Van Dhan Vikas Kendras
Around 120 tribal women members of the Odisha state’s Van Dhan Vikas Kendras prepare laddus, cakes, jam, toffees, pickles, squash, pakodas and biscuits using dry mahua flowers and supply them in the local market.
About Van Dhan Vikas Kendras:
- The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) launched the Van Dhan scheme in 2018 to improve tribal income through the value addition of tribal products.
- The Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters provide the Van Dhan Vikas Kendras economies of scale, livelihood and market linkages, as well as entrepreneurship opportunities to Tribal forest gatherers.
Key Facts about Mahua Tree
- It is mainly cultivated or harvested in the wild in Southern Asia for its edible flowers and oil seeds.
- It is commonly known as madhūka, madkam, mahuwa, Butter Tree, mahua, mahwa, mohulo, Iluppai , Mee or vippa chettu.
- It is a frost resistant species that can grow in marginal areas of dry tropical and subtropical forests up to an altitude of 1200-1800 m.
- It can be found scattered in pastures, in crop fields in central India, and on rivers banks in semi-evergreen forests.
- It grows well where annual rainfall is between 500 mm to 1500 mm, and where temperatures are in the range of 2-46°C.
- It requires loamy or sandy-loam soils with good drainage and also occurs on shallow stony, clayey and calcareous soils.