Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to spend around Rs 1,000 crore for creating sustainable livelihood opportunities under Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP), Phase-II in a bid to boost economic activities in hilly and forest regions during Covid-19 pandemic.
The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy recently. Sustainable livelihood and income generating activities have been taken up in 12 territorial forest divisions on joint forest management (JFM) mode with direct participation of Vana Surakshya Samitis (VSSs) and self help groups (SHGs) under OFSDP Phase-II.
It was decided to identify forest divisions with specific ‘product clusters’ and scale up those through interdepartmental convergence in terms of resources, technical support, skill building and marketing.
Tripathy directed the officials to maximise convergence of resources from OSFDP, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM), Orissa Tribal Empowerment & Livelihoods Programme (OTELP) Plus and other similar activities.
Forest and Environment department additional chief secretary Mona Sharma suggested to take up farm, non-farm and non-timber forest produce (NTFP) based on livelihood interventions through community-level institutions.
The state will set up product clusters like sal seed involving 435 VSSes, tamarind involving 242 VSSes, harida with 260 VSSes, bahada with 258 VSSes, char with 333 VSSes, cashew with 121 VSSes, mango with 223 VSSes, mahua with 395 VSSes, and neem seed cluster involving 187 VSSes. Around 88,000 households would get additional income from these clusters, the source said.
Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, who was also present in the meeting, has ordered for establishment of livelihood resource centres to provide technical input, required skill, training and, linking to financial institutions. He instructed the officials to provide continuous handholding support for product development, branding and marketing linkages.
OFSDP director Sudarshan Panda said 778 VSSes covering around 50,000 households in the project villages of 12 forest divisions have been linked with respective departments for carrying forward the livelihood activities.
Seven sal leaf making clusters have been set up at the forest divisions of Baripada, Rairangpur, Karanjia, Keonjhar, Baliguda and Phulbani involving 4,645 households organised under 460 SHGs, Panda said.
Apart from this, 497 community development projects estimated to be around Rs 11.38 crore have also been approved which will be implemented in convergence with MGNREGS.