The NTFP Centre of Excellence of Tripura

Relevance And Proposed Activities of The Centre:

Tripura has more than 60% of its total land area under forests and has a wide variety of NTFPs, which has large potential market. Among these, medicinal plants form the biggest but underutilized NTFP. This includes medicinal plants and products like Amlaki, Gamar, Agar, Asoka, Pippali, Stevia, Sarpagandha, Mucuna, Buch, Satavari etc. Apart from food, Bamboo contributes much to the income of the state by way of handicrafts, furniture, construction items, tiles etc. The NTFP Centre of Excellence is aimed at improving the cultivation, collection, production, processing, marketing and popularization of these NTFPs. This will be stationed at Gandhigram near Agartala in the PMU and will have 4 major divisions

1. Bamboo and Rattan Research & Production Division
a. Expansion Development and maintenance of existing arboretum
b. Establishment and maintenance of rattan cane arboretum
c. Selection of bamboo Provisional Plus Clumps (PPC) & establishment of gene bank of selected priority bamboo species.
d. Establishment and maintenance of efficient pilot nursery & production of quality planting stock.
e. Research on bamboo and cane species and their production.
f. Research on bamboo gregarious flowering and their production.

2. NTFP Research and Production Division.
a. Documentation of traditional ecological knowledge relating to NTFPs.
b. Establishment of herbal gardens for documentation & conservation of plants of medicinal and aromatic value for documentation and extension.
c. Research on the function and potential of medicinal plants.
d. Research on NTFP species and their production.
e. Value addition and marketing division.

3. Value Addition and Marketing Division
a. Market research
b. Certification and marketing
c. Collection of standards for environmentally accepted practices and materials and need for independent certification
d. Product specific R&D

4. Training and Extension Division
a. Training management
b. Conduct of Training
c. Extension of Information
d. Preparation and Development of the extension material for JFMC/EDC/SHGs
e. Development of a network of contacts with relevant national and international agencies working in the region.
f. Support to develop JFM/SHGs cluster based activities

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