Marketing of minor forest products: through the large area multi purpose cooperative societies in Mysore district (Karnataka State)

Abstract

Minor Forest Produce are a particularly important part of multiple uses strategies because they increase the range of income generating options for forest dependent villagers while avoiding some of the ecological costs of timber cutting. MFPs include a range of products with both subsistence and market value such as foods fodder gums and resins, oil seeds, medicinal plants and building and craft material. In contrast, many MFP harvesting activities are less destructive of forests and involve products that annually renewable. In addition, MFP based activities often are small in size managed by households and by women, involve a diversity of products, provide supplementary income during lean seasons, are labor intensive, use simple technologies, and are accessible to low-income and socially disadvantaged group. MFPs also serve as a base for alternative sources of income through small-scale processing enterprises. Value added processing could dramatically increase the income derived from forest products while reducing direct dependence on forest resource extraction. Other means of generating value from forests without increasing forest extraction may include decreasing the marketing cost of transportation and middleman, promoting ecotourism and parks from which fees or employment can be generated and institutionalizing royalties for genetic prospecting. Tribals will have to accept a reduction in yield in certainly priced tree species in exchange for a diverse menu of forest products. They will have to change their management time horizon to include monthly, seasonal periodic, and short and long-term rotations at different stages in the cycling of a variety of harvests. Tribals may also to change their ideas about who controls the sale and revenue from this harvest and to think creatively about how to increase harvesting, processing, and trade. If responsibility is given to cooperative institutions to process and trade in forest products, new market linkages will be needed, threatening the role of existing intermediaries.