The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) came in to existence in1987 and got registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act 1984 (now the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002). It started functioning in 1988 under the Administrative control of the Ministry of Welfare, Govt. of India, (presently the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India).The main objective of TRIFED is to serve the interests of its members in more than one State for the social and economic betterment of its members by conducting its affairs in professional, democratic and autonomous manner through self help and mutual cooperation for undertaking marketing development of the tribal products. After the new Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 came into force, TRIFED amended its Bye-Laws in 2003 and started functioning as a Service provider, Facilitator, Coordinator and a Market Developer for tribal products instead of its earlier activity of procurement and sale of Minor Forest Produce & Surplus Agricultural Produce. It has its Registered and Head Office located in New Delhi and has a net work of 13 Regional Offices located at various places in the country and a Central Warehouse at Delhi. TRIFED has been doing the retail marketing of tribal products through 27 own outlets under the brand name called TRIBES INDIA and also through 14 State Emporia on consignment basis. It aims to improve the livelihood of the tribal communities by creating a sustainable market and create business opportunities for them based on their cultured knowledge and traditional skills whilst ensuring fair and equitable remuneration. For this purpose, TRIFED is marketing tribal products through its owned 27 unique showrooms and 15 consigned showrooms in association with State level Organizations promoting handicrafts. In order to expand showrooms TRIFED has recently established showrooms at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and at GPO, Mumbai in Maharashtra.
Major Activities
Exhibitions: On Developmental side, TRIFED started organizing National Tribal Craft Expo - AADISHILP. Tribal artisans/ groups / organizations are invited to participate in this Expo and showcase their rich tribal heritage. The main objective in holding these events is to provide an opportunity to tribal artisans to showcase their ethnic crafts and to interact directly with art lovers to learn about their taste and preferences. This helps them in adapting their product designs and creations accordingly. It has organized Aadishilp at Shimla, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Bangalore, Jaipur and New Delhi, beside organizing the same regularly every year at Dilli Haat. The event also includes tribal dance performances. It is an attempt to present tribal art and culture in holistic manner, which has been received well by the customers.
Encouraging response was given to exhibition of tribal products held at Amritsar, Jallandhar and Delhi organized by TRIFED. It Has also participates in the OCTAVE - a dance festival of North Eastern Region, organized by Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. From 2008-09 onwards TRIFED is also associated with this event. TRIFED organizes participation of artisan from North Eastern region and provide them the opportunity to showcase and market their products. TRIFED participated in OCTAVE festivals organized at Goa, Mumbai, Trivandrum, Patna Surat & Kolkata.
International Fairs: TRIFED identified Santa Fe, USA Folk art market as one of the place where tribal products can be exhibited and marketed.. It is an annual event and TRIFED will encourage its artisans to participate in this folk art market to promote tribal products. One stall was allotted to TRIFED at Santa Fe Folk Art Market, USA during the month of July 2009 where products worth app Rs.13.50 lakhs were sold in two days. It intends to participate in Cairo International Fair, organised at Nasr City in Egypt from 17-26 March 2011to promote tribal products.
Tribal Artisan Melas: TRIFED initiated a new concept of organizing Tribal Artisan Mela (TAM) as an exercise to reach tribals located in interior tribal areas and source tribal art and craft directly from the tribal artisans/group of artisan. As per this initiative, TRIFED in association with State Govt. /organizations invites tribal artisans to an exhibition area where they bring their items. TRIFED depute its Merchandising team to these Melas to identify the items which can be marketed through its outlets and also suggests the modifications if any, required to make the items more marketable. This initiative not only helps in sourcing unique tribal art and craft but also helps in spreading message about TRIFED’s activities and how tribal can avail of the benefits of TRIFED’s activities. During the current year, TRIFED organised seven Tribal Artisan Mela at Rekong & Kelong (HP), Gangtok (Sikkim), Vansda & Vyara (Gujarat) , Mandla (MP) and Dimapur (Nagaland) wherein 303 tribal artisans participated.
Training
Retail Training: The main activities of TRIFED as per the Roadmap of fifth plan period from (2007-08 to 2011-12) assigns the following four main activities to TRIFED:-
1. Retail Marketing Development
2. Minor Forest Produce Marketing Development
3. Skill up-gradation & Capacity Building of ST Artisans and MFP Gatherers
4. R&D Development/IPR Activity
Presently TRIFED is marketing tribal products through 40 outlets out of which 26 outlets are its own and 14 outlets on consignment basis in association with state level organizations promoting handicrafts. TRIFED also participates in various exhibitions and fairs to promote the tribal art. Another event is Tribal Artisans Mela . Tribals draw sustenance and income including their requirement for food, fodder, fruits, medicines, shelter, rituals, recreations and cultural activities from the forest. “Minor forest produce” includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tassar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers and the like. TRIFED envisages to upgrade the skills of MFP gatherers and
For Skill up-gradation & Capacity Building of ST Artisans:
TRIFED imparts three level of trainings:
i. Primary Level Training (PLT)
ii. PLT-cum-Design Workshop Training followed by Reinforcement Training (PLT-DWT-T)
i. Primary Level Training (PLT)
ii. PLT-cum-Design Workshop Training followed by Reinforcement Training (PLT-DWT-T)
iii. Design Workshop Training (DWT)
TRIFED has established a Quality Control Research & Development Centre at NSC Beej Bhawan, IARI Campus, Pusa Complex, New Delhi 110012. Its R&D Centre is equipped with modern/sophisticated instruments to test & certify internal samples like Spices, MFPs like Honey & Tamarind, Dry fruits, Herbal Products, Processed Meat & fish products.
MFP Training & Development: Forest provides for 60% of the food & medicinal needs of tribals and 60% of their income. As per Recognition of Forest Rights, Act 2006 “Minor Forest Produce” includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tassar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers and the like. TRIFED undertakes the following broad activities in the MFP sector:
(1) Vocational Training, Skill Up-gradation & Capacity Building of MFP Gatherers
(2) MFP Marketing Development activity
(2) MFP Marketing Development activity
Under the first activity, TRIFED is providing various trainings for skill up gradation of Honey Gatherers and Gum Pickers.
Under the second activity, TRIFED promotes value added products of tamarind and its by-products, value added products of Honey and its by-products, trains Mahuwa Flower collectors on the best practices of Mahuwa Flower collection, drying/ primary processing, grading, packing, value addition, storage & marketing etc., train & demonstrate scientific method of cultivation of Lac for sustained Lac production, train the tribals in leaf cup/plate making to enhance the quantity and quality of production by use of machines. With a produce of about 55000 tons of honey per annum, India is the sixth largest producer of honey in the world. A large number of tribal population & forest dwellers earn a livelihood from the collection of wild forest honey which forms a major chunk of honey produce.
According to one estimate, India has a potential for about 120 million bee colonies, which can provide self-employment to over 6 million rural & tribal families. In terms of production, these bee colonies can produce over 1.2 million tons of honey and about 15,000 tons of bee wax. Organized collection of wild honey & bee wax using improved methods can result in an additional production of at least 1,20,000 tons of honey & 10,000 tons of beewax. This can generate income to about 5 million tribal families. Presently the collection, processing and marketing of wild honey is unorganized. There is no authentic information readily available on wild honey relating to the quantum of collection, traditional tribes collecting the honey, its demand and supply position, different varieties of honey based on its flora/ bee species, major sourcing areas, procuring agencies, processing industries, marketing agencies, etc. which is very essential for efficient and effective regulation of trade of this commodity. Realizing the need for coordination and linkage among stake holders in wild honey and to develop the market of wild honey in an organized manner, TRIFED has taken the initiative to create a “Wild Honey Network”.
Handicraft Training: Since time immemorial craft sector in India has grown in its spontaneity from one generation to the next by the inherent creative aptitude of the people to work with natural resources of our country. Later the subsistence need of the people have ensured more dependence on the sector and made it a flourishing economic activity. Notwithstanding the phenomena of worldwide recession, industrial sickness, natural calamities etc. all over, this sector has been registering steady growth in terms of export and foreign exchange earning besides providing gainful employment (both fulltime and part-time) to around 8 million artisans of the country of which a large section belong to socio-economically poor and marginalized population.
At present, craft sector has assumed 1/5th share of the total house-hold industry in the country. But unfortunately the revenues earned from this sector are not adequately reaching the artisans and crafts persons who remain at the mercy of middleman, trader and exporter for both sustained earning and exposure to the marketable designs with change frequently with time. In order to address this problem and safeguard as well as promote the craft and tribal artisans involved in this sector, TRIFED has envisaged undertaking Skill Up gradation Trainings and Design Development Workshops.Out of the handicraft artisans of disadvantaged communities, tribal artisans are the target beneficiaries as per the mandate of the TRIFED. These tribal beneficiaries pursue handicraft activity on individual basis in their house-hold set up. Thus their family income is abysmally less as against the effort made by them in producing and selling the handicraft items. Hence there is a necessity to organize them into producer groups and offer them a platform so that they can leverage the benefits of various interventions made by Govt. organizations including TRIFED. Towards this end, TRIFED has been implementing the following activities:-
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