Invited talk by Dr Vartika in National Workshop on International Forest Day
Udaipur: On the occasion of International Forest Day on 21st March, A National workshop on ' Forests to Market: Building a future with NTFP Entrepreneurship' was organized by Dept. of Botany, Smt. Radhabai Sarda Arts, Commerce & Science College, Anjangaon Surji, Amaravati, Maharashtra in collaboration with Warsa Ethnic Heritage Society. The conference was inaugurated by Prof. Prabha Bhogaonkar and welcome address was given by Principal, Dr Bashisth Choubey. Keynote speaker of the First technical session was Shri Uday Avhad, ACF, Melghat.
Technical Session - II was chaired by Prof. Vinod Devarkar from Amaravati University. The keynote speaker of the second session was Dr. Vartika Jain, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Botany, Govt. Meera Girls College, Udaipur (Rajasthan). Dr. Vartika delivered a talk on Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) and Livelihood Opportunities: From Ethnobotany to Economy. After defining NTFPs, she emphasized on the importance of NTFPs for food, medicine, cultural utility, environment conservation etc. Dr Vartika discussed different NTFPs which are available in the market and described the impact of value addition on those NTFPs. In her powerpoint presentation, she mentioned examples of edible plants, medicinal & aromatic plants, fibre & floss yielding plants, fodder & fuel plants, Bamboos & Canes, plants in beauty care, plants with multifarious uses etc. Some of those plants were Custard Apple, Spiny Gourd, Semal (Silk Cotton Tree), Drumstick tree, Bael, Mahua, Gurhal, Ghritkumari, Lemon grass, Sacred Basil, Giloy, Ashwgandha etc. Dr Vartika discussed the challenges related to collection & harvesting along with marketing of NTFPs in the Indian scenario. She suggested that awareness as well as capacity building workshops should be organized among the forest dwellers regarding harvesting, storage, farming, transportation, certification and marketing of NTFPs so that they can get maximum price. She said that indigenous custodians of natural heritage must get proper benefits of their hard work and all schemes running for such purpose must be implemented properly. Further, she said that Forests are real wealth for human beings and must be conserved at any cost.
Delegates from all over the country joined the National Workshop on Zoom platform. In the end, convener of the National workshop, Dr. Mangesh Dagawal extended her heartfelt thanks to Dr. Vartika for igniting the young minds about entrepreneurship opportunities which could be captured using proper marketing and value addition of various NTFPs available in forests of India.
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