua in cold storages in Jabalpur which enhance storage cost through transportation.

b) Lack of skill on processing and storage – There is lack of know-how on advanced processes of storage among the rural communities especially the tribals. Application of traditional processes includes impurities in Mahua which deteriorate quality of Mahua and fetch low price in market. Rural communities are not aware about adequate techniques of Mahua processing. Collectors are often unable to grade their produce properly and mix all grades together. This further lowers the price they get. Another major issue in case of Mahua flowers is their storage. Drying and proper storage of flowers requires considerable skill. The quality of improperly stored flowers deteriorates rapidly. Due to their inability to store flowers properly, many collectors resort to distress selling. If they are able to hold on to their stock for a few months, they can get a much better price in the off-season.

c) Lack of brewing units – Madhya Pradesh Government does not provide license for Mahua brewing industries in the state and therefore, the rural communities especially the tribals are the only involved in brewing of Mahua liquor.

5. The marketing sub system

NTFP trade is reportedly one of the most difficult area to understand. The trading of NTFPs by the private traders has been in existence for a long time and their supremacy continued till the nationalization of NTFPs. The NTFPs like Tendu leaves, Sal seed, Harra, Gum of grade – I and II (kullu, dhawda, khair and babool) and Lac, which are available in abundance and are important for sustenance of rural population especially of tribal, are nationalized by the State in order to provide fair prices to the primary collectors of minor forest produce, conserve the forest resources and increase state revenue from forests. Apart from five nationalized NTFPs items, other NTFPs, which are very large in numbers and their distribution and availability vary with respect to space and time, are

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left for trade in open market. As a result, different trade process and supply channels have evolved for different NTFP items in the State. These trade channels have also been changing with change in external conditions such as change in government policies towards NTFPs, changing market demands, development of herbal industries, etc. The trade of non nationalized NTFPs is done in open market. Though the products are very traditional, still a very clear business channel is not followed in NTFP trade. Over a period of time, a vast network of a variety of traders i. e., petty traders (Kuchias), small traders, big traders, wholesalers, commission agents, etc., has evolved and spread in small villages to city centers for trading of NTFPs. 5.4.Trade of Mahua in open marketIn general, the poor forest produce gatherers sell Mahua to Kuchias and/or grocery shoppers after drying on daily or weekly basis in order to maintain cash flow for managing household livelihoods in the lean season. Kuchias are located in cluster of 4-5 villages wherein they operate the trade of Mahua and other NTFPs. In collection seasons, Kuchias regularly visit the villages for buying Mahua from the villagers. They buy Mahua from villagers especially from women at doorstep in cash or in exchange of some goods mostly salt. Also, many of the Kuchias have their own shops wherein they sell various grocery products as well as buy Mahua and other NTFPs from the villagers. They buy produces of villagers in cash and or in exchange of their products. The primary forest produce gatherers gradually sell small quantity of Mahua as their collection takes place at household level to meet immediate requirements of the household. In remote tribal areas, where markets are located at distance places and lacking adequate approach road and transport facilities, villager sell their whole collection to Kuchias. Moreover, there are weekly Haats (market) which take place at cluster of every 5 to 10 villages. People especially women from nearby villages come to sell Mahua and purchase other essential goods in these weekly Haats. Kuchias also open their shops at the entry gate of the market to buy Mahua and other NTFPs. No specific parameter is used to evaluate the quality and decide the purchase rates of Mahua. They decide the purchase rate of Mahua by evaluating the quality by colour and moisture level on the basis of their long experience of Mahua trading. Usually, more price is given for better quality Mahua.

In addition, the big traders, who operate from block and District centres, place their agents at cluster of 4-5 villages or Haat-Bazar levels for buying more and more Mahua from villagers at lowest possible rates. The big traders through their agent extend advance credit between Rs. 1000 to 5000/- to tribal households in need before the Mahua season on conditions that the tribal household will return his money with interest (60%) through sale of Mahua. Through this practice, they fix their Mahua sellers and a tentative quantity of Mahua, which they want to procure, in advance. On the other hand, in subsistence tribal economy of District, the villagers do not have access to formal financial institutions. Usually, they depend on money lenders for credit who usually charge very high interest. The agents are easy source of credit for them. This practice compel the primary forest gatherers to sell their Mahua immediately after collection at abysmally low rates Rs. 8 to 10/- per kg and thus led to exploitation of poor tribal households.

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In many cases, collectors do not get even these rates as they are exploited by the local traders who use a barter system rather than cash payment and rarely use proper measurements. For example, payment is sometimes made in salt, which is a much cheaper commodity. Collectors are often unable to grade their produce properly and mix all grades together. This further lowers the price they get. However, it is not necessary that this trade channel is followed in all cases. Sometimes the small traders and even Kuchias sell Mahua to commission agents directly depending upon vicinity of big market, connectivity, and desire to earn more profits. This trend is observed increasing with advent of mobile phone and increasing rural connectivity through roads and transport. In addition, the large farmers do not sell Mahua in collection season. They store Mahua and sell it directly to rural communities in off season when the market rate of Mahua remain high (Box – 2).

Box - 2: Case of Rajaram Uaike, Tatri

Rajaram Uaike of Tatri village of Bamnih block has a family of nine members involving his mother, wife, two sons and four daughters. His wife is housewife and sons and daughter are doing their schooling. He has 7 acre of land, two bulls, two cows and three goats. All the members of the household help him agriculture and animal husbandry. Rajaram has around 40 trees of different size in his private land. The entire family members involve in Mahua collection during flooring season. He collect Mahua and stored it after drying. He sells Mahua flower to other villagers in off season when the market rates are high. He earns over Rs. 50,000/- from Mahua sale every year.

Seeing the profit from Mahua collection, storage and sale, Rajaram Uaike has planted 50 more Mahua trees in his private land. While discussion, he pointed that my income is more from Mahua production, collection and sale than cereals crops. He is also planning to prepare nets for collection of Mahua from his trees so that he can save Mahua collection time and ensure quality of Mahua. His ender daughter Rajkumari was attending a skill building programme on tailoring organized by Forest Department for encourage manufacturing Mahua collection nets in local areas.

5.5.Mahua trade through Government MandiThere are three grain Mandis in Mandla District located at Mandla, Nainpur and Bichhiya wherein trade of Mahua also take place along with other commodities. Many of the traders who trade grain are also involved in trade of Mahua and other NTFPs. Currently around 20 traders in Mandla grain Mandi are involved in trade of Mahua. Bulk trade of Mahua also takes place in Mandi premises. However auction process through Mandi is not followed. The petty and small traders and commission agents sell Mahua to big traders directly without auction and registering it in Mandi office in order to escape from Mandi tax and sale tax. Despite being a major trade centre of Mahua in central India, negligible legal trade of Mahua takes place in main Mandi of Mandla (Table – 4.2). Table – 4.2: Trade of Mahua flower and seed from Mandi of Mandla10

S No Mahua product 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-131 Mahua flower (Quintal) 0 100 262 1400 02 Mahua seed (Quintal) 1522 2141 591 2825 1125

10 Source – Mandi office, Mandla

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The traders feel that government tax on Mahua is very high that it has led to illegal trade of Mahua. An estimated 4 lakh quintals Mahua is traded annually in Mandla District out of which only 5 to 10% is traded legally particularly when it is supplied outside the District. This is because on such occasions transport permit is required from the Forest Department for the same. Earlier Mandi of Mandla was main trade center for Mahua with outside District / state. Traders of Nainpur and Bichhiya Mandis used to sell their Mahua to Big traders of Mandla city. However with increasing road connectivity of different parts of the District with outer areas and spread of transport and communication facilities, the traders of these small Mandis supply their Mahua outside directly on demand without following the traditional trade channel. In case of higher market rates of Mahua in outside markets, the traders of Mandla, who store Mahua at large scale, supply it outside District in order to get benefit. Only an estimated 5% of total Mahua traded in Mandla goes out of District as the internal demand within Mandla District itself remains high. A reverse trend also occurs in trade of Mahua when market rates go high in other states. 5.6.Procurement of Mahua by MFP FederationKeeping in the importance of Mahua in tribal livelihoods security and ensuring minimum price to the primary collectors, the Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh has taken decision to procure Mahua flower through its three tier cooperative structure in 22 forest divisions of the state where Mahua collection take place a large scale. The MFP extends credit to primary cooperative societies through concerned District Unions for purchasing of Mahua from the primary collector on minimum support price. Mahua is procured by primary cooperative societies through SHGs from primary collectors. The Federation has been promoting a total of 1100 SHGs (500 SHGs in West Mandla forest division and 600 SHGs in East Mandla forest division) for procurement of Mahua from the primary collectors at village level. 22 primary cooperative societies of West Mandla forest division and 12 primary cooperative societies of East Mandla forest division have been involved in procurement of Mahua from the primary collectors through SHGs. However, the implementation process of SHG formation is very slow owing to reluctance of forest officials towards SHG formation and lack of coordination among forest officials and staff of the Federation. As a result, most of the Mahua procured by the Federation is being done by primary cooperative societies themselves rather than SHGs. Procured Mahua is stored in godown constructed by Forest Department at forest range levels. This is sold by the District Unions to traders through auction in off season mostly in the month of October every year. Out of total profit of Mahua trade, 60% is extended to primary collectors, 10% to SHGs as commission, 5% is kept with District union as reserve fund and rest 5% is provided to forest officials as patronage bonus after deducting all the expenses. 5.7.Procurement of Mahua by SHGSome of the NGOs like Udyogini, which is involved in promoting entrepreneurial activities for women, promoted 127 Women’s Enterprise Group similar to SHGs of 1500 women in 50 villages of Narayanganj Block of Mandla District. These SHGs were involved in procuring, storing and trading Mahua. The SHGs have been linked with banks for facilitating credit. The SHGs buy Mahua from the villagers through the credit taken from bank and saving of the SHG. In addition, credit was extended to SHGs by Udyogini as revolving fund for trading of Mahua. The SHGs were federated at cluster

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levels and provided business development services by Udyogini. 5.8.Supply of Mahua from other areasDespite abundant availability of Mahua trees in forest and non-forest areas of Mandla District Mahua was told to be less in abundance and had to be purchased from outside, even to meet the local demand in the area. A broad estimate given by the traders in main Mandi of Mandla averaged around 4 lakh quintal of demand compared to a supply of around 2 lakh quintal from within the District. The trade channels are many. Due to high consumption of Mahua, Mandla has become a central point for Mahua trade. Mahua is brought in markets of Mandla District in large quantity from surrounding Districts like Shadol, Umaria, Shivni, Anuppur, Satna, Rewa, Chhattarpur, etc., of Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur, Raipur, Raigarh, Janchgir-Champa, etc., of Chhattisgarh state. 5.9.Reverse trade of MahuaDue to lack of holding capacity among primary forest produce gatherers and storage facilities at household levels, most of the rural households sell their Mahua during collection season. On the contrary, the same primary forest produce gatherers are the largest consumer of Mahua in the District. Generally, after monsoon season, reverse trade of Mahua start in the District. The big traders and stockists start selling Mahua and release it in small quantity as per the demand of market so as to get maximum benefit from Mahua trading. The small traders buy Mahua from big traders and take the stock to local haat-bazars wherein they sell Mahua to petty traders in bulk. The petty traders sell this Mahua in retail at village levels through opening their own shops. Grocery shops are situated in all the market and their number vary according to the size of market viz. small to big. These grocery shops are multi-purposive used for purchase and resale of Mahua. The villagers come to local market to sell their agriculture produce and other items and buy back Mahua from the petty traders at almost two to three times higher rate at which they sell Mahua to the same traders in collection season. Many a times, Mahua is bought by villagers in exchange of food grains through barter. Here again, the petty traders and grocery shoppers do lowest possible valuation of commodities of the villagers bartered for Mahua. The rates are charged as per the quality of Mahua. Some of the small traders, who have their own loading vehicles, buy Mahua from the stockiest directly. Similarly, the petty traders, who operate in vicinity of big traders, buy Mahua directly from them. However, such cases are very limited as the big traders and stockiest prefer to sell Mahua in bulk. 5.10. Trade processes and pricing of MahuaThe price mechanism of Mahua in open market is very dynamic depending on various factors and the dominant factors are collection/supply and demand of Mahua in market. As Mahua value chain is both supply driven and demand driven. The traders of all levels remain in touch and cooperate with each other gauging the supply and demand of Mahua. Based on this analysis, trader’s especially big

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traders decide price of Mahua in such as way that they could ripe maximum benefits. Thereafter, they pass the message to commission agents, small and petty traders. The small and petty traders try to purchase Mahua from the primary MFP collectors on lowest possible rates using various tactics so that they could also gain maximum benefits from Mahua trade. The petty traders, who come at the weekly Haat, have an informal meeting and fix purchase rate of Mahua. They do not increase their rates and therefore, villagers have to sell their products to these traders on low rates. These trends are in vogue in interior areas where markets are not well developed and limited numbers of traders are present. Also, price of Mahua varies spatially and temporally within the year depending upon its demand and supply and quality. As Mahua is an important component of nourishment of rural communities so, during the collection season rural people sell (@Rs. 12 to 15 per kg) almost all their collection to the traders in need of cash to fulfill household requirement. After 5-6 months particularly in festival seasons they again buy Mahua from the traders and that is on more than double price (@ Rs. 35 to 40 per kg). The traders store Mahua and other MFPs in cold-store and godowns and resell to the villagers again. This adversely affects the household economy.

Supply chain of Mahua Rs. 18 – 20/- Rs. 30 – 32/-

Rs. 15 – 17/- Rs. 34 – 35/-

Rs. 12 – 15/- Rs. 36 – 38/-

Rs. 8 – 10/- Rs. 40 – 45/-

Temporal and spatial fluctuation in prices of Mahua is reported in the District. The prices of Mahua fluctuate from Rs. 8 to 45 with respect of time in one year. In addition, in particular season, the

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Box - 3: Exploitative practices in Mahua trade

The primary collectors are subject to various forms of exploitation by virtue of their weak bargaining position in the trading process. Most of the traders especially big traders operating give out loans/advances to primary collectors in needs. This is one area of exploitation where the primary collectors haves to sale their Mahua to the traders immediate after collection and often on low price without any bargaining. There also exists exploitation in measures by the petty traders. Barter Sale is in vogue in interior areas. Barter brings in consumables in to the household rather than money. It is often found that barter Sale leads to greater exploitation in terms of price of the produce. However the control of women on the income is more in case of barter.

District/Mandi level

Block level

Haat – Bazar level

Village level

Primary forest produce gatherers

Col

lect

ion

seas

onA

fter rainy season

market rate of Mahua also fluctuate at Rs. 8 to 16 from region to region depending upon production of Mahua in the region and availability of traders in market. The primary collectors get lowest prices in the remote tribal areas where market facilities are not adequately developed and very few numbers of petty traders operate and monopolistic market conditions functions. 5.11. Minimum support price by MPMFP Federation Keeping in the trade volume of Mahua in the state and importance of it in ensuring livelihood security of rural communities especially the tribal, the MFP Federation has started procuring Mahua from primary forest produce gathers and declaring minimum purchase price of Mahua every year. The initiative of MFP Federation of declaring minimum purchase rates of Mahua has been successful in providing minimum price to primary forest produce gatherers in areas where cooperative societies purchase Mahua from the collectors. However, the prices of Mahua are highly fluctuating. By the time the Federation takes decision on purchase price of Mahua and extend credit to primary cooperative societies, most quantity of Mahua is already purchased by the traders. The primary collectors sell Mahua to primary cooperative societies till the rate of Mahua in market remains low. As the Federation declares minimum price of Mahua, the traders start buying Mahua on higher rates and as a result people do not sell Mahua to primary cooperative societies. 5.12. Constraints at marketing stage The major constraints associated at trading level are as follows-

a) Large scale distress sale – In subsistence economy, the tribal communities do not have sufficient cash to manage household livelihood and therefore, large scale distress sale is prevalent in the District. The big traders often make advance payment to the collectors through their agents placed at cluster or haat-bazar lavels and subsequently take their produce at an abysmally low rate of Rs 8 -10 per kg.

b) Lack of market facility development – In the tribal areas adequate market facilities are not developed and therefore, rural communities largely sell their produce to Kuchiya at exorbitantly low rates owing to lack of access to bigger markets.

c) Strong nexus of Mahua traders – The traders from small to big are connected to each other through Mahua trade. Due to the strong nexus among traders, very low rates for Mahua are given to rural communities during collection season and at the same time Mahua is sold at high rate to same rural community during the off season. The rates of same Mahua varies from two to three times in one trade cycle. In many cases, collectors do not get even these rates as they are exploited by the local traders who use a barter system rather than cash payment and rarely use proper measurements. Payment is sometimes made in salt, which is a much cheaper commodity.

d) Failures of Mandi system – As it was seen that the traders operating in grain Mandis are also major traders of Mahua and the trade is done in the premise of Mandi without auction. The nexus of traders and Mandi officials has led to illegal trade of Mahua in the District.

e) Lack of market intelligence among tribal – In the rural areas, mostly women are involved in Mahua sale, who does not have market intelligence due to lack of education. The rural communities do not have information about the real market value of their produce and therefore, the traders exploit them.

f) Limited outreach of interventions of Forest Department and NGOs – MFP Federation, MPRLP and some NGOs like Udyogini have made intervention for organising collection, processing, trading, etc., of Mahua in the District. However, this initiative is at its nascent stage. Many of the primary cooperative societies have poor financial condition for buying

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Mahua. The revolving fund provided by MFP Federation reaches to primary cooperative societies very late by the time major portion of Mahua is purchased by traders. Also, MFP federation declares price of Mahua once in a year while the market rates of Mahua are highly fluctuating. The primary cooperative societies can buy Mahua from the market till the market rates of Mahua are lower than the rates decided by MFP Federation. As the Federation declare purchase rate of Mahua, local traders start buying Mahua by increasing purchase rate by one or two rupees and purchase major portion of Mahua from the market.

6. Contribution of Mahua in household economy

The dependency of villagers on NTFP income can be estimated in both absolute monetary terms as well as relative terms. However, both are difficult to calculate. Various authors pointed out that there are practical difficulties in calculating the total income of a common villager, with varied economic activities and livelihood sources. The calculation of the dependency in absolute monetary terms is made difficult by domestic consumption of NTFPs, large number of small unrecorded sale as in case of Mahua flower and seed and also due to a large proportion of barter exchanges prevalent in the remote tribal areas. However, efforts were made to calculate sale value of Mahua through interaction with key members including women of some sample households. The contribution of Mahua in household economy varied from region to region and household to household at 5 to 25% depending upon factors like availability of Mahua trees on private, common and forest lands and number of household members involved in Mahua collection as well.

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Box – 4-3: Contribution of Mahua in household economy of Usha Bai

The livelihood portfolio of Usha Bai of Samaya village in Niwas block was found highly diversified involving 12 activities pursued by the household for managing livelihood. The annual contribution of Mahua flower and seed in household economy was reported 15% and 2.31% respectively. Table – 4.3: Livelihood portfolio of Usha Bai

S No Livelihood activities

Production (kg/litre/wage rate)

Rate Income Percent Remark

1 Mahua 500 13 6500 15.01% Partly consumed2 Gulli (Tori) 50 20 1000 2.31% Self-consumption 3 Paddy 1000 9 9000 20.79% Self-consumption 4 Kodo-Kutki 200 7 1400 3.23% Self-consumption 5 Rai 100 20 2000 4.62% Partly consumed6 Maize 200 10 2000 4.62% Self-consumption 7 Matar 70 10 700 1.62% Partly consumed8 Dairy 240 15 3600 8.31% Self-consumption 9 Goatery 2 2000 4000 9.24% 10 Poultry 4 150 600 1.39% Partly consumed11 Labour 50 70 3500 8.08% 12 Migration 60 150 9000 20.79% Total 43300 100.00%

7. Interventions for promoting Mahua subsector

8.1. Initiative of Forest departmentForest Department is sole custodian of forests in the state. Along with protection of forest resources, the department is involved in plantation activities under JFM and other programmes. The department has taken initiatives for plantation of Mahua trees with Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) in forest areas for enhancing production of Mahua flower and seed so as to promote livelihoods of primary forest produce gathers. 8.1.1. Plantation of Mahua treeKeeping in the demand for Mahua flower and dependency of rural communities on Mahua for livelihood and consumption in Mandla District, the Forest Department has taken initiative for promoting plantation of Mahua trees in forest areas with the support of JFMCs so that production of Mahua can be increased. In addition, rural communities are also planting Mahua trees in their private lands for increasing production of Mahua as it is found in the case of Rajaram Uaike in Tatri village.

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8.1.2. Treatment of Mahua treeFor increasing productivity of Mahua flower and seed, State Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur has taken initiative of treatment of Mahua trees in Mandla District. Under the treatment process, a trench of ½ feet depth is dug up around the tree. A solution of chemical fertilizers viz. 250 gm Sodium nitrate, 250 gm Potassium chloride and 250 gm murate of potash is prepared in 20 liters water and sprayed in the trench. Thereafter, 15 to 20 liters more water is pulled in the trench. The trench is further filled up with 20 kg vermin composts and 8 to 10 liter water. Later on, as per the availability of water, the tree is further watered one to two times after 2-3 days. This treatment enhancement productivity of Mahua flower and seeds are two to three times higher. Under this initiative, many trees have been treated in Mandla District and Forest Department is encouraging rural communities for treatment of Mahua trees. 1.2.Initiative of MFP Federation and TRIFEDMFP Federation is involved in trade and development of NTFPs especially nationalized in the state. Keeping the importance of Mahua in ensuring livelihood and food security and exploitation of primary collectors by middlemen, the Federation has taken initiative for promoting organized collection, processing and trade of Mahua in the state. a) Organised collection and storage of Mahua through advanced practices Two years back, the Federation has prepared a project in association with TRIFED for promotion of organized collection and sale of Mahua in order to check exploitation of primary collector by middlemen. For procurement of Mahua at village level, SHGs have been formed involving the primary collector especially women in tribal area. The SHGs procure Mahua from the primary collectors at the rate decided by MFP Federation with the support of primary forest produce cooperative society. The Federation through primary forest produce cooperative society extents credit to SHGs @ 5% interest rate for Mahua procurement which is stored in godown constructed at forest range level after drying. This stored Mahua is sold to traders by the Forest Department in off season through auction. The benefits of Mahua trade is redistributed to the primary Mahua collector. The Federation has been providing the SHGs with net for collection of Mahua flower during flooring season and steel box and plastic sheets for storage of Mahua at local levels. b) Minimum support price for Mahua In order to protect the primary forest produce gatherers from the exploitation of middlemen, the Federation has started declaring minimum support price for Mahua flower. This initiative has been successful to large extent in ensuring minimum price of Mahua particularly in the areas wherein primary forest produce cooperative societies have started procurement of Mahua flower from the primary collectors and the rural communities are aware of the minimum support price provided by the Federation. c) Awareness and capacity building on non-destructive harvesting practices The Federation is organizing awareness and training programmes on non-destructive harvesting practices for the rural and tribal communities for protecting the Mahua trees. Along with awareness generation, capacity is also being built of primary forest produce gatherers in non-destructive harvesting techniques. d) Infrastructure development

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Under the TRIFED supported project, for safe storage of Mahua procured through SHGs, the Federation has been involved in constructing mini- godown at range level for storage of Mahua. In addition, concrete platform is also being constructed with each godown for drying of Mahua. 1.3.Initiative of State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Jabalpur on demonstration on and transfer

of technology of treatment of Mahua tree for productivity enhancementIn order to enhance productivity of Mahua flower and seed, SFRI, Jabalpur has taken initiative for treatment of Mahua trees by using fertilizers and chemicals through advanced technological approach in the District. The Mahua trees are provided chemical and bio fertilizers through digging up trench around the tree. After treatment, two – three irrigations are provided to the Mahua tree. The treatment of Mahua increases two – three times productivity of Mahua tree. Under this initiative, SFRI provided training to forest officials and rural communities on treatment processes of Mahua tree. Based on results of Mahua tree treatment and the training inputs provided, Forest Department is promoting treatment of Mahua trees with the support of rural communities in the District. 1.4.Initiative of UdyoginiUdyogini, an NGO working in entrepreneurship development among rural and tribal women, has taken initiative for procuring and storage of Mahua through women SHGs in the District. SHGs and their federation was promoted and provided revolving fund for buying Mahua from primary forest produce gathers. Udyogini provides trainings and technical support to the women SHGs towards business development. The steps in the business development trainings at SHG level are as follows:

a) Enterprise Motivation and management awareness for grass root women: these are mainly awareness trainings towards business development.

b) Creation of enterprise motivator: the person who is willing to initiate enterprise would be provided training over a period of minimum 1 year.

c) Enterprise Promotion and incentives for producer and market player:d) Ownership development and scale up through institutionalizatione) Expansion and Outreach

In Mahua trading, Udyogini have promoted three tier systems towards establishing market linkages. At village level – SHGs or Women Enterprise Groups (WEGs) members deal with Mahua trading. These WEG members purchase Mahua from village level harvester and sold it at Village Level Service Centre (VLSC) – the second tier. The third and upper most tier is Federation at Market villages. The structure at village level SHGs have been formed towards collective &/or individual level Mahua purchasing. The SHG in the village (each village has minimum two SHGs towards Mahua trading, based on the size of village number of SHG may differ. The maximum SHGs in the village are around four SHGs). The SHGs are linked with the bank under SGSY scheme, based on the SGSY criteria. The loan has been equally distributed among the members towards Mahua purchasing. The SHG members purchase Mahua at village from the community. Mahua collection is from the individual land as well as from forest land. The market rate of Mahua has been communicated to these members through Udyogini’s village level worker on weekly basis. Based on the market rate the SHG members purchase Mahua at village level. The purchase rate depends on the negotiating power of the particular member. Normally, the rate given is Rs. 2 – 3 which is less than the market rate at village level. The SHG member gets incentive of Rs. 20 per quintal to sell the Mahua at Village Level Service Center (VLSC). The Mahua purchase and production data was not available at VLSC level. However, the

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current records, when gone through indicate that on an average each SHG member sell 3 kilogram per week at VLSC. The VLSC is a village level trading center operated by one woman member of SHG, who has shown the interest towards enterprise establishment. She purchases other NTFP including Mahua as well as the other agriculture produce of the village. She purchases the products from the SHG members as well as other villagers. At the same time to cater the need of villagers, she also operates the grocery shop at the village, which would help cater the daily need of community. To operate she gets Rs. 5,000 as working capital from the federation, which is the minimum amount that is received. Depending on the trading at VLSC level the amount differs. The VLSC member gets Rs. 5 per quintal incentive towards selling the Mahua at Federation level collected from SHG members. If the VLSC member purchase Mahua from the other villagers and sold it to the federation then she receives the incentives of Rs. 20 per quintal. At VLSC level records have been maintained providing the details such as Name of person, produce, quantity, unit rate and amount given. If the SHG member sold the mahua at VLSC the name of the person has been written in the records. Federation or Business Growth Center: This is the upper level tier in the marketing channel towards trading of produce including Mahua. The dry Mahua is graded at this stage depending on the quality. Properly stored and based on the market rate it is sold in the market to gain profit. Mahua needs to be stored till winter season to get the maximum profit. 1.5.Initiative of Access Development Services under MPRLPAccess Development Services, an NGO, through support from MPRLP promoted a producer company of primary forest produce gathers for promoting aggregation, processing, storage and collective marketing of NTFPs especially Mahua in Bichhiya block of Mandla District with the support of Access Development Support. For formation of Producer Company, 48 SHGs of 550 primary collectors were formed in 35 villages of the block. The producer company was extended Rs. 1865,000/- for procurement and business of Mahua flower. 8. Suggestions

Mahua has a special status among NTFPs as its flowers are used to brew country liquor. Naturally fallen flowers are collected in large numbers during the season (generally March to May). However, the primary collectors sell most of their collection at very cheaper rate during collection season owing to distress sale and buy again the same Mahua at very high rate in the off season. This practice adversely affects the household economy of the rural households especially the tribal households. An area that need urgent attention in Mahua subsector are increasing holding capacity of primary collectors, scaling up non-destructive harvesting practices, increasing production and productivity of Mahua, organizing trade of Mahua, developing infrastructure and facilities for storage and trade of Mahua increasing holding capacity of primary collectors, and value addition and product diversification. Although the bulk of Mahua is used for making liquor, it can be processed into several other products such as candies, squashes, pickles, and vinegar. It is also a good cow-feed. There has been little effort in this direction.

9.1. ProductionAs pointed out by the villagers, forest officials and traders during study that there is a declining trend in the availability of Mahua due to destructive harvesting practices, excessive exploitation and changing climatic conditions. Therefore, in order to ensure regular supply as well as achieve economy

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of scale production and availability of Mahua need to be increased through following strategies- a) Conservation and protection of forest and forest resources from fire, illicit falling and

encroachment. This can be done through allotment of trees to individual households, use of net for Mahua collection, etc.

b) Plantation of Mahua tree should be promoted in forest areas and community lands based on sound ecological models under The National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board (NAEB) and any other initiative from Government. Producer groups of forest dwellers to be formed and involved in plantation, protection, production and collection and trade of Mahua as it has been experimented under MPRLP. Expanding the JFM base at the production level should be the top priority of the state. In addition, capacities of the members of JFMCs should be built in production, protection, non-destructive harvesting practices, promotion of SHGs at village level for aggregation of Mahua, primary and secondary level processing, etc. In the same manner, production, supply and trade of Mahua can be increased if serious steps are taken on these lines.

a) Agro-forestry activities should be promoted with horti-agri, silvi-agri, agri-horti-pasture model to domesticate Mahua in farmer’s field as has been done by Rajaram Uaike in Tatri village. Producers groups of farmers to be formed and they are encouraged to cultivate Mahua as has been done by Tolaram Uaike of Tatri village.

b) For promoting plantation and production of Mahua, the nurseries should be encouraged for preparing sapling of Mahua. Buy-back arrangements for seeds and sapling need to be developed by nurseries at Forest Range level.

c) Promote treatment of existing Mahua trees for enhancing productivity of flower and seeding both. Similar initiative has been taken up by SFRI, Jabalpur in Mandla District. The farmers should be extended partial support for treatment of Mahua trees as per their financial conditions.

8.2.Pro-active collection initiative

a) Large scale distress sale prevalent in the District and especially in case of poor forest dwellers. They sell their produces in small quantities to petty traders either at door step and village grocery shop or in local weekly haats through barter or cash due to lack of holding capacity and storage facility. Lack of aggregation caused absence of bargaining capacity among and access to higher markets that has led to low income and often exploitation of them by the petty traders. Thus, there is need to promote aggregation of Mahua gathered by the primary collectors that would not only increase bargaining capacity of the primary collectors, increase their access to bigger markets but also form base for enterprise promotion for processing.

b) In order to promote aggregation and collective action, SHGs already functional at village level or new SHGs of primary collectors should be formed and engaged in procurement, aggregation and processing of Mahua. SHGs are to be provided with revolving fund for procuring Mahua at village level as it has been done by MFP Federation and Udyogini. These SHGs can be further federated into SHG federation and/or Producer Company for trading and processing of Mahua and other NTFPs as well as has been experimented by Access Development Services under MPRLP in Mandla District.

8.3.Processing

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It was found that primary processing like drying, cleaning, etc., of Mahua is done on kuchcha floor and open ground that deteriorate the quality of Mahua. As a result, the benefit level of primary collectors is very low compared to other stakeholders of supply chains.

a) In every village, concrete platform should be constructed which could be used by the rural primary forest produce gatherers for primary level processing such as cleaning, drying, grading, deseeding, deshelling, etc of raw NTFPs especially Mahua. Similar kind of concrete platforms have been constructed by Chhattisgarh Minor Forest Produce (T & D) Cooperative Federation Ltd in villages of Bastar region for drying, cleaning and grading of NRFPs at village levels.

b) Small storage centre should be constructed and handed over to village level SHGs for storage of raw and semi-processed Mahua. Godown should be constructed in every Forest Range as has been done by MFP Federation with support from TRIFED.

c) Small scale industries for preparing by-products of Mahua such as vinegar, candy, jam-jelly, etc., can be established at Block levels under public-private-community partnership. Such enterprises can be promoted first at the home-scale level with an overall investment of INR 1 million in total, say, at the level of JFMCs which can even process raw materials from adjacent JFMCs, sharing an appropriate pre-determined share of profit in the form of patronage bonus with them. For the higher-level scale, as there is a new plan of increasing the level of investment on plant and machinery from INR 0.5 Million to 1 Million in micro enterprises, a federation kind of structure registered as a Producer Company can be promoted involving the SHGs.

8.4.Promotion of organised trading Keeping the importance of Mahua in ensuring livelihood security in tribal areas and large scale exploitation of primary collectors through traders, various agencies like MFP Federation, MPRLP, NGOs, etc., have taken initiative which need to further scale up so as to check exploitation of rural communities and ensure their livelihood security.

a) Existing SHGs formed under SGSY, Tejaswini and other projects should be involved in procurement and trade of Mahua. In addition, new SHG of primary forest produce gatherers to be formed and engaged in Mahua trade.

b) As mentioned above, the SHGs to be federated at cluster level in SHG federation and Producer Company to be promoted at Block level involving these cluster level federations of SHGs. The producer company should be involved in trade of Mahua – i) procurement of Mahua from the primary collectors of the concerned Block and ii) procurement of Mahua from the nearby Districts directly for fulfilling the local demand of Mahua in the District.

Flow Diagram – 3: Model for accelerating Mahua based livelihoods

d) e) f) g) h) i) j) k)

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STATE LEVELMFP Federation

Task Force

Project design and implementation,Resource generation through convergence of schemes of central & state government, By product development, brand building and promotion,Tie ups with industries, research, training and financial institutions both Banks & MFIs

Consumer

l) m) n)

o) p)

q)

r) s) t) u) v) w)

8.5.Formalised Credit LinkagesAs discussed above that due to lack of saving habit among the tribal, they do not have holding capacity of Mahua and other NTFPs and therefore, sell them immediately after collection. Moreover, credit is a major issue in rural and especially in tribal areas on account of absence of formal banking sector. On the contrary, for promoting NTFPs based livelihood activities access of rural and tribal communities to credit is critical. It is in this context that multi-pronged strategies are required to develop saving habits among the tribal, make them creditworthy and ensure their access to credit. That would include-a) Formation and engagement of more and more SHGs in NTFP activities. Promotion of saving and

credit activities among the group members and their linkages with Banks.b) SHGs working at all levels should be provided revolving funds between Rs. 50,000 to 1,00,000

as working capital for collection, production and processing activities by MFP Federation with government support. This fund should be routed through SHG federation/Producer Company that

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Producer Company at Block level

FOREST DIVISION

Executive

FOREST CIRCLE

SHG for production and collection of Mahua

Planning & execution of project at Forest Circle level,

Facilitate business of raw & processed NTFPS

Facilitation, coordination, and monitoring of activities of SHG and producer company,

Training & Capacity Building

Local Market

Facilitation, coordination, quality control & monitoring the activities of group enterprises on organized production, collection & processing

Ensure regular supply of NTFPs especially Mahua

Market linkages with local market, big traders, agents, industries,

Regional Market

Big Traders&

Commission Agents

Brew and cattle feed Industries

Wholesale Market

Primary cooperative society, JFMC and Gram panchayat

SHG formationInfrastructure development

Plantation & conservation of forests

Bank linkages

Flow

of m

arke

t inf

orm

atio

n, r

esou

rces

, ski

ll s a

nd te

chno

logy

Flow of raw

, semi processed and finished products

SHG Federation at cluster level

would facilitate and monitor the activities of SHGs under its control. c) For further credit needs, tie ups can be done with Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) like BASIX

and others which would not only provide credit and insurance to the group members but would also help them strengthening their activities. SHG federation and Producer Company working at cluster and Block levels respectively can facilitate and monitor credit supply to SHGs.

8.6.Integration with MarketHorizontal integration increases the negotiating power of the poor, but vertical integration may facilitate establishment of specialized niche-market value chains. As we saw that major share of trade of non-nationalized NTFPs including Mahua takes place in open market which is controlled by traders. The rural communities are associated with unorganized and small market and therefore, do not get appropriate rates of their produces. With promotion of aggregation, storage and access of primary collectors to bigger markets is critical to provide them fair prices for their produces. a) Group marketing to be promoted through SHG federation/producer company that enables rural

producers to integrate several marketing strategies and to command higher prices along the commodity chain if the quality of the product is guaranteed. Furthermore, group marketing provides the opportunity for economies of scale in transport and for better bargaining power to obtain higher product sale prices.

b) For marketing of these products in local markets, rural marketing is done and also the network of retail outlets promoted by MFP Federation to be used for retail sale.

c) Tie-ups with big traders, commission agents and food processing industries are promoted for bulk sale.

d) The rural communities are lacking adequate market information about Mahua therefore, in order to provide the market information to the village communities, display boards should be created at Gram Panchayat level where all the information of market rates of Mahua and other NTFPs in different market should be displayed. In addition, services of Information and Communication Technologies under e-governance system could be used for speedy sharing market information of NTFPs.

e) As far as marketing of finished products of Mahua is concerned, it would be better to make sales through distributors as city and town level besides looking for some institutional buyers like departmental stores viz. Sanjeevni, Aaporti, Pridarshini which because of being state-focused and hence dealing at a scale lower than those of Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh, could be a better marketing partner. It would also give these enterprises an opportunity to concentrate on processing as their core area in place of indulging in a different game-plan of marketing.

8.7. Product diversificationCountry liquor making is major activity done around Mahua. Also, there is scope the prepare many other products from Mahua like Vinegar, Mahua kismis, dry Mahua, powder, Mahua Jam, Chikki, Laddu, bread, toast, etc. There is need to promote product diversification of Mahua in the District. 8.8.Research and Development for promoting sub-sectorA developed NTFP trade and processing regime with greater community participation could be an important vehicle of prosperity for rural communities living in and around forest areas. Research and development are needed for optimization of production of these goods and services, measurement of goods and services delivered, economic valuation of these goods and services and determining the key players in the market. Research is also needed to make appropriate choices of forest species suitable for producing these new range of goods and services, maximizing their production at least

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cost, development of low cost labour intensive technologies for production, sustainable collection techniques, advance low cost processing technologies, low cost information sharing techniques, use of information and communication technologies, institutional design and efficiency, etc.Processing units for making by products at Block level 8.9.Role of Panchayat Raj InstitutionsGram panchayats are the major agency involved in development of rural areas. All the schemes and programmes of state and central government are being implemented by PRIs. By involving PRIs in promoting Mahua sub-sector, effective convergence of such schemes/programmes can be done for developing infrastructure and facilities for Mahua processing, storage and marketing at local levels. 8.10. Role of NGOs Already, there are many NGOs like PRADAN, Udyogini, Access Development Services, ASA, CARD, etc., are involved in promoting Mahua based livelihoods in the District. They are playing a significant role in promotion of Mahua based livelihoods as well as conservation of forests and forest resources. Due to their strengths in community mobilization and organization, which generally the forest officials lack, NGOs can complement the activities of forest officials in sustainable NTFP management. NGOs should be involved on long term basis for awareness building, community mobilization, organization, and capacity building, ensuring participation of weaker sections and women, promoting group based enterprise and establishing backward-forward linkages of group enterprises with market, credit and research institutions, government departments, etc.

***

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The Vegetable Subsector in Mandla District

Subsector Study Report – 3: Vegetable in Mandla

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1. Overview of vegetables subsector

1.1. Vegetables in India Vegetables play a major role in Indian agriculture by providing food, nutritional and economic security and more importantly, producing higher returns per unit area and time. In addition, vegetables have higher productivity, shorter maturity cycle, high value and provide greater income leading to improved livelihoods. With a production of less than 20 million tonnes before independence, vegetable production has increased manifold to 133.7 million tonnes in 2009-10. The area under vegetable cultivation has increased from 5593 thousand ha in 1991-92 to 7985 thousand ha in 2009-10. During 2010-2011, India produced 146.5 million tonnes of vegetables (including roots and tubers) from an area of 8.5 million ha with an average productivity of 17.2 t/ha. Compared to area (2.84 million ha), production (16.5 million tonnes) and productivity (5.8 t/ha) in 1950-1951, there had been phenomenal increase in area (2.99 folds), production (8.88 folds) and productivity (2.96 folds) of vegetables in our country during the last 6 decades. Our demand of vegetables will be 225 million tonnes by 2020 and 350 million tonnes by 203011. Globally, India ranks 2nd in vegetable production (next to China) and contributes 15.7% to global vegetable area and 14.5% to production. India is a front runner in many fruits and vegetables with share in world production12

Although India’s share in world exports of fruits and vegetables are less than 1.5%, India’s exports of fruits and vegetables have grown at a CAGR of 20.61% and 7.21% respectively by value between 2004 and 2007. Over 90% of India’s exports in fresh fruits and vegetables mainly go to west Asia and East European markets. Commodity-wise analysis reveals majority of India’s fruits and vegetables are exported to neighboring countries followed by Middle East region. The NSS consumer expenditure data5 shows that the share of fruits and vegetables in the household budget has increased from 9.7 per cent in 1983 to 13.7 per cent in the budget for 1999-2000 (Mittal, 2006). The annual per capita consumption of vegetables has seen an increase from 47.6 kg per person in 1983 to 76.1 kg per person in 1999-200013

In India, about 40 vegetable crops of varying significance are grown. For convenience, these vegetables may be classified into three categories, namely: Underground Vegetables, Herbage Vegetables and Fruit Vegetables. Underground Vegetables: In these vegetables, the food is stored in underground parts. The underground vegetables may be classified into two parts: roots and underground stems, i.e. - solanum tuberosum (Sweet potato), Yams, Beta Vulgaris (Beet root), Daucus Carota (Carrot) etc. Herbage Vegetables: They have the nutrient material stored in parts of the plant found above ground, i.e. - Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce, Cauliflower etc.

11 http://www.iivr.org.in/Announcement.aspx12 http://agritrade.iift.ac.in/html/Training/Product%20study/Fruits%20&%20Vegetables.pdf13 http://www.icrier.org/pdf/Working_Paper197.pdf http://www.agriinfo.in/default.aspx

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Fruit Vegetables: The edible portion of this group is the fruit and hence called the fruit vegetables. It includes Tomato, Lolanum Melongena (Brinjal), Pepper, Chilli, Okra, Melons and Gourds (Pradhan, 2003). Table - 5.1: All India area and production of major vegetables S No

Crops Area 000 ha Production 000 tonnes

2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2005-06 2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

1 Brinjal 553.3 568 561 600 9136.3 9453 9678 103782 Cabbage 267.4 249 266 310 5921.6 5584 5910 68703 Cauliflower 291.8 302 312 349 5260.1 5538 5777 65324 Okra 376.1 396 407 432 3684 4070 4179 45285 Onion 695.1 768 821 834 9248.4 10847 13900 135656 Peas 314 297 313 348 2298.7 2402 2491 29167 Potato 1550.2 1743 1795 1828 29093.7 28600 34658 343918 Sweet

Potato129.4 123 123 124 1148.6 1067 1094 1120

9 Tapioca 252.7 255 270 280 7924.9 8232 9056 962310 Tomato 534.5 596 566 599 9361.8 10055 10303 1114911 Others 2199.5 2282 2414 2275 25971.4 29146 31402 28006 7163.9 7581 7848 7981 109049.5 114993 128449 129077Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/11data%5Cchapter4%5Cdb2011tb4_6.pdf 1.2 Vegetables in Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh is producing about 7.69 m MT of horticulture produce from an area of 0.75 m. ha. and accounts for 3.20% of the total horticulture production of the country. The major share of horticulture produce is from vegetables (48.08%) and fruits (43.85%). 9.99 lakh MT of vegetables have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 8.06/kg. Area under horticulture crops in Madhya Pradesh has grown at a rapid pace during the last one decade. Horticulture crops were grown in only 4,03,000 hectare area during year 2001-02. Vegetables are grown in 34.5 per cent area and fruits on 16 per cent areas. Production of various horticulture crops increased considerably from 2007 to 2010. During the period, production of vegetables rose by 143 per cent and fruits by 189.97 per cent14. PotatoMadhya Pradesh is the third largest Potato producing state accounting for 2% of the total production of potato in the country. The state produces 0.74 m MT of potato from an area of 0.06 m. ha. with productivity of 12.0 t/ ha. The major potato producing belts in the state are Sidhi, Satana, Rewa, Surguja, Raigarh, Sagar and Tilkamgarh. 2.21 lakh MT of potato have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 4.69/kg.Onion

14 http://nhm.nic.in/Horticulture/State-Wise-Horticulture-Status.pdf Source: Indian Horticulture Database 2010-11

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Madhya Pradesh is the fifth largest Onion producing state in the country and accounts for 7% of the total production of onion in the country. It is producing about 1.02 m MT of onion from an area of 0.06 m MT with productivity of 17.5 t/ha. The major onion producing belts in the state are Khargone and Khandwa. 4.53 lakh MT of onion have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 6.58/kg. PeasMadhya Pradesh is the fourth largest producer of Peas in the country and accounts for 7.1% of the total production of peas in the country. It produces about 0.25 m Mt of peas from an area of 0.02 m. ha having productivity of 11 MT/ha. Major peas growing belts in the state are Ujjain and Durg. 0.17 lakh MT of peas have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 18.42/kg. BrinjalMadhya Pradesh is 9th largest producer of Brinjal in the country and produces about 3% of the total Brinjal produce of the country with production of 0.28 m MT from an area of 0.02 m. ha. having productivity of 12.00 MT/ha. 0.11 lakh MT of brinjal have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 15.91/kg. 0.03 lakh MT of brinjal have been traded in organized markets with average price of Rs. 6.24/kg. Table-5.2: Ranking of Madhya Pradesh in state-wise ranking of vegetable production (2010-11) Rank

Brinjal Cabbage

Cauliflower

Okra Onion Peas Tomato Potato Sweet Potato

1 West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal

A.P. Maharashtra

U.P. A.P. U.P. Odisha

2 Odisha Odisha Bihar West Bengal

Karnataka

Jharkhand

Karnataka

Jharkhand

West Bengal

3 A.P. Bihar Odisha Bihar Gujarat Himachal Pradesh

Odisha Madhya Pradesh

U.P.

4 Gujarat Assam Haryana Odisha Bihar Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Punjab Assam

5 Bihar Gujarat Gujarat Gujarat Madhya Pradesh

Jammu &Kashmir

West Bengal

West Bengal

Chhattisgarh

6 Maharashtra

Jharkhand

Jharkhand

Jharkhand

A.P. Punjab Bihar Chhattisgarh

Karnataka

7 Chhattisgarh

A.P. Assam Chhattisgarh

Rajasthan

West Bengal

Gujarat A.P.

8 Karnataka

Maharashtra

Chhattisgarh

Maharashtra

Haryana

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh

Madhya Pradesh

9 Madhya Pradesh

Chhattisgarh

Maharashtra

Assam Tamil Nadu

Uttarakhand

Tamil Nadu

Meghalaya

10 Haryana

Haryana Madhya Pradesh

Haryana Odisha A.P. Jharkhand

Tamil Nadu

Source: http://nhm.nic.in/Horticulture/State-Wise-Horticulture-Status.pdf 1.3 Vegetables in Mandla

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The traditional livelihood options in this forest dominated District have been agriculture and non-timber forest products (NTFP) collection and trade. The District’s population is mostly tribal (57% of the total population is tribal). Historically it has been evident that the needs of the tribal community have been limited and they used to engage themselves in cultivation mostly for subsistence purpose. So, in spite of the presence of river Narmada and its tributaries and a very supportive agro climatic zone, overall agriculture production in general and vegetable cultivation in particular is not very significant in the District. Over a period of time the Districts has witnessed some changes in vegetable cultivation in terms of NGOs promoting vegetable cultivation in some select villages along the River basin of Narmada River. Only recently, some farmers have come from Haryana and have started utilizing the conducive environment for vegetable cultivation to produce large quantity of vegetables using latest technology. The annual rainfall of the District is 1400-1600 mm and the agriculture in the District is rain fed. The District is surrounded by three sides from holy river Narmada but vegetable cultivation is mainly taken up in 4 blocks (Mandla, Mohgaon, Narayanganj and Nainpur) which comes under river basin. In some villages of the blocks Beejadandi, Bichhua and Niwas farmers cultivate vegetables in the submergence area of Narmada river (locally called Kachhar area) only during summer. During the monsoon and post monsoon till February-March these area would be submerged with the river water.

While discussing with Assistant Director Horticulture of Mandla District Sri G.P. Parte he said that “even in the four blocks where the situation is conducive for vegetable cultivation, not more than 10% of the total potential is utilized so far .” 1.3.1 Vegetable production in Mandla DistrictDue to the mostly undulating terrain in the District, Paddy is the natural choice (36% of the total cropped area) followed by wheat (14%) and maize (6%) while fruit and vegetables are cultivated only in 0.5% of the total cropped area4. Although the District has good potential of vegetable cultivation which is demonstrated by the farmers who have migrated from Haryana and taking vegetable cultivation on large scale. The major vegetables produced in the District are tomato, pea, cucurbits, brinjal and okra. 1.3.2 EmploymentMandla has good potential of vegetable cultivation in the geographical area which comes under the river basin of Narmada river but so far it is taken up in the District at very limited scale as compared to Paddy, maize and wheat. The District also lacks any storage facility and processing units for vegetables and the reason is the low production of vegetables15. So, the present engagement of the workforce in vegetable cultivation is limited. The potential of good employment is demonstrated in the efforts taken by the farmers (who have migrated from Haryana) who have acquired large plots for vegetable cultivation and offering employment to the local farmers at their farm houses.

15 www.sa-dhan.net/Adls/Microfinance/.../Constraints_Opportunities.do.

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Encouraged by the success of the vegetable cultivation of Haryana farmers, some local progressive farmers have also started vegetable cultivation on large scale by taking benefits of government schemes of drip irrigation which has increased the hope of more employment. Table – 5.3: Area and production of vegetable in Mandla District (April 28, 2011)Vegetables Area (ha) in

MandlaProduction (tonne) in Mandla

Tomato 952.00 17136.00Pea 2868.00 14340.00Cucurbits 801.00 14418.00Brinjal 595.00 50575.00Okra 662.00 6620.00Source: http://www.kvkmandlazpdvii.org/about/District-profile 1.3.3 Subsector Map 2. 1.3.4 Major actors in vegetable subsector at MandlaLocal Farmers: Vegetable cultivation is taken up by a small proportion of the total farming community in the District. Majority of the farmers are from tribal communities and due to lack of updated knowledge, willingness towards subsistence agriculture practices and they are primariy engaged with paddy and maize cultivation. Vegetable cultivation in the District requires more investment due to undulating terrain and the lack of financial resources restrict them to engage larger area for vegetable cultivation. So, in spite of the suitable agro climatic area around Narmada river basin, the farmers are engaged in vegetable cultivation at small scale. Farmers who migrated to Mandla from Haryana: There are around 5-6 farmers family who have migrated from Haryana to Mandla in search of cheaper land, labor and availability of water. These farmers have purchased more than 100 acres of land near Narmada river basin area and have invested huge amount on land preparation (including land leveling) and applying technical inputs like drip irrigation, application of pesticides and fertilizers through machines etc. The horticulture department

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Production

Producer’s market

Transit Market (markets at blocks)

Wholesale (Mandi at Mandla)

Retails: local markets at Mandla and at blocks

Small farmers

Indirect middleman Traders

Producer cum traders (farm house owners)

Other main market Transit market

Consumers

Main wholesale market

Markets outside the District.

and traders of local Mandi (market) at Mandla say that these farmers have made the local mandi self sufficient for at least two three vegetables like tomato, brinjal and capsicum. These farmers have inspired some of the local and capable farmers to adopt their model of vegetable cultivation. Horticulture and agriculture department: The departments are trying to encourage the farmers to adopt the technical process in vegetable cultivation by installing drip irrigation, approaching for quality seeds of vegetables and counseling on technical inputs from the experts. The department also understands the constraints of local farmers to avail the benefits of subsidies on drip irrigation as the local farmers are so resource poor that they cannot avail the benefits of subsidy to take drip irrigation individually. Krishi Vigyan Kendra: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mandla is situated at Northern Hills Zone of Chhattisgarh and established March 2006. KVK is working on the identified gaps in agriculture in the District which are: lack of availability of quality seed through seed production technology and seed replacement, crop diversification, rainwater and irrigation management, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, farm mechanization and drudgery reduction, increasing productivity of vegetables, integrated livestock management. NABARD: DDM NABARD of Mandla Mr. H.J. Hardikar feels that the farmers have not been able to approach the banks for taking loans to get better agriculture inputs and equipments. The major problem in approaching the banks is landholding documents unavailability for the small farmers. They need to be guided to approach the banks by forming Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and this option needs to be explored in larger extent by the farmers and the NGOs working for the farmers. He also believes that the farmers are less progressive in the District and they need to be given a lot of exposure, training and handholding support. Non Government Organizations: The major NGOs working in the District are PRADAN, ASA, Udyogini, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). PRADAN is working closely in NARMADA river basin area to educate, demonstrate and counsel the local farmers (especially the tribal farmers) to adopt updated knowledge and practices of vegetable cultivation and the responses have been encouraging. They have formed around 100 women SHGs (in two blocks Narayangang and Mohgaon) who are working in vegetable cultivation. ASA is working in farmers’ aggregation and promoting vegetable cultivation in the District and linking the farmers to the market. Mandla Tribal Farmers Producer Company Limited is formed by ASA and they are planning to link the farmers with the market for inputs and sale of produce. 2. Pre production Stages - Inputs and process

2.1 Inputs: Inputs shops are available at block and District level places but the authenticities of the inputs are more at District level places. Although at the farmers’ level, they usually cannot demand for authentic products due to lack of awareness and understanding. There are around 15 shops available at District headquarter Mandla catering to the needs of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides/insecticides for the farmers. The Haryana farmers who are doing large scale vegetable cultivation arrange the inputs from Chhattisgarh as the local markets do not give enough assurance of timely delivery and quality of inputs. Seeds: Farmers uses Navodaya, Awadh and Laxmi US 1080 variety of tomato seeds and Syngenta Indra variety of capsicum.

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Fertilizers: Although the farmers are using chemical fertilizers like DAP, Zinc Sulphate and Potash most of the small farmers are use more than 50% of the total requirement as farm yard manure. Weedicide: Weedicide is mostly used by the progressive farmers and bigger farmers. Glicell is widely used as weedicide. Labor: The small and medium farmers do the vegetable cultivation on small scale so do not need to employ labor although they constitute as a good and cheap labor force for the bigger farmers at their farm houses. 2.2 Land preparation: Land leveling is a pre-requisite for vegetable cultivation in Mandla due to the undulating nature of land but is not the priority for the majority of the local farmers as it involves investment. Hence, the cultivable area is very less for the small and marginal farmers of the District resulting into limited vegetable production. While, the Haryana farmers invest large amount into land leveling as they have capacity to do so and utilize full land acquired by them for vegetable cultivation. They have their own land leveling machines.

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Large field of capsicum and tomato at the farm house of Haryana farmer Sandeep Lohan at Singarpur village of Mohgaon block, Mandla.

2.3 Constraints at the pre production stage

• Mandla is a forest rich District where 60% of the total geographic area comes under forest and net sown area is only 29%. Moreover, not the entire area is suitable for vegetable cultivation but the river basin area of Narmada river (four blocks) is suitable as other areaa are rain-fed.

• For the large number of farmers, timely availability of inputs (mainly seeds and fertilizers) is a big constraint. In addition to this they also fear getting spurious seeds from local shops.

• The availability of timely finance to purchase inputs is another challenge for the small and marginal farmers. The mandi traders usually offer the agriculture inputs on credit to these farmers.

• Land leveling activity is not affordable for the majority of the small and marginal farmers.• Most of the farmers in the District are small and marginal farmers and mostly tribal and they

lack minimum ability to invest on updated technology for cultivation.

While discussing with the Assistant Director Horticulture of Mandla, he expressed the helplessness by saying that “these small and marginal farmers are so resource poor that they cannot take the benefit of even 70% subsidy of drip irrigation system (a normal drip irrigation system cost Rs.70,000 to Rs.1,00,000).” 3. Production Stage 3.1 Activities and technologiesSowing: The local farmers of the District do not follow line sowing so there are a lot of wastage in production. Moreover, they also do not follow spacing in plants and providing support to vegetables like tomato, capsicum which also result into a lot of wastage. Irrigation: Irrigation practice followed by them is also cost intensive and less productive which is flood irrigation. The poor economic status does not allow them to adopt drip irrigation even after heavy subsidy by the department.

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Box – 5.1: Comparative calculation of one acre cultivation of tomato by a local farmer and farm house owner in 1 acre of land The consolidated cost of seeds, insecticide/pesticide, fertilizer, electricity (seeds-Rs.1,500, insecticides/pesticides-Rs.1000, fertilizers-Rs.3000, electricity-Rs.600) for a local farmer for tomato cultivation is less than Rs.10,000 while the consolidated cost for the farm house owner is more than a lakh ruppes per acre (cost of seeds, insecticides/pesticides, fertilizers, bamboo support, labor, water is Rs.1 lakh cost of land leveling is Rs.25,000, cost of drip irrigation per acre is Rs.50,000) The difference in investment cost reflected in the productivity. While a local farmer with traditional methods gets 60-70 quintals of production in an acre, the farmhouse owner easily gets 10 times more production.

Line sowing needs to be adopted for better production of vegetables and is helpful for taking up drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation technology is demonstrated as essential in improving the productivity of the vegetables. The technology not only helps in optimum utilization of water for irrigation (as compared to flood irrigation, commonly practiced by the local farmers) but also support in effective supply of fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides.

Assistant Director Horticulture, Mandla observing capsicum bed with drip irrigation and system to provide fertilizers and pesticides through a mechanized system in a farm house of farmer who came from Haryana to Mandla.

A field of a local farmer showing traditional flood irrigation system

The farmers from Haryana have demonstrated the benefits of scientific methods of vegetable cultivation by using line sowing, maintaining proper plant spacing and using drip irrigation for irrigation and application of fertilizers and insecides/pesticides. The NGO PRADAN is working closely with the tribal farmers in Narayanganj and Mohgaon block to enhance their skills to adopt scientific methods of vegetable cultivation by using the methods of line sowing, plants spacing and

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providing support to the vegetables like tomato and capsicum and the result has been encouraging for the farmers Disease spread: The prevalent diseases in tomato are problem in fruiting and holes in the fruit due to boron deficiency. In brinjal, the prevalent disease is fruit and shoot borer. The local farmers are generally not aware about the treatment of these diseases which result into loss in cultivation and poor quality of vegetable production. The farm house owners are much aware about these prevalent diseases and timely apply necessary pesticides. Constraints at vegetable production

a) Traditional cultivation practices of farmers: Population of Mandla is dominated by tribal community (57%) and they practice subsistence agriculture through traditional cultivation practices. It results into limited productivity.

b) Geography and climate: The land terrain of the District is very undulating and it requires a lot of efforts and resources for land leveling to take up vegetable cultivation. The small and marginal farmers, which constitutes around 90%, and are deprived of resources in terms of bigger land holding and ability to invest for land leveling, choose crops like paddy, and maize which does not require much land leveling. In spite of around 1500 mm of annual rainfall the District is rain fed and vegetable cultivation possibilities exist only in four out of total nine blocks but even then there are limiting factors as mentioned above.

The District also sometimes witness unprecedented extreme cold-frost (called Pala in local terms) during January month in some years which hampers the vegetable cultivation. 4. Post production stages- storage, marketing and value addition 4.1 Storage: The District produces limited quantity of vegetables but even if extra vegetables are produced, the District does not have provision to store due to absence of any cold storage in the District. The inability to store vegetables always results into crisis selling in case of overproduction of any vegetable as the post production loss only accumulates in this case.

The local mandi trader of Mandla District, Umashankar, recalls of buying tomatoes at Rs.1/kg from the farmers in February last year due to overproduction. Supply chain of vegetables at Mandla

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Small and marginal Farmers

Middleman Transit market at blocks

Main market-Mandi at District

Retailers

Consumers

Big farmers having farm houses

Outside market-Jabalpur, Nagpur, Indore, Delhi etc.

4.2 Value addition: As Mandla produces limited quantity of vegetables but there are vegetables like tomato which has tendency of over production. The overproduction always results into damaging the profitability of the farmers as there are no provisions of tomato processing in the District. Lack of any processing units eventually discourages the farmers for ambitious cultivation of vegetables and it is one of the limiting factors in vegetable cultivation even for the farm house owners. At present the District does not provide any opportunity of value addition to the farmers. 4.3 MarketVegetable market at Mandla is characterized by the fact that in eight out of 12 months the market is dependent on the vegetables coming from outside the District. It is only during the winter season, local vegetables come to the District mandi (market) of Mandla. The vegetables like potato reaches in the mandi from as far as Allahabad, in addition to the relatively closer District Chhindwara.

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Local market at Mandla Mandi

The local traders at Mandla mandi informed that they purchase vegetables from the local farmers at 5% margin. Only recently, some farm houses are developed in the District (by Haryana farmers and some local progressive farmers) due to which the market has started receiving tomato, capsicum, cauliflowers in sufficient quantity. While tomato is largely consumed in the local market, capsicum mostly go out of the District due to lesser demand in the District. It goes to Jabalpur, Nagpur, Seoni and even upto Indore, Nagpur and Delhi during marriage seasons. The marketing channels and supply chain are different for the farm house owners and for the small and marginal farmers at Mandla. While the priority for the small and marginal farmers is to sell the vegetables at the earliest possible time to avoid post production losses, the farm house owners focus have always been on maximizing profit as and they have more alternatives in terms of access to market.

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When asked about the reasons for limited vegetable production by the local farmers, one local trader at Mandla Mr. Umashankar said that “most of the farmers in the District are tribal and their needs are limited so once they receive good amount from Paddy cultivation they do not put enough efforts for vegetable cultivation which is very different from one of the neighboring District Chhindwara where the farmers have been taking vegetable cultivation very progressively in almost the same agro climatic conditions.” 5. Institutional support mechanism 5.1 Mandi (District Market): The District does have a strong mandi system in place but is mainly concerned with cereals like paddy and wheat production and vegetables are not in the priority list. During the visit for the study, the researcher had witnessed the ongoing preparation of Mandi election and while interacting with potential Mandi president contestants, it was obvious that they would be more concerned about the commodities whose minimum support price (MSP) regulations efforts always wins political mileage for them and unfortunately vegetable do not have MSP. 5.2 NGOs: The District has witnessed some very significant work in terms of institutional support mechanism for promotion of vegetables and aggregation of farmers for the cause. Some important NGOs who are working in this direction are: PRADAN, ASA, FES and Udyogini. While PRADAN is working in capacitating the local farmers in taking up vegetable cultivation in a scientific manner, ASA is working towards formation of Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) and making it grow as a registered entity as Producer Company. PRADAN has formed around 100 women SHGs in the District who are working on vegetable production. Most of the members of the SHGs are tribal and they never had the confidence that they would be able to cultivate vegetable as they lack the basic knowledge of vegetable cultivation. As of now the situation is very encouraging, the women are very actively engaged in vegetable cultivation and have started getting income from selling the vegetable in the local market. PRADAN is working towards increasing the volume of vegetable production and linking them with the mainstream market so as they realize good value. 5.3 Horticulture Department: Department of horticulture has been working in the District to encourage the farmers to get benefits of different schemes including drip irrigation (70% subsidy), poly houses (50% subsidy), getting quality seeds of vegetables. 5.4 Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK): Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mandla is situated at Northern Hills Zone of Chhattisgarh and established in March 2006. It has been working on availability of quality seed through seed production technology and Seed replacement, crop diversification, rainwater and irrigation management, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, farm mechanization and drudgery reduction and increasing productivity of vegetables. Recommendations:a) Promoting Joint Liability Groups: Most of the farmers of the District are small and marginal

belonging to tribal community whose access to financial sources are very limited. One of the important reasons for this constraint, as explained by the DDM NABARD Mandla, is the problem

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in ownership on landholding by these farmers. Many of these small farmers either do not have proper land title or their land titles are not properly transferred. This limits their possibilities to approach bank for credit. One possibility is promotion of Joint Liability Group and they can approach bank as an accepted entity to demand credit.

b) Need of policy level improvement in Horticulture Department’s subsidy scheme: There is a need to relook at the provisions of government schemes under horticulture department. As per the provision of the department, only an individual farmer can get subsidy to install drip irrigation, poly-houses but even if a small/marginal farmer wishes to install drip irrigation by trying to avail the benefits of 70% subsidy or 50% subsidy on poly-houses she/he cannot afford to do so. The cost of drip irrigation system ranges from Rs.70,000 to Rs.1,00,000 and even 30% of this becomes large enough for a small/marginal farmer to afford. While discussing on this point with the Assistant Director Horticulture Department, the recommendation was, instead of a single farmer, a group of farmers (JLG or SHG) should be made eligible to receive the benefits of subsidy for drip irrigation system and poly-houses. If this improvement in the policy is made, it is affordable for the individual farmer as a part of the farmers group to avail the benefits of the subsidies on schemes like drip irrigation, poly houses etc.

c) Small farmers aggregation from SHGs to Farmer Producer Organization (FPO): Aggregation of farmers is important so that they can approach collectively to knowledge institutions like KVKs, to market for collective buying of inputs and collective bargaining for selling of vegetables. The process of aggregation should be attuned with the government scheme Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) so that the farmers get handholding support under the provisions of the project.

d) Bankable models for vegetable cultivation: In addition to the efforts on farmers’ aggregation, it is equally important to develop bankable models for vegetable cultivation for the small and marginal farmers groups. These bankable model should be developed by apex institutions like NABARD so that there should be guidelines for utilization of credit availed by these farmers groups. The components of the model should have details of use of fund in the activities like land leveling, soil testing and appropriate fertilizer dose management, linking of the farmers with the resource institutions like Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) for getting technical knowledge on entire package of practices for the vegetables, provision of working capital etc. The NGOs working in the District should approach NABARD to avail the benefits of the schemes for the farmers.

e) Processing Units and cold storage: While discussing with the DDM NABARD about the absence of any vegetable processing units it the District, he informed that there are no provisions to store vegetables through cold storage. So, it is necessary to promote some bankable models which have integrated approach of creation of cold storage and promotion of vegetable processing units.

f) Extension: It is important for the extension institutions like KVK to adopt more research plots in the District to promote large scale vegetable cultivation by adopting scientific methods.

g) Preventive steps to avoid damages in vegetable cultivation due to frost: As the District is prone to frost attack in the month of January, it is important to generate enough awareness among the farmers to be prepared for the negative effects of frost attack. The department of horticulture and agriculture should organize awareness camps where the information like use of frost resistant seeds for vegetable cultivation, use of chemicals during land preparation to decrease the impact of frost etc. Promotion of poly houses and green houses should also be promoted through farmers groups as it is not possible for individual farmers to afford the cost. The subsidy mechanism has to be appropriately framed by the departments.

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h) Linkages of Vegetable Farmers Producer Organization with resorts and hotels: Mandla is a famous tourist spot due to Kanha Tiger Reserve and there are many hotels and resorts in the District. It definitely gives a good scope of possible market linkages for the vegetables produced in the District.

Community based Farmer Producer Organization of vegetables by linking them with Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) project: SFAC is an ambitious project of Central Government’s Ministry of Agriculture which aims to capacitate small and marginal farmers by aggregating them, providing technical support and linking them with relevant private players of the industry. The NGOs like PRADAN has already started working with women SHGs for promoting vegetable cultivation among the small farmers (especially the tribal farmers) and the results are encouraging. It is important to take this initiative on large scale and link these efforts with the existing project of central government’s Ministry of Agriculture- Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC). Another NGO ASA has already formed a farmers’ producer company and is trying to link the vegetable farmers with the market. S No. Institutional

StructureParameter Expected roles

1 Village level SHGs Women members from the households engaged in vegetable cultivation would form Farmers Interest Group (FIGs) at village level.

The FIGs should be trained in crop planning so that they estimate the need of inputs and they can plan for collective input purchase and collective selling of vegetables. This can be done by giving the demand estimate for collective purchase and selling to the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) at block level.

2. Block level FPOs The SHGs would be the members of FPOs as FIGs.

The FPO should be registered as a legal entity as Producer Company/Cooperative and work as a collective of the farmers to help them adopt business approach in vegetable cultivation. The FPO would help the FIGs for market linkages for input and output.

***

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The Service Sector activity:Electrician in Mandla District

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Service Sector Study Report – 4: Electrician Trade in Mandla 1. Introduction Energy drives the economy and one of the most common forms of energy in use happens to be electrical energy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the modern life and its advance as a civilization have electricity as the foundation. Beginning from late nineteenth century, the use of electricity for industrial and household use and consequently the role of electricians has been flourishing. In India, the first demonstration of electric light in Calcutta was conducted on 24 July 1879 by P W Fleury & Co. The electrification of Kolkata city took place seventeen years after New York, which boasted of Electricity in 1882 and eleven years after London, which was electrified in 1888. Enthused by the success of electricity in Calcutta, power was thereafter introduced in Bombay. Mumbai saw electric lighting demonstration for the first time in 1882 at Crawford Market, and Bombay Electric Supply & Tramways Company (B.E.S.T.) set up a generating station in 1905 to provide electricity for the tramway. About Mandla, the District has near 100% electrification, but the quality of electricity supply is poor and thus the per-capita electricity consumption in Mandla is less than half the national average. The three basic kinds of specializations which developed among the electricians towards the beginning of twentieth century were household, commercial and industrial. In United States, the industrial category is further subdivided into light industrial and industrial. While in India, as far as the training courses are concerned there are only two categorizations, which are household and industrial. 2. History and trends of electrician tradeAn electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. The trade is the newest of the traditional trades, which include masonry, timber framing, log building, traditional roofing, carpentry and joinery, plasterwork, painting, blacksmithing and ornamental metal working. As mentioned above, the trade of electricians has been expanding and diversifying according to the trends in the use of electricity, ever since the beginning of twentieth century. Electricians are required wherever there is use of electricity and thus all the industrial sectors as well as the households and commercial establishments require the services of an electrician. A report on skill shortage by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI-2007) mentions the requirements of electricians, among other trades, as key to development in the Mining, Food Processing, Oil and Gas and Chemicals industries. 3. Demand Side3.1. Potential employersThe state of Madhya Pradesh is leading in textile manufacturing, automobiles, food processing, soya processing, engineering and agriculture equipment manufacturing. A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report suggests that around one lakh manpower (technical experts) is being trained by the state each year. State has witnessed significant growth in large and medium industrial sector. 89 industrial

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units with investment of Rs. 4800 crore were setup during 2003-04 and 2008- 09 and 15000 people were given employment. In the year 2009-10, Rs, 3500 crore was invested on 30 industrial units and Bina Refinery with capital outlay of Rs. 10500 crore is almost ready to commence commercial production. It is worth noticing that Rs. 14100 crore investment made in industrial sector in the year 2010-11 is equal to the investment done in the same field till date since the existence of the State. According to the analysis of CII, considering a minimum of 10% growth in the industrial sector, the manpower shortage in the Large and Medium Industry (LMI) would be to the tune of 4556 and in case of Small scale industries (SSI) it would be around 56286. This analysis assumes that a minimal 10% growth in the industry, which does not includes iteration, at bare minimum an industry requires at least 8-10% of its current manpower deployment. Also, as per a CII - BCG analysis, the requirements in Madhya Pradesh could be classified into the following skill categories: Table – 6.1: Skill requirement S No Skill level Percent 1 Specialised skills 3 - 5%2 Skill category level II 20 - 25%3 Skill category level I 25 - 30%4 Minimal education skillable 30 - 40%Source: CII BCG Survey 2010-11 Carrying forward the analysis, the case of Mandla could also be considered to arrive at the estimates of skill requirements and shortage. As per the District Trade and Industries Centre, Mandla (DTIC ) in the year 2002-03 a total of 164 registered industrial units were located in Mandla employing 415 people, while the corresponding figures in 2009-10 have increased to 381 and 593. This means that Mandla is also witnessing industrial expansion; both in number of registered units as well as the generated employment. The job scenario for electricians in Mandla is such that they have the following options which are: working in a public or private company outside Mandla, working in a shop or for a contractor outside Mandla, establishing a shop outside Mandla, working in a public or private company in and around Mandla, working in a shop or for a contractor in Mandla and establishing a shop in Mandla. The market for electricians is dominated by around 8 to 10 shops in Mandla. They are also the largest employers as far as the unorganized sector is concerned. The association of most of the electricians with the shop owners is fluidic. This means that they are not bound to a particular shop in most of the cases, but they maintain amicable relationship with most of the shop owners and fellow electricians. The repairing orders that they get is mostly through the shops but they also strive to maintain goodwill with the customers. Similar is the case of their contact with their contractors who employ them in projects in and around Mandla. The experience gained by working in big projects with the contractors helps the electricians to upgrade their market value and also a possibility of employment in public or private company with fixed and decent remuneration. There are around 100 electricians in Mandla town, working for the households and small unorganized commercial establishments and most of them have had no formal training in ITI’s or other vocational training institutes. It is estimated that there are around 10 to 15 people who have been formally trained in a government ITI. Most of the shop owners remarked that they hardly knew anyone connected to them who had had formal training in electrician trade. Hence, in this unorganized set-up, there is no such career path. It is only that with experience and goodwill that an electricians’ income increases

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proportionally. As per the reports from ITI, both government and private, the two prominent locations for an electrician’s placement in the public sector are BHEL, MPPKVVCL and Railways. The Ordnance factory at Jabalpur is also an employer. It was found that BHEL has an annual requirement of 17 positions for ITI trained electricians. But, all these positions are not filled every year as they fail to perform up to the mark in the entrance test and interview. The MPPKVVCL employs around 33 electricians on its pay roll. At MPPKVVCL, authorities were of the view that as per the trends in outsourcing of work in electricity distribution being done in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas in Mandla, the scope of employment of electricians would increase. This work is mainly being done by the Contractors. There are around 10 contractors working on various infrastructure based projects in and around the District. The annual intake or the placement record of the ITI’s could not be accessed and thus the accurate level of employment of formally trained electricians is not clear. But, sources in the ITI remarked that among all the trades available in the ITI’s, the electricians’ trade is one of the few with a comparatively better placement record over the years. In the organized commercial segment, the employment of electricians is dominated by tourist hotels and resorts around the wildlife sanctuaries in the District. There are three wildlife sanctuaries in and around the District of Mandla. The Hotels and Resorts surrounding these sanctuaries provide employment to electricians and around Kanha, the requirement of electricians is 10-15. There are around 135 hotels, resorts and guest houses around the Kanha Tiger Reserve. The big players like the TAJ group employ them as apprentice for six months and if suitable hire them as maintenance staff. Generally, the smaller players do not employ electricians on their pay roll but they do solicit their services quite frequently. Thus taking all three sanctuaries under consideration, a cumulative demand of around 50 electricians comes up. Keeping in view the developments taking place in and around the District of Mandla the following factors are expected to drive the demand of electricians: - 3.2. Entry of Industries and expansion of retail tradeThough, the industrial land as percentage of total developed land is around 2.3% in Mandla. However, with rapid industrialization of the state, Mandla is also witnessing industrial expansion; both in number of registered units as well as the generated employment. A Food Park is being established in Maneri industrial area of the District. In relation to industrialization of the state, as on 2010-11, 324 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) worth Rs. 4,51,474 crore were signed for setting of various Industries in the State. Of 324 MoUs, 12 MoUs have been implemented and 18 MoUs involving Rs. 38,845 crore are being implemented. Table – 6.2: Industrial Entrepreneurs Memorandum (IEM)IEMs Filed (in numbers) Proposed Investment (in

crores)Proposed Employment (in numbers)

1,864 62,476 3,73,975Source: CII reportTable – 6.3: Letter of Intent (LOI)

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LOI Allotted (In Nos.) Proposed Investment (in crores)

Proposed Employment (in numbers)

203 3,618 37,228Source: CII report In the public sector the requirement would be driven, among others, by the establishment of Chutka Nuclear Power Plant proposed to generate 700 MW power. The accompanying developments are expected to drive up the demand for skilled electricians and other skilled trades. The number of retail business establishments has also increased in the District. In 2006 there were around 1063 units, while in 2009; the number went up to 1363. This means a growth of around 29% which is good enough considering that Mandla is basically a service town and a distribution centre for its hinterland. These developments are also expected to give a boost to the demand for electricians in the District. 3.3. Increase in tourismOver the years the influx of tourists has increased in Mandla. Official figures reveal that in 2010-11, over 1,74,773 tourists, including 34,078 foreigners, visited Kanha. Compared to 2009-10, Kanha saw an increase in number of tourists by 20,749. The City Development Plan of Mandla envisages a phased development of the city in three phases, from 2011 to 2035. The plan seeks private sector participation to the tune of 12% in the sectors such as tourism. Thus, the amenities such as hotels and resorts being built around the tourist centres would attract skilled electricians. Also, the Madhya Pradesh governments’ impressive marketing under the “Incredible India” campaign is expected to drive the number of tourists in the coming years. Tourism has been accorded industry status in Madhya Pradesh in the state tourism policy. Provisions have been made for subsidy to heritage hotels. If a private building is converted into and run as a heritage hotel by the building owner or any other investor, then 25 percent subsidy or ` 1.50 crore, whichever is less, will be payable on capital investment expenditure. The subsidy will be given when an investor would have run the heritage hotel for one year after developing it as heritage hotel and would have been classified as a heritage hotel by the Hotel and Restaurants Approval and Classification Committee. The State Tourism Policy also provides for subsidy to investors on construction of budget hotels at prominent religious places. If such a hotel is constructed on the departmental land bank, then 20 percent subsidy or ` 50 lakh, whichever is less, will be payable. Subsidy on land price will not be given in such cases. A budget hotel will be eligible for subsidy/exemption only when 50 or more rooms are built in it and rent is not more than Rs. two thousand per day per room. Eligibility of subsidy/exemptions on construction of dormitory will be given only when minimum 100 beds are available in it and per bed rent is not more than ` 200. On priority, big convention centres will be built at Bhopal and Indore and medium-level centres at Jabalpur and Gwalior. 3.4. Increase in electricity usage The demand for electricity is increasing day by day in all the sectors of the economy. The following projections would make the picture quite clear. Table – 6.4: Trend of energy consumption

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S No Energy Consumption in MU 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-161 Domestic 66 76.91 117.32 127.27 137.522 Industrial 12.54 13.04 13.63 14.28 14.853 Commercial 7.2 7.49 7.82 8.2 8.52 The above given table projects the demand for electricity and the sustained increase is evident, more so in case of domestic segment. The per-capita electricity consumption has also increased from 300 kWh in 2011 to 500 kWh in 2012. This is much below the national average, but in the coming years it is expected to shoot-up. It is reasonable to assume that the increase in electricity consumption would definitely result into more use of electrical equipments and thus more the requirements of electricians. 3.5. Demographic changesBetween the years 1991 and 2001 the decadal growth of population was around 15.5 percent, while in the years between 2001 and 2011 the rate went up to 17.8 percent. In the coming decade also, the increase is estimated to be around 17 percent. The increase in population would definitely help in driving the demand for electricity. This would indirectly contribute to the rise in the scope of employment of electricians. 4. Supply side conditions Considering the case that most of the electricians in the unorganized sector have had no formal training, whatever training they have is by means of experience. There is no requirement of particular educational qualifications. Usually, they start working under an experienced electrician and acquire the skills from him. Depending on the interest of the trainer and most importantly the trainee, the duration could be two to six months for basic household electrical fitting and repairing work. The formal machinery of training, as per the data shared by ITI’s, trains around 189 electricians per year in the different ITI’s and Centers of Excellence. There are two government run ITI, one private ITI, and four Skill Development Centers which together achieve this figure. In the government and private ITI, the duration of the course is of two years while in the Skill Development Centers, it is offered for six months. There is also a Center of Excellence in the Mandla ITI which provides training for six months in multiple trades like Woodwork in Construction, Farm Work and Bar Bending and Concrete Technology. There is also a one year course in Construction and Woodworking. In all the ITI’s, training in electrician trade, the primary educational requirement is education up to 10th standard. The ITI courses are supported by the Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGET) and syllabus prescribed by National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT). These ITI’s are also running some of the courses under the State Council for Vocational Training (SCVT). With adequate human resource and required infrastructure the SCVT courses and trades are eligible for NCVT certification. The course curriculum in both NCVT and SCVT however remains the same. In a batch of 21 ITI students, pursuing second year course in Electrician trade, there are 13 boys and 8 girls. While the boys were mostly from far-off villages in the District as well as neighboring Districts, the girls were mostly from proximate villages and also from Mandla town. Thus, in this sample, the girls represent a sample which has a comparatively higher priority for location of training institute.

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The other vocational training players in the District include Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, India – Can, JAGRUTI, Premier Shield Private Limited, SITD and Techno-Pack Advisors Private Limited. The following table would shows the trades covered by these vocational training players. Table – 6.5: Major VTIs in Mandla DistrictS No VTI/VTP Trades1 India Can Organized Retail, IT /ITES2 Jagruti Hospitality3 Premier shield Pvt. Ltd. Fire Services, security services, Computer services

4 Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Industrial Sewing Machine Operator5 SITD IT/ITES 6 Dr. Reddy.s Foundation IT & ITES sector, Organised Retail sector

Overall, these institutes have trained around 3983 people and placed 3118 of these people. Unfortunately, none of these voluntary training providers have offered a course in the trade of Electricians. The course run by these institutes are supported under the AAJEVIKA (SGSY special projects and now NRLM Skill Development Programme) and syllabus prescribed by the same. 15% of allocation under Aajeevika is for skills and placement component and in the year 2012-13, Madhya Pradesh is one of the states under focus in this initiative. Based on relevant assumptions, in case of Mandla, the following factors are likely to contribute to increased supply of electricians: - 4.1. Increase in ITIs and VTI’s offering electrician trade:As mentioned above, the number of ITI’s in Mandla District is 4 (3 government-run, 1- private). There is a Centre for Excellence in the main Mandla ITI. Apart from these institutes, there are four Skill Development Centres located in 4 blocks of the District. All the ITI’s have courses for electricians. All the Skill Development Centres also run courses for Electricians but they are of shorter duration like Electrician (Domestic) 450 hours, Electrician (commercial) 460 hours and Electrician (Domestic) 820 hours. The eligible candidates must have 8th pass certificate. Madhya Pradesh government has come up with its ambitious Technical and Skill Development Policy-2012, which sets a target of imparting training to 48 lakh persons during the 12th Five-Year Plan through National Skill Development Corporation. Maximum five acre land will be given on 30-year lease free of cost of setting up ITI in un-served development blocks. For establishment of high-end ITI, subsidy of 25 percent of the capital cost (equipment and building inclusive) and 20 percent on ordinary ITI will be given in three installments. A maximum amount of Rs. 2.50 lakh will be given in two installments for purchase of equipment only. Reimbursement of tuition fees for 50 state government sponsored seats will be made for maximum 10 years as per conditions. Reimbursement of 50 percent of training cost to instructors of ITI, Skill Development Centres established under the scheme will be given as per conditions. The following policy and incentives being promoted by the Madhya Pradesh government make it amply clear that the number of Voluntary Training Institutes would increase:

a) Land Incentive: Maximum of 5 acres of land at no cost on lease for a period of 30 years to establish ITIs in the unserviced development blocks.

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b) Investment subsidy: Capital Investment Subsidy for establishing High End ITIs, General ITIs and Skill Development Centres.

c) Reimbursement of Tuition Fee to ITIs and SDCs: Reimbursement of tuition fee for 50% seats sponsored by government for a maximum period of 10 years

d) Reimbursement of training cost of trainers: Reimbursement of 50% of the cost of training of the instructors of ITIs and SDCs

e) Other incentives as per IPP: Stamp duty and registration fee exemption, Lease rent @ 1% pa, Interest subsidy on capital investment for 5 years.

4.2. Increase in specialized institutes:R-SETI would be established in all the 50 Districts and fund from National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) amounting to Rs.2420 lakhs, against sanctioned amount of 4700 lakhs, has been sent to 49 Districts except Sheopur District but no R-SETI building has been constructed till date. The R-SETI in Mandla District is reported to be under Central Bank of India, but the construction is yet to start and the same goes with other 48. R-SETIs are to be strengthen with proper staffing to enable them preparing training calendar, arranging training, Hand holding of trained person for adopting their ventures either through beneficiaries own fund or through bank’s loan and getting R-SETI building constructed. One important feature is that the R-SETI conducts only demand driven and need based training programme with an intention to provide self-employment to rural youth. Training programmes are decided by the local R-SETI as per the local resource situation and potential demand for the products and services. 5. Status of Vocational education in Mandla DistrictVocational Education, as a whole, in Mandla is said to be mostly government run. Recently, under the NRLM Skills Mission (AAJEEVIKA), some vocational training providers have entered the picture. Considering the case of electricians’ trade, the scope of vocational training providers is promising as these training providers are not focusing on the trade of electricians as yet. 5.1. SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis on vocational education scenario, considering the trade of Electricians in the District, reveals the following: -Strengths§ Youth migrating outside for training meaning

plenty of scope for vocational education in the District

§ Positive policy climate in terms of the Skilling initiatives in the state.

§ Mandla under focus in the MPRLP initiative of the state government

Weaknesses§ Scarcity of private vocational training

institutes in the District § Poor industrial base § Less than national average of electricity

installation and consumption§ Poor skill levels for taking up industrial

electric work§ Outdated curriculum, lack of need based

training, lack of practical industrial exposure

§ Lack of training of trainers in ITI’sOpportunities

• Entry of large scale, medium and small scale industries

• Entry of vocational training players• Expansion of retail trade, hospitality industry

etc.• Expansion of Skill Development Schemes like

Grameen Technician Yojna, Dr. Ambedkar ITI’s, Eklavya ITI’s, Vikramaditya Free

Threats• In-adequate implementation of various skill

development schemes and schemes.• Insignificant industrial interaction for skill

requirements. • Opposition to land acquisition for

industrialization in certain cases.

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Education Scheme etc. Top of Form 5.2. Players involved in vocational trainingThe landscape of vocational training in the District is dominated by 4 ITI’s, 4 Skill Development Centres, 1 Centre of Excellence and 6 voluntary training providers. Lately, some other voluntary training providers like Montfort Integrated Educational Centre (based in Nagpur), PACE Hospitality Centre (based in Dhamtari), L & T Construction Skills Training Institute (based in Hyderabad) etc, have taken students from Mohgaon block for skill based training in various trades. Of these, only Montfort Integrated Educational Centre provides training to electricians based on a curriculum under Modular Employable Skills Scheme. The fee charged for the training of electricians is Rs. 15,000/- and the duration is six months. This fee includes tuition fees as well as lodging and food. Recently, 8 tribal youth from Mohgaon block, who were trained at Montfort Integrated Educational Centre as electricians were taken up by Taj Hotels as apprentices for a period of six months. During this apprenticeship, they will be trained, paid stipend of Rs. 2000/- per month and provided with food and lodging facility by Taj Hotels and Resorts. After successful apprenticeship, they would be entitled to a salary of Rs. 8000/- (including food and lodging) per month and they would be working as maintenance staff. It was also found during the discussions that these 8 people lacked training in soft as well as technical skills. The technical skills, in case of Hotels and Resorts, mean the know-how of electrical gadgets and circuitry in big commercial establishments. This could be explained by various factors: the lack of exposure of trainees, absence of need-based curriculum, lack of basic education etc. L & T Construction Skills Training Institute provides training in the following three trades: Farm-work Carpenter, Mason and Bar Bender. All these courses are of three months duration and fees, food, lodging etc is taken care of by the institute. The educational qualification required is minimum 5th standard pass certificate. After training, there is a provision of employment at Rs. 5,000/- per month and lodging. Usually, these trained people are involved in large scale construction projects being taken by L & T in all parts of the country. The case of Pratibha Sintex Limited could also be considered as it recruits boys and girls for working in their thread making unit. They train them at the company and during training the first month salary is Rs. 3848/-, Rs. 4238/- and Rs. 5408/- in the second and third month respectively. They only require a 5th pass certificate and a willingness to work for 8 hours on a daily basis. Location also proves to be a great deterrent in most of the cases; both, in case of training as well as final placement. Generally, the youth do not want to go far away from their native place for training as well as placements. This is more so in case of girls. A priority for proximate location could be a result of a host of socio-cultural factors. 5.3. Placement linked vocational trainingThe following table displays the status of vocational education being offered under National Rural Livelihood Mission skills development program. Out of a target of 6145 to be vocationally trained; 3983 have been trained; 3118 of these have been placed which means a placement rate of 78%.

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Table – 6.6: Vocational education under SRLMS No

PIA Name Project Name Total Target

Total Trained

Total Placed

(Trained VS Target) (%)

(Placed Vs Trained) (%)

1 Dr. Reddy's

FoundationGrameen LABS Central

427 377 290 88.29 76.92

2 India Can Creation Of Jobs employability

790 1,081 815 136.84 75.39

3 JAGRUTI SGSY Skill Development In HOSP MP.BIHAR

3,900 1,671 1,255 42.85 75.1

4 Premier Shield Pvt. Ltd.

Special Project under SGSY for Placement Linked Sk

550 374 356 68 95.19

5 SITD Placement linked SGSY Project

40 40 32 100 80

6 Technopack Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

SEAM I 438 440 370 100.46 84.09

(Source: NRLM skills – District Project wise details) Further, the details of the profile of trainees are available in the following table: Table – 6.7: Details of trained and placed beneficiaries

Gender Wise Category Wise

Male Female SC ST BC Others MinoritiesT P T P T P T P T P T P T P236 182 141 108 33 26 115 88 166 128 63 48 0 0

851 647 230 168 107 90 537 382 415 316 22 27 0 0

1,641 1,241 30 14 500 377 412 316 591 463 168 99 0 0

374 356 0 0 39 37 179 162 151 151 5 6 0 0

26 21 14 11 3 7 11 9 23 15 3 1 0 0

283 229 157 141 35 33 306 255 94 77 5 5 0 0

3357 2676 572 442 717 570 1,560 1212 1440 1150 266 186 0 0

The above given table provides many insights although, this does not include trained electricians. It has a strong bias as the number of males trained and placed far outnumbers the number of females trained and placed by around 6 times. Also, the zero training and placement of minorities is a cause of concern. 5.4. Places of industrial employment The organized players in the public sector like BHEL, MPPKVVCL, Ordnance Factory, Railways are the prominent places of employment for ITI trained (industrial electricians) candidates. BHEL

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has provisions for hiring around 17 candidates from ITI’s in Mandla. But, it is very rare that they get the right number of candidates all the time. This was mentioned by one of the instructors in charge of training electricians in Mandla ITI. The reasons have been mentioned in the preceding section. In the public sector, the electricity distribution company MPPKVVCL provides employment to around 35 electricians. Initially, they are hired as Class- 3 personnel and receive a salary of around Rs. 7500/- per month. Gradually, as per performance and seniority, they rise to supervisory and even managerial positions. At MPPKVVCL, an important fact about the outsourcing of work came to light. It was found that the installation and creation of electrical infrastructure is being done private contractors. These private contractors solicit the services of electricians. The exact number of contractors could not be found but it was estimated that it would be around 10. These works are being done in urban areas, semi-urban areas as well as the rural areas in the District of Mandla. The Mandla Municipality has also employed two electricians on its pay roll. The exact numbers in case of Railways, Ordnance Factory and other establishments could not be accessed but it is for sure that the numbers are lesser then that of BHEL and MPPKVVCL. The ITI in Mandla has started tracking its graduates and sooner a clear picture about the placement record of candidates graduating from ITI Mandla could be visualized. In the unorganized retail sector, there are around 100 electricians working mainly for commercial establishments and domestic segment. The income is linked to the volume of work that they get either through own contacts or through the shop owners. As mentioned above, the demand for skills and experience could be gauged from the fact that there are electricians who can make up to Rs.2000/- per day. Also, there is a preference for formally trained electricians when the volume or scope of work is bigger. The scope of tourism is high and the Hotels and Resorts surrounding the places of wildlife interest provide employment to electricians as maintenance staff or on a contract basis on the basis of assignment. Usually, the bigger Hotels hire electricians, preferably industrially trained electrician, on their pay roll and the smaller players resort to contractual work on need basis. The number of Electricians working on regular basis in these Hotels is estimated to be 15 and this can go up with the expansion of tourism. 5.5. Skill levels of electriciansThe skill levels of electricians working in the domestic, commercial as well as the industrial segment are questionable. It was found that of all the 100 electricians working in Mandla town for domestic and commercial establishments, only 10-15 have had formal training. Also, a perusal of the placement record of the ITI’s and discussion with the instructors reveals that the even after completing two years course on Electricians, a candidate is seldom fit to work in big industrial establishments like BHEL, Railways, Ordnance Factory, MPPKVVCL etc. The lack of practical exposure, in depth knowledge, basic education and certain soft skills were attributed to this problem. 5.6. Difficulties encountered by VTIs The following factors need to factored in while considering the difficulties faced by the VTI’s in the process of skill development in the District of Mandla:

a) Reaching out to youth: In Mandla, the forest cover is around 66% and thus it is difficult to reach out to the youth residing in the hinterlands. There is also lack of partnership among the voluntary sector organizations for spreading of awareness as the difficulty of reaching

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out could be countered by partnership with voluntary sector organizations working in the concerned areas. The mediums of mass communication have also not been effectively utilized for this purpose.

b) Mobilization of youth for training: The first factor also contributes towards difficulty in mobilization of youth. Also, some socio-cultural factors pose a deterrent in mobilization of youth. In the villages, a lot of time and effort is needed for adequate mobilization bu the voluntary agencies as yet have remained oblivious to this area of concern. The location of training comes up as the biggest hindrance. The less than satisfactory record of placements by the ITI’s as well as voluntary training institutes have created a stereotype about the worthlessness of vocational education in general.\

c) Retention in training: It was found that training people outside their native place for the first time becomes a major problem. The youth, affected by homesickness, resort to making all kinds of excuses for getting back to home. It takes a lot of mentoring to get them back to training once they have decided to quit. In case of tribal youth, this becomes all the more important and Mandla is a tribal dominated District.

d) Investment: Investment becomes a significant factor both on the side of youth as well as the training institutes on scale of time and money. The youth does not want to investment three month, six month, one year or two year for training as they are mostly engaged in earning their livelihood, mostly by means of agriculture and allied activities. They want to invest time if only there is assurance of placement. Also, even if the fees, food and lodging is waived off, there is some reluctance to fore go the earlier employment. In case of electrician trade, the training providers have to make investment in fixed costs as equipments and tool kits. This is proving to be a deterrent in case of training providers offering training in electricians’ trade.

e) Placement: As mentioned above, the poor track record of placements of ITI’s and private voluntary training providers poses hurdles for youth taking up training. The less than satisfactory record of placements by the ITI’s as well as voluntary training institutes have created a stereotype about the worthlessness of vocational education in general. Even the location factor comes up in placements with youth deciding not to go far from his native place. A socio-cultural factor also plays role in sustainable placements. Mostly, the tribal youth decide for training and placements in relation to their close friends. The point is that many of the tribal youth, especially girls, decide in a group. If the group members decide for a particular training, place of training and placement, then invariably all the members follow. Quite often, even if a single member decides to quit, the whole group quits.

6. RecommendationsNABARD may adopt the following actions with specific reference to electricians:§ Extend loans to the trained electricians who wish to be self employed.§ Extend loans to students who have to incur various costs like fee, food, lodging etc, for

training.§ Support for creating close interaction between the trainees and the industry by means of

exposure visit sponsorship.§ Extend support for training of trainers.§ Extend support to need based, demand based and area specific training modules.§ Extend support to training programs which assist in their skill advancement (both enterprise

and skill related)

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§ Special support to women and minorities for taking up training as their presence is insignificant and negligible respectively.

7. Policy based recommendationsIn case of electricians’ trade, the initiatives such as Centers of Excellence, Skill Development Centers, Grameen Technician Scheme, Public-Private Partnership in ITI’s etc, are commendable as far as capacity addition is concerned. But, this addition has to be in tandem with market demands and employability. In the existing course curriculum, the training of soft skills should be included. With changing needs interpersonal skill which are also known as people skills are becoming necessity. These behavioral competencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal effectiveness, creative problem solving, strategic thinking, team building, influencing skills etc. should form an integral part of such skill development trainings. These will not only increase employability potential of the trainees but help them in grooming their overall personality as well. It has multifaceted penetration effects reaching to the very root of our society. The idea of industrial visit should be followed vigorously so that industry specific skills are known to the trainees before they start working. Placement of trained youth should be one of the most important objectives and to this end both the public as well as private sector needs to have closer linkages with the training centers. Strengthening as well as decentralization of MPCVET would help to reach the target more effectively and efficiently. The awareness about the Skill Development Programmes is very low in the tribal areas and efforts need to be made to make inroads into the remote tribal areas so that these areas also join it, making it more inclusive. With the new MOU’s being signed for industrial development, the government should make active efforts to keep a track of their manpower requirements and the required skills. This insight should be translated into courses being developed in tandem with the present as well as the future demand. Only 5% of the registration in the employment exchange of Mandla is represented by skilled youth. This figure needs no explanation for the dismal picture that it brings forward. The Apprenticeship, in case of Electricians trained in ITI’s, should be given more efforts as many students leave it for one reason or the other. Apprenticeship prepares an electrician for real work and thus increases employability. One basic aspect that could be another hurdle in the build-up of skilled manpower in Mandla District is the less than acceptable standard of basic education. The Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER, 2011) report found that only 45.9% of the children studying between standard 3 and standard 5 could read level 1 text. This is something that cannot be remedied in one day. A three-pronged approach towards accessibility, affordability and availability of quality basic education has to be ensured to prepare better and employable manpower in the District in coming years.

***

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The Service Sector activity:Mobile Repairing in Mandla District

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Service Sector Study Report – 5: Mobile Repairing in Mandla

1. IntroductionInformation and communication technology in terms of mobile is rapidly spreading in rural and tribal areas of the country. Presently, India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world based on the total number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone). It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world. The Industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years, from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011. India has the world's second-largest mobile phone user base with over 929.37 million users as of May 2012. In the year 1994, license for providing cellular mobile services was granted by the government of India for the Metropolitan cites of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai. Cellular mobile service was to be a duopoly (i.e. not more than two cellular mobile operators could be licensed in each telecom circle), under a fixed license fee regime for 10 years. By the year 1995, the first mobile telephone service started on a non-commercial basis in Delhi. In case of Mandla, the first mobile shop engaged in selling and repairing of mobile phone was established in the year 2003. The owner was earlier engaged in electronics business and sensing an opportunity in mobile repair had gone to New Delhi for a six months course in mobile repairing. He could be clearly said to be the first mover and ever since the trade of mobile repairing has been growing in the town. At present, there are 150 shops are engaged in mobile repairing. On an average 8 to 10 mobile repairing shops are being opened each year in the Mandla city in order to cater the growing demand for mobile services and similar trend is also found in other towns of the District. Each shop is providing employment to 3 to 5 youths especially unemployed educated youth. The mobile repairing shops are providing multiple services i. e., mobile repairing, sale of mobile, sim card, memory chip and cover and downloading and uploading software and other programmes, etc. In recent times, mobile repairing has become a major source of employment and self-employment of youth. 2. Demand Side2.1. Potential employersMobile repairing brings forth four options and when these options are arranged in increasing order of priority, they are, working in a private company (mostly service centres) outside Mandla, working in a shop outside Mandla, establishing a shop in Mandla and working in a shop in Mandla. The less preference for working outside hometown is mostly due to the remuneration as the other factors like family pressure and familiar conditions at hometown add on to it. A survey of youth conducted in 35 villages in Mandla shows that more than 50% want a job and only 10% want to work on something of their own. Also, the same survey shows that only 20% of the youth want to work in companies located away from their native village and District. Thus, the actual situation is that most of the mobile shops engaged in repairing work in Mandla employ 2 to 3 people on their payroll on an average. A few big ones employ around 10-12 people also. There is a total of around 60-70 shops engaged in mobile business: it includes mobile selling, repairing, software downloading, selling accessories etc. A total of 42 shops are in the business of

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mobile repairing in Mandla town and the rest are doing mobile business other than mobile repairing. Uday chowk and bus stand are the hubs of these mobile shops. The market has developed a maturity and all these 42 shop owners have formed an association16 to negotiate and bargain better with the mobile companies and also the customers. There are two modes of employment in these mobile shops; one is on fixed monthly income and the other is on the basis of work done or on commission basis. A shop owner from Uday Chowk said that on a commission basis, the employees get 50% of the repair charges. These repair charges exclude the cost of mobile parts. Some shop owners also remarked that keeping a record of all the repair cases is a headache and thus they employ people on fixed remuneration. There was also this view that the new employees are kept on a fixed income basis and when they get trained and skilled in their jobs, they negotiate for commission based employment. The mobile repair market in Mandla functions like a hub and spoke model. There is one market leader who has the greatest manpower, sophisticated machines for repairing work and most of the customers. Most of the smaller mobile shops (almost, all of them) forward their major complaints to this market leader and thus act as an interface between the customer and this market leader. The profit is earned as the difference in repairing charge paid to the market leader and the repairing charge paid y the customer. 2.2. Expected skill setsAbout the expected skill sets, the views differed from the size of the establishment. For instance, the big mobile repair shops employing 10-12 people did not require people on the front end or as an interface with the customers. Thus, they did not mention the soft skill requirements like speaking skills, friendly behavior, self confidence etc. They only wanted their employees to be hard working and technically sound. The ones employing 2-3 people were mostly the ones who involved their employees in dealing with the customers and hence they had emphasis on soft skills apart from the technicalities of the job. When it comes to educational requirements, most of the employers were not so particular about the level of education. They did not even emphasize a basic education in science, given the technicalities of the job. But, they were particular about the learning capacity and willingness of the employee. As most of these employees are trained on job, the desire to learn quickly and take the initiative figured prominently among the responses of the employers. One important fact to note is that, most of the shop owners give priority to reference given by some acquaintance when hiring someone for on-job training.

16 The association is an informal one and last year they conducted around two meetings. The issue such as rate fixation for various mobile accessories figures prominently in the meetings.

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2.3. Location of employmentThe survey of youth makes it amply clear that the youth desire for employment close to the native village, town or city under consideration. Around 50 % of them eyeing for opportunities in teaching and that too in and around the villages may indicate for employment in the villages itself. This is a finding from a universal sample. But, considering the responses of the trainees too, the finding finds relevance as working near their home town was their first priority. The same has been discussed in the section on employers. Going by the response of the employers, it was found that people from all the blocks of Mandla District were working in Mandla town. They were of the view that those who are close to the Mandla town preferred working there, but the ones close to Jabalpur city migrated there and same is the case of some others migrating to Raipur. The exact quantum could not be ascertained. 2.4. Working conditionsThe duration of per day work in a typical mobile repair shop ranges from 8 to 10 hours. There are some big shops which employ people in shifts as they have greater volume of work at their disposal. A shift ranges from 6 to 8 hours. Also, those shops which employ people at the back end i.e. the bigger ones do not require them to handle customers and their job is confined to the work shop. In the smaller shops, which are more in number, the employees deal with customers and also do the repairing work in consultation with the owners. 2.5. RemunerationThe remuneration at the entry level varies between 4000 and 10000 per month and at this level of income the trainees decide to stay back and explore the other two options at Mandla. A trainee, who now owns a mobile repair workshop in Mandla, remarked that even if he could make 5000 per month in Mandla, he would be better off. The same was echoed by his friend who also owns a mobile repair shop. Some of the earliest players in the mobile repairing market remarked that some of the people that they have trained have established their own shops in Mandla itself. The range of cases of mobile repair, per month, as reported by the shop owners is from 60-70 to 600-750. The figures about the market leader could not be accessed but it is estimated that the volume of its work is at least two to three times of the highest range reported in the preceding section, keeping in consideration the manpower that is employed by it. 3. Supply side 3.1. Availability of human resourcesAs far as mobile repairing courses are concerned, especially in Mandla District, there is no mandatory requirement of educational qualifications. Some of them do require a standard 8th pass as their requirement. This means that the potential for trainees is significant considering the educational qualifications. In our survey we could find 228 respondents out of a sample size of 330 who have had education between 7th and 10th standard. Also, considering that all the 42 shops which are engaged in mobile repairing are also engaged in imparting on job training, the scope of training is significant.

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There are reportedly four mobile shops which are also into training people in mobile repairing separate from the ones that they train on job. They also offer certificates as proof of the training and the concomitant work experience thus gained. The ubiquity of mobile in all the age and income profiles of the society provides easy and familiar grounds to reach out to the community. A bit of awareness spread in the community would help greatly as the response of prospective youth and their parents was positive. 3.2. Motivating factorsThe motivating factor associated with mobile repairing is the scope and prospect of job and self-employment. All the trainees pointed out the fact that the growing mobile penetration in towns and villages provides ample scope to make money. Education as such is not a motivating factor as hardly any government recognized degree or diploma is available in Mobile repairing, in and around Mandla. The problem of work location is solved by means of self-employment in the home town. Also, the freedom associated with self-employment is prized by many who have established their own mobile shops in Mandla town. Some respondents even mentioned about the social pressure, especially family pressure, when deciding about the work location. The parents were of the view that if better remuneration is offered then one can think of migration but in cases of comparable remuneration, it is better for their children to be near their home town. The gender aspect of this trade is also astonishing as we did not come across a single case of females engaged in mobile training: neither, as trainee nor as an entrepreneur. This means that mobile repairing is definitely a male job, especially in Mandla. 3.3. Support servicesWhen it comes to the trade of mobile repairing, the government is conspicuous by its absence. There are no courses on mobile repairing in the Government recognized ITI’s, Centres of Excellence and the private ITI’s. Some of the private mobile shop owners had started training people in mobile repairing under the Rajeev Gandhi Shiksha Mission. But, the mission got abandoned and some of the players formally stopped their training centres. Informally, there are about four training centres which cater to those who want only training and not job based training. In the year 2008-09 and 2009-10, AISECT had provided training in mobile repairing to only nine people in the Districts of Balaghat and Rewa. Moreover, in Mandla, the courses offered were only on Computer training and tailoring. When one considers the total number of people trained i.e. 4020, the picture becomes quite clear. This gives a snapshot of the importance that even the big players in the private domain afford to training in Mobile repairing in Madhya Pradesh. Even the training institutions funded by the NSDC do not provide mobile repairing courses in any part of India. Table – 7.1: Details of vocational training institutions S No Institution Sectors

1 Indian Institute for Gems and Jewellery

Jewellery Design, Stone setting, Diploma in Jewellery making

2 B-ABLE Construction, Tourism, Banking, Rural Farm, Hospitality, Food Processing

3 Gram Tarang Employability Training services Pvt. Ltd.

Production-related, Construction, tailoring, plumbing, textiles, security guards, retail, computer related

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4 Indigram Skill & Knowledge Initiatives Pvt. Ltd

Agriculture (Para-Agri expert), Animal Husbandry (Para-vet experts), Food Processing, Transportation and Rural Service Provider

5 International Association for Human values (IAHV)

Youth from Northeastern state of Manipur

6 Edubridge Learning Pvt. Ltd. (ELPL

IT-BPO, Microfinance, Banking & Insurance, Organised Retail, Sales and Marketing

7 Empower Pragati Vocational & Staffing

ITES/BPO, Tourism, Hospitality & Travel, Organized Retail, Informal Sector

8 GRAS Hospitality Services Ltd

Organized Retail, Health Care Services, Building and Construction, Automobile/Auto Component, Tourism Hospitality and Travel Trade, Electronics, IT, Banking and Insurance, Spoken English

9 iSTAR Skill Development Pvt. Ltd

Retail and BFSI

10 Pratham Education Foundation Education / Skill Development Services, Hospitality, Construction, Organised Retail, Electronics / Hardware, Automotive work, Agriculture

11 Centum - Work Skill Automobile, Organised Retail, Telecom, Healthcare and Building & Construction

12 IL & FS CDI Textile, Construction, Leather and Leather Products, Automotive and Auto Components, Logistics, General Engineering and Service Sector

13 IISD Automotive (Light Engg.), Building Construction, Real Estate and Retail

14 Association for Rehabilitation Under National Trust Initiative of Marketing

Enterprise development

15 Globsyn Technologies Ltd ITES, Electronics & IT Hardware and Organised Retail16 Talent Sprint Education

Services Private LimitedIT ITES and BFSI

17 TMI Input & Service Pvt. Ltd FMCG, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, IT&ITES, e-learning & education

18 Everonn Skill Development Limited

Tourism and Hospitality Healthcare Services, Organized Retail, Media Entertainment, IT and ITES, Textile, Construction and Automotive

19 Job Corp Solutions Private Limited

BFSI, BPO, Unorganized Sectors

20 Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India

Construction

21 Laksh Job Skills Academy IT, ITES/BPO, Retail, Hospitality, Banking and EducationSource: NSDC Annual Report 2011

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There are many private training institutes which provide training in mobile repairing. The courses are from three to six months duration. The fee ranges from 10000 to 15000 for the full course. There is no uniformity in the fees charged and also the duration of the course. Some of these popular institutes also offer support for placement. Expert Institute of Advanced Technologies offers the mobile repairing course for Rs. 15,000. The duration varies, and they say it could be anywhere between 30 days and 40 days. As of now they do not offer this course anywhere in Madhya Pradesh and hence the interested candidate would have to go to New Delhi. The Indian Institute of Technical Education offers courses varying between Rs. 15000 to Rs. 18000 and duration could be two months, three months or as per the candidates learning ability. They have not yet started their courses anywhere in Madhya Pradesh. Both these training institutes admitted to have trained candidates from Jabalpur. The placements that these institutes offer post-training are basically jobs in Mobile Service Centres. They also provide training in soft skills apart from the technical know-how of mobile repair. This is not the case in Mandla as reported by some of the trainees. GT Hardware Engineering College in Jabalpur offers mobile repairing course for Rs. 10, 000. The duration is of three months, but they were of the view that a candidate can finish it earlier too. A trainee mentioned that GT Hardware Engineering College, Jabalpur charges an amount of 300 annually from all the trainees who want to upgrade their skills as per the growing mobile technology. There are institutes and shops which charge even 2,000 rupees for such courses but the training imparted is only for basic software downloading and installation. 3.4. SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis on vocational education scenario, considering the trade of mobile repair in the District, reveals the following: - Strengths§ Youth migrating outside for training meaning

plenty of scope for vocational education in the District.

§ Positive policy climate in terms of the skilling initiatives in the state.

§ Mandla under focus in the MPRLP initiative of the state government.

§ Excellent scope of self-employment

Weaknesses§ Scarcity of private vocational training

institutes in the District § Training on job depends on employers and

not trainees§ The government-run and private ITI’s not

offering training in this trade.

Opportunities• Development in mobile technology and its

applications.• Entry of vocational training players. • Skill development policy includes mobile repair

as a new trade to be introduced.• Expansion of Skill Development Schemes like

Grameen Technician Yojna, Dr. Ambedkar ITI’s, Eklavya ITI’s, Vikramaditya Free Education Scheme etc.

Threats• In-adequate implementation of various

skill development schemes and schemes.• Less awareness about the trade in rural

hinterlands.• Complacency on the part of trainers as

well as trainees regarding knowledge updation.

4. RecommendationsThe Directorate of Skill Development Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur mentions three important issues that need focus: firstly, the capacity, enrolment rate, skills and trades are far below the industry’s demand of skilled manpower, secondly, substantial expansion needed and thirdly the number of skills and trades need to be increased. Keeping all the three issues in consideration, it becomes quite astonishing

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as to why the domain of mobile repairing has been neglected all this while. In case of Mandla, the trade of mobile repairing has been existent since 2003. There is no player, from the organized public and private sector catering to this need as of now. Also, the ones who have been trained in various shops and training centers in the Mandla town complain about the lack of adequate know-how to perform well in this trade. This will also help in getting prospective trainees away from the whims of their employers when it comes to their training. Also, a government approved curriculum in tandem with the demand for employment and industry demands needs to be evolved. This should also involve due certification such as the NCVT, SCVT, MES etc, needs to be considered as a priority. The trade of mobile repair is mostly an urban phenomenon and hence there is a need to expand the awareness in the rural hinterlands. This would help in attracting potential trainees on the part of training providers and for the youth in these areas, it would mean one more option for employment or self-employment. A discussion with the practitioners revealed that there is a constant need of keeping up-to-date with the latest mobile technology as it changes very fast. Thus, any training provider needs to make provisions for training of trainers as well as the trainees equally according to latest technology. Also, it would be worthwhile for the training providers to maintain relationship with the trainees and provide them with the provision of enrolling for courses on latest technology from time to time. The local market for mobile repair in Mandla has become competitive and the margins or profits have dropped for all the players. But, the market is not yet near saturation as the mobile density is all set to increase, and also with the rise in population, the scope would expand. 5. ConclusionsThe scope of self employment, wage based employment and profit-sharing based employment in the trade of mobile repair offers enough scope for the prospective trainees, trainers and employers. If we add the near absence of voluntary training providers and government run institutions the scope matures in proportions. The range of fees charged and the non-uniformity in fees and curriculum across the whole land scope of training providers outside Mandla gives another boost to the scope of trainees and the training providers. Also, location being an important determinant in case of trainees deciding on a training and employment, the presence of voluntary training providers in Mandla is all the more needed. The case of mobile repairing appears as an urban phenomenon creates ideal grounds for spreading awareness about the vocation. This would be much easier, comparatively, as the usage of mobile has been on an increasing curve ever since its introduction. Even the growth of mobile technology portends good fortune for the trade of mobile repair in terms of employability. One basic aspect that could be another hurdle in the build-up of skilled manpower in Mandla District is the less than acceptable standard of basic education. The Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER, 2011) report found that only 45.9% of the children studying between standard 3 and standard 5 could read level 1 text. This is something that cannot be remedied in one day. A three-pronged approach towards accessibility, affordability and availability of quality basic education has to be ensured to prepare better and employable manpower in the District in coming years.

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Recommendations

Consolidation of recommendations for subsectors and service sectorsSubsector Category of recommendations Institution and enterprise

building Financial services Skill building Technical support Infrastructure

development Goatery § Promotion of SHGs and

thereby federations of goat rearers for collective grazing, availing health care services and sale in market.

§ Establishing proper market linkages of SHGs and their federations to supply goats at remunerative prices. § Promote a three tier

institutional model – SHG, SHG Federation at cluster level and SHG Federation at Block level to engage the local communities especially the women in goat rearing and trading activities.

§ Providing financial support to the goat rearers to buy quality goat.

§ Financial assistance to SHGs and their Federations to take up procurement and marketing interventions in small scale. §Goat insurance introduction.

§ Develop skills of Pashu Shakhi on health care services for goat rearing.

§ Training goat rearers and SHGs on financial literacy, business skills, enterprise management.

§ Special trainings of goat -rearers on

o Live body weight basis goat price determination oIdentification of

quality goatoPreventive health care

o Feeding practicesoAnimal health

management o Breeding practices

§Identify village based women and train her as Livestock Manager (Pashu Sakhi) in providing reliable women friendly health and extension services at door step. §Converge with

various technical support service providers include Animal husbandry department, Veterinary department, etc., to access various government schemes.

§Shades for goat rearing at household level.

§ Market yards,

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Mahua § Develop a institutional design of SHGs of Mahua collector and their federations at cluster and producer company at Block levels.

§ Involve SHGs and their federations and producer companies in collective production, collection, procurement, processing, storage and marketing of Mahua.

§ Integration of community institutions with market.

§ Link SHGs and their federations, Producer Company with Banks and Government schemes for credit facilitation.§Extent credit

to SHGs, their Federations and Producer Company for procurement, storage and marketing of Mahua.

§ Extend credit or grant to SHGs, their federations and Producer Company for developing infrastructure for processing and storage of Mahua.

Training and capacity building of primary collectors on-§Non-destructive harvesting

practices,§Collection, storage,

processing and marketing of Mahua,§Entrepreneurship and

enterprise management, §

§ Plantation and nursery development,§Treatment of

Mahua tree,§ Usage of scientific

methods for collection, processing, storage of Mahua.

§ Concrete platforms for drying and cleaning of Mahua,§Godowns for

storage of Mahua

Vegetable §Promotion of FIGs/SHGs/JLGs and Farmer’s Producer Organisations (FPOs) for collective inputs purchasing and output sale.

§Credit support services to the farmers for vegetable cultivation.

§ Financial

Training on-§ advance vegetable cultivation

practices, § seed treatment§ processing and value addition§ marketing

§ Advance techniques of vegetable cultivation.§ Standardization of

quality gradation

§ Processing units,§ Cold storages,§ Transport facility.

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§ The government scheme under department of Horticulture needs to be improved in terms of group of farmers becoming eligible to receive benefits of subsidies instead of the individual farmers only.

§Promote effective convergence of schemes of Horticulture Department, Forest Department, Agriculture Department, NABARD.

assistance to SHGs and FPOs to set up small scale procurement and marketing centers.

§ Training on grading, cleaning and storage methods for vegetables. § Training the women on

packaging and to take up the small

system: Under this the community needs to be trained on the grading, cleaning, storage methods.

Electrician § Mobile the youth for vocational training under Electrician trade.§ Launch a four month

short duration “Electrician Course”. This course can be offered by any authorised non-government government vocational training institute. § The short term course

can be designed in a way placement assured course.

§ Promotion of electrician

§Extend financial support to trainees to incur the cost of vocational training.§Extend financial

support to the trained electricians to set up self-enterprise units. §Stipend based

placement opportunities can be assured to the trained

§Entrepreneurship skill development among the electricians who want to establish their own enterprise..

§ Development of soft and life skills among trainees.

§ Apprenticeship opportunities can be provided to the all trained electricians.

§ Promote electrician clubs to assist the electricians to have an avenue to clarify their doubts and to upgrade their abilities. § In the case of

placement created electricians pre and post placement support services include counseling, better working environment need

§ Establish proper and full-fledged infrastructure in the vocational training centers to enhance the quality of the short term training.

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clubs to ensure better employment opportunities for the trained electricians.

electricians. to be assured.

Mobile repairing

§ Launch course on mobile repairing in the district under existing VTIs.

§ Create awareness among youth on vocational education and mobilize them for the same. §Youth need to be identified and motivated to join the existing vocational training centers to equip / upgrade mobile repairing skills.

§ Placement offer need to be linked with the course of training. § Trained youth to be

supported to establish their own enterprises.

§ Financial support services need to be provided to the youth to get skill training on mobile repairing.§Extend financial

support to the youth who want to establish their own mobile repairing shop.

§ Technical training on mobile repairing. §Entrepreneurship and

enterprise development.§ Soft skills such as computer

operating, English, communications, etc.

§ Short term skill up gradation or refresher course opportunities can be made available for the trained mobile repairers with changing mobile technologies.

§ Infrastructure and equipments with VTIs for training on mobile repairing.

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Special needs of the Community

Special needs of the Community Livelihood promotion aims to engage the households with activities which provide continued engagement with dignity by utilizing the resources optimally. Although the present subsector study of Mandla district tries to map the livelihood pathways for the community around the selected subsectors, there are special needs of the community which requires attention for their overall socio-economic improvement. Mandla is a district which ranks comparatively very low in development indicators. The life of the large part of the population which is tribal has been marked with subsistence economy. This approach coupled with the subsidy based approach of government has limited their abilities to keep pace with time and move ahead progressively. It needs following interventions to cater to the special needs of the community: Entrepreneurship development: The community at large at Mandla lack entrepreneurial instinct. It is important that the community be given orientation on this trait through different mechanisms including introduction of government schemes motivating the community to venture into possible enterprises. Behavioral change communication: During the study one concern was echoed uniformly by different sources of information i.e. about the mental blocks of the tribal community towards progressiveness. It is important to bring important behavioral changes like planning for the future through inculcating savings habit, able to utilize the benefits of the government schemes etc. This can be done by giving this community opportunity through exposure visits to places where such constraints were overcome by tribal communities through well planned approaches. Improvement in health indicators: The health indicators of the district are comparatively low and it definitely affects the overall productivity of human resources. The infrastructural support as well as the services supports of health sector needs radical improvement. The awareness level of the community, especially of tribal community on ideal health behavior and particularly on mother and child health is very low leading to infant and mothers mortality. In fact Mandla ranks 37 among the 100 districts identified for Infant Mortality Rate in the country. So, intensive focus is needed to generate health awareness among the community and to ensure basic health infrastructure and services. Financial Inclusion, Credit Linkage (Individual and Group) with formal institutions and increasing the loan absorption capacityTo assist the community to pursue their livelihood activities to their fullest capacity, one of the key constraints is lack of credit facility. The rural communities especially the tribal are severely constrained to access credit from formal sector. Financial inclusion for these left out community will be the first step of intervention. At the same time focus will be on identifying the priority areas for credit needs of the SHG/JLG/FIG members. The areas of priority can be a mix of promoting micro enterprises, households productive and consumption need. There are instances that still a number of households are in the consumptive level. For some of the comparatively better off households, loan absorption can be improved by creating new opportunities in the already existing livelihoods

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like product diversification, productivity improvement, etc. Capacity building is a crucial factor to increase loan intake. Skill up-gradations, training in new livelihoods, improving the current processes or extending the current processes. Efforts need to be made to assist the community in accessing the credit services on a sustainable basis from the formal financial institutions. As the SHG promotion is getting momentum in the district with the involvement of various players like SRLM, Tejaswini, Forest Department, NABARD, etc., that opportunity can be effectively utilized for assisting the community to broaden the scope of the livelihood activity in goat rearing, Mahua and vegetable cultivation. Along with Banks, the rural communities should be facilitated to access credit from other sources like MFIs, SHG Federations, etc. Infrastructure developmentThe condition of Mandla District in terms of infrastructure development is poor. In order to promote collectivization, processing, storage and marketing of local produces adequate infrastructure in terms of roads, Mandi, processing and storage facility for Mahua and vegetables, etc., are need to be developed. The goat rearing activity as a whole as a subsidiary livelihood option for the marginalized sections has been struggling with various constraints at all the stages of subsectors include pre-production, during production and post-production stages.

***

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References

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chemistry 1990: 221-228 23. State level Coordinated Programmes, AISECT Annual Report 2012, accessed

at: http://www.aisect.org/Copy%20of%20Annual%20Report%202010/7%20State%20Level%20%20program.pdf

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25. Vivek Kumar and R R Rao, Some interesting indigenous beverages among the tribal of central India, India Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Vol 6 (1), 2007, pp 141 – 143.

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27. www.mandla.nic.in 28. Madhya Pradesh to buy power from nuclear plants, Times of India, August 13th, 2012.29. Tiger tourism surges in MP, drops in state, Times of India, August 3rd, 201130. City Development Plan, Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, 2011, accessed at: http://www.e-

mpcdp.com/ECDP/CDP-Mandla-E.pdf31. The MP Bulletin, A monthly publication of Directorate of Public Relations Government of

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Annexure

Annexure - 1: District Rainfall (MM.) for last five yearsYear Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

2007 1.2 9.6 1.5 2.8 97 370.1 288.9 394.6 8.2 0 02008 3.2 84.6 4 0.4 602.4 338.4 351.2 152.4 10.9 6 02009 12.2 0.1 0 0 19 393.3 246.7 141.4 24.2 117.8 4.62010 13.9 0.3 3.5 6.9 113.8 539.4 361.3 426 23.3 2.1 02011 2.7 6.3 16.4 0.3 285.7 419.3 443.7 317 8.1 0 0Source: http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/distrainfall/webrain/mp/mandla.txt Annexure - 2: Sex ratioS. No Indicator Year Mandla1 Sex ratio (Females per 1000 males) - Total 2010-11 10032 Sex ratio (Females per 1000 males) - Urban 2010-11 9643 Sex ratio (Females per 1000 males) - Rural 2010-11 10084 Child sex ratio (0-6 years; girls per 1000 boys) 2011 964Source: Annual Health Survey, 2010 - 11 and Census, 2011 Annexure - 3: Population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled TribesTotal Population

SC Population

ST Population

SC % in Total population

ST % in Total Population

894236 41305 511798 4.62 57.23 Annexure - 4: Literacy rate S. No Indicator Year Mandla 1 Literacy Rate, Total 2011 68.3 %2 Literacy Rate, Male 2011 79.5 %3 Literacy Rate, Female 2011 57.1 %Source: Census, 2011 Annexure - 5: Basic infrastructure S No Basic amenities Number of villages Percent 1 Electrification 1187 97.62%2 Post offices 148 12.17%3 Connectivity of villages with paved road 966 79.44%4 Total village (inhabited) 1216 100.00%Source: Potential Linked Credit Plan, Mandla, 2012-13, NABARD

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Annexure - 6: Source of drinking waterS No Drinking water Village Percent 1 Hand pump 1216 100.00%2 Tap water 147 12.09%3 Total 1216 100.00%Source: Mandla District Statistical Book, 2007 Annexure - 7: Work Participation Rate (Percent of total workers of the total population)S No Area Total workers Male worker Female worker1 Rural 54.3% 56.5% 52.1%2 Urban 30.9% 47.1% 13.9%3 Total 51.9% 55.5% 48.3%Source: Census, 2001 Annexure - 8: Existing status of industrial areas in Mandla distrcitS. No.

Name of Ind. Area

Land acquired (In hectare)

Land developed (In hectare)

Prevailing Rate Per Sq. m. (In Rs.)

No of Plots

No of allotted Plots

No of Vacant Plots

No. of Units in Production

1 Industrial Growth Centre Maneri Distt. Mandla

517.271 Hect

162.386 Hect

--- --- --- --- ---

Total 517.21 162.36 --- --- ---- --- ---- Source: DTIC Mandla Annexure – 9: Industry at a glanceS. No. Head Unit Particulars 1 Registered Industrial Unit No. 27942 Total Industrial Unit No. --- 3 Registered Medium & Large Unit No. 64 Estimated Avg. No. of Daily Worker

Employed In Small Scale Industries No. ---

5 Employment In Large And Medium Industries

No. ---

6 No. of Industrial Area No. 17 Turnover of Small Scale Ind. In Lacs --- 8 Turnover of Medium & Large Scale

Industries In Lacs ---

Source: DTIC Mandla

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Annexure – 10: Annual tourist flow to places around MandlaS No

Place Annual domestic tourist inflow

Annual foreign tourist inflow

Total

1 Kanha National Park 66,300 19,000 85,3002 Bandhavgarh National Park 6256 2195 84513 Pench National Park 20587 1101 21686 Source: Tourism Statistics for the State of Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India Annexure -11: Subsector wise study villagesS. No

Goatery Mahua Vegetable Village Block Village Block Village Block1 Samya Niwas Tatri Bamnih Gadhar Narayanganj2 Udaipur Bijadandi Samaya Niwas Kumha Narayanganj3 Katangtola,

Mugwani, Shahjhhar

Mohgaon Katangtola, Mugwani, Sahjhar

Mohgaon Chiri Narayanganj

4 Mandla Shringarpur Mohgaon5 Motinala Bichhiya Mohania Tola Mohgaon Mohania

PatparaMohgaon

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