India’s First Food Park for Tribals Set to Start in Bastar

JAGDALPUR: Amid concerns over unemployment in the ongoing pandemic, a first of its kind food park for tribals in Jagdalpur block of Bastar district in Chhatisgarh is all set to begin operations in the coming months. It is being cited as a move that will steer sustainable livelihood opportunities and check migration.

Of the total population in Bastar, more than 40% belong to Gond, Maria, Muria, Dhruva, Bhatra and Halba Tribes.
The idea of a processing and value addition facility for forest produce was first conceived by the Bastar district administration in the late 1990s and land was allotted for the same in 1999. However, the project never took off.

Around two years ago Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED) stepped in to revive the vision and the Food Park project was approved for the same 26 acres of land that was allotted almost 22 years ago.
The project initiated by TRIFED is the first of eight that will be set up across states. The construction of the Food Park in Raigad in Maharashtra is also in progress. The other six states include Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajashtan, and Andhra Pradesh.

Bastar district, which for decades has existed under the shadows of Naxalite unrest, will be the launchpad for putting to test a convergence model.

Once the Food Park turns functional, it will enable thousands of forest produce gatherers to have direct access to tertiary level processing facilities for converting their produce, as wide-ranging as the traditionally dominant Imli (tamarind) to the new age Bastar coffee and VNR Ameena – a new hybrid papaya variety, into products that can get them the due market price.

Source : ToI