Mapping of Tribal Products and Assessing the Business Potential in Bhadradri Kothagudem, Telangana

The tribes in India usually depend on collection and sale of agricultural and forests products for their need and source of income especially for those residing close to and in the forest fringe villages. Hence, this study was conducted to document the forest products collected by the people with the aim of contributing knowledge that could help increase the business potential of these forest products. The study employed simple random sampling technique for selection of sixty (60) respondents from the three tribal groups of Koya, Kondareddie and Lambada. Primary data were collected from 20 tribals from each tribal group and the secondary data was collected from sources like Tribal Welfare department, websites, journals, research papers, tribal stores records and books. The result revealed that majority of the forest products were collected by Koya and Kondareddie tribal groups. The products include amla, bamboo, honey, mahua flowers, tamarind and tendu leaves. These groups are also involved in making of bamboo baskets. On the other hand, Amla, tamarind and honey were collected by Lambada group as they are seen to be shifting towards other occupations. From the 216 family members of 60 tribal respondents, about 91 members were involved in collection of forest products. Majority (53%) of the people spend 50 - 100 days in collecting forest produce and around 42% spent 5-8 hours per day. In addition, about 28% each spent 1 - 4 hours and 9 - 12 hours for collection of forest produce in a day. The study also found that all the collected forest products by the tribals in the study area can be further processed to add value and enhance price. The price difference in raw and value added products ranged from 30%to as high as 1593%.