New Delhi || 27-11-2024
Dr. Suman Ray, Principal Scientist of CSIR-NIScPR told an impactful story on CSIR’s Aroma Mission and her team did to study socio-economic impact of this mission on tribal population.
Dr Ray said it on 26 November 2024 when addressing a celebration of Janjatiya Gaurav Divas marking the 150th birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, organized by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR).
The Janjatiya Gaurav Divas is meant to observe the role of the tribal population in preserving India’s heritage and advancing its progress, and ultimately integrating them into the mainstream society.
Dr Ray shared a story of lemon grass cultivation in tribal areas of Annamalai Tiger Reserve in Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu. Dr. Suman shared the statistics which showed the quality of oil and yield was increased after new varieties under Aroma Mission were introduced to these farmers. She also showcased a testimonial video of farmers admitting that the mission has helped them a lot in doubling their annual income. Dr. Suman through a video, depicted how other tribes in 37 clusters around the country benefitted 400 tribes with other cash crops such as Menthan, Rosagrass, Lavender, Wild Marigold etc.
She discussed how the study of Aroma Mission was incepted and executed and then she explained the findings of the study. The study found a profound effect of CSIR Aroma Mission on tribal population. She shown how new yielding cash crop varieties were introduced to farmers, how training was done, installation of new distillation units and sampling of materials raises the income of farmers to two fold. She also found that subsequently farmers switched to these crops and covered around 60% of cultivable land and women were also empowered in due course.
Dr Ray also discussed about other challenges that tribes are facing like borewell and water scarcity, high cost of fertilizers and pesticides, limited number of distillation units, remote locations, lack of healthcare and education facilities.
