Economic Contribution of Wild Edible Minor Fruits to the Forest Fringe Tribals - A Sustainable Alternative Livelihood Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2023/v149i3/159824Keywords:
Economic Valuation, Livelihood Option, Minor Fruits, Tribal Community.Abstract
Valuation of tropical dry deciduous forests of eastern lateritic part of India is mostly based on economic appraisal of its wood stock. Occasional assessment often overlooks the economic potential of non-timber benefits like wild edible minor fruits (WEMFs) which have a wide subsistence use even for cash income. Present study deals with the ethnobotanical information, spatio-temporal distribution along with estimation of economic contribution considering annual productivity and utilizations of WEMFs in the two sampled forests of eastern lateritic part of India from where a major tribal community (Santal) gets benifit. Annual production and utilization was performed considering different factors associated to the quantum of extraction. A new comprehensive economic model was developed to estimate the net annual economic contribution per Santal family by WEMFs. A higher production peak of WEMFs in alternative year was noted along with Clump distribution and specific habitat preference. Net value of revenues - from these WEMFs was estimated to be Rs. 772.86 ± 76 family-1 year-1 which presently contributing 3.74% of their total annual income. Forests of eastern lateritic part of India have a strong potentiality to produce WEMFs that may be helpful in generation of alternative livelihood option to the local tribals through entrepreneurship development.References
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