Govt. Resolutes For Livelihood Promotion Through Forestry Activities

Bhubaneswar : State administration is on the resolute move for boosting economic activities in hill and forest tracks even against the adversity of the ongoing pandemic. As per the directions of Chief Secretary Sri Asit Tripathy, sustainable livelihood and income generating activities have been taken up in twelve territorial forest divisions on joint forest management (JFM) mode with direct participation of Vana Surakshya Samities ( VSSs) and Self Help Groups ( SHGs) under Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP) Phase-II.
This was known from the high power committee meeting of forestry sector development society held under chairmanship of the Chief Secretary on digital mode through OSWAN platform yesterday wherein Additional Chief Secretary Forest and Environment Dr Mona Sharma outlined possible interventions in livelihood sector for discussion. Reviewing the present status and prospective possibilities in the sector, Chief Secretary Sri Tripathy directed to intensify income generation activities through forward and backward linkages. He further directed to identify forest division specific ‘product clusters’ and scale up those through interdepartmental convergence in terms of resources, technical support, skill building and marketing. Sri Tripathy directed to maximize convergence of resources from OSFDP, MGNREGS, OLM, OTELP plus and other similar activities.
Additional Chief Secretary Dr Sharma suggested to take up farm, non-farm and non-timber forest produce (NTFP) based livelihood interventions through community level institutions. It was decided to map local availability of different products and establish the ‘product clusters’ like Sal seed involving 435 VSSs, Tamarind involving 242 VSSs Harida involving 260 VSSs, Bahada involving 258 VSSs, Char involving 333 VSSs, Cashew involving 121 VSSs, Mango involving 223 VSSs, Mahua involving 395 VSSs, and, Neem seed cluster involving 187 VSSs. Around 88000 households would have additional income from these clusters.
Development Commissioner Sri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra directed to establish Livelihood Resource Centre to provide technical input, required skill, training and, linking to financial institutions. He also directed to provide continuous handholding support for product development, branding and marketing linkages.
Director OFSDP Sri Sudarshan Panda appraised that 778 VSSs covering around 50,000 households in the project villages of 12 forest divisions have been linked up with respective departments for carrying forward the livelihood activities in the mushroom cultivation, honey collection and processing, kitchen garden, poultry, pisci-culture, dairy, badi making, pickle making; and, marketing of NTFP items like harida, bahada, amla, tamarind, hill broom, Jhuna etc. Sri Panda further appraised, “ seven Sal leaf making clusters have been set up at the forest divisions namely Baripada, Rairangpur, Karanjia, Keonjhar, Baliguda and Phulbani involving 4645 households organized under 460 SHGs”.
Apart from this, 497 community development projects estimated around 11.38 Cr have also been approved through convergence with MGNREGS to be implemented through VSSs. Around Rs.1000.30 CR would be invested in development of the forest eco system and sustainable livelihood activities through joint forest management approach under OFSDP, phaseII.
Development Commissioner Sri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Principal Secretary Finance Sri Ashok Kumar Meena, Principal Secretary ST and SC Development Smt Ranjana Chopra, Principal Secretary Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Sri Deo Ranjan kumar Singh, Secretary Skill Development and Technical Education Sri Sanjay Singh, PCCF Sri Sandeep Tripathy, Director OFSDP Sri Sudarshan Panda along with senior officers of respective departments participated in the deliberations.