Irular community, a Scheduled Tribe, predominantly residing in the Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu, has figured out a new way of cutting down on their traditional practices of hunting hares and honey collection as the district administration has come to its rescue. It is now making its way in the field of cashew cultivation and not just as a daily wager but as a sole proprietor of collecting its produce and selling it to the market directly.

All Irula families living in the district are super excited to take this business model forward as it is already pouring profits to them in handy.

THE AUCTION

The cashew farms in here are owned by both  private period as well as the forest department. The latter  are maintained by TAFCORN (Tamil Nadu Forest Plantation Corporation Limited), a PSU of Tamil Nadu Government. 2007 onwards, TAFCORN has been auctioning cashew nut trees to private entities every year. However, Irulas date remained unchanged.

The community people also wanted to participate in the auction so that they can also sell the produce directly to the market and can get some handsome profits. But, the auction required an earnest money deposit (EMD) which was the only things barring Irulas to participate in it. The state government owned them lot of money as it could not pay their wages for nearly three to four years, for want of funds.   They took it up with administration time and again.

THE DECISION

IAS officer P Ramana Saraswathi, who got posted as the DC of Ariyalur in June, 2021 with cashew auction only a month away, told Indian Masterminds, “I spoke with forest department to exempt their EMD for the auction.  A board resolution needed for the same. As we were short of time, a board resolution chaired by Secretary, Forest and environment team was just next to impossible. Looking for an alternative, we availed of Tribal Welfare fund sanctioned by the Director, Tribal Welfare.”

The fund of approx 4.5 lakh was sanctioned as EMD for the Irulas to participate in cashew produce collection. The officer said that the amount was given to the community as a loan and was to be repaid in five installments.

PROFITS

Upon this, around 39.40 hectares cashew nut trees were allotted to them after exempting from e-Auction as a special case for promoting livelihoods and boosting economy for the scheduled tribes.

After getting cashew nut trees, Committee members (irular, thamarai and sembaruthi-three women self-group members) carried out spraying pesticides and harvesting cashew nuts which resulted in a yield of 7600 kgs.

The total sale was worth Rs 9.02 lakhs leaving them with a neat profit of Rs 3.3 lakhs. The officer noted that the profits were distributed among all the 80 families who were involved in this.

MORE HELP

More district administration’s focus is on getting more funds from Government for purchasing machineries for processing cashew nuts, forming market place for delivering cashew nuts directly to traders and consumers. Irulars residing in 20 more villages in the district have submitted a representation to form a cashew nut industry to be managed by them for this purpose.

They have submitted a quotation from a private concern for installing boiler-cum-cooker, cashew drier electrical model (120 KG capacity), cashew cleaning machine (double head), ELGI Air compressor, Hand cutting machine, cashew cleaning separator and stand & steps for cashew clearing machine at the cost of Rs.16,04,210. The proposal has been submitted to the Additional Chief Secretary, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department, Chennai in addition to fund proposal of 72 lakhs for 18 units.

Soon, landless daily-wagers  Irulas may realise their dream of becoming farmers, thanks to innovative ideas of DC, Ms. P Ramana Saraswathi.