Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 03, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 03, 2006 |
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Environment Agri-Biz & Commodities - Plantations Government - Agricultural Policy Environment Ministry drawing up plantation plan Mamuni Das
Though the land title would remain with the landowner, an agreement has to be signed amongst all partners — all of whom would have rights and duties — for the specified period.
A FILE photo of a herbal plantation
New Delhi , Aug. 2 The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is close to finalising its proposal for multi-stakeholder partnership in the plantation sector, which would allow private firms to invest in plantations in degraded forests and wastelands, provided they share the benefits with other stakeholders. There would be four stakeholders — the landowning agency, Forest Department (which would work like a regulator), local community and the firm that would take up plantations, Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary, MoEF, told Business Line. The private firm would be selected based on a competitive bidding, wherein the bidders have to specify the extent of benefit sharing.
Cabinet approval
The proposal, to be sent to the Cabinet for approval soon, would be within a legally binding format. Though the land title would remain with the landowner, an agreement has to be signed amongst all partners — all of whom would have rights and duties — for the specified period. The time period can vary from about 25 years to over 50 years. "The firms can have plantations of their choice barring those species that have been banned in the country. They would enjoy the selling rights of the produce, without having to take prior permissions every year," said Dr Ghosh. On whether the Ministry proposes to fix any eligibility criteria for interested firms, Dr Ghosh said, "Since the projects would vary in size, no specific numbers are fixed. We would look for a sound balance sheet, financial viability, technical and management expertise, and basically a company with a good character certificate, for the projects." For the basic framework of the proposal, the Indian Institute of Forest Management had been engaged. Later, the proposal was discussed with the stakeholders concerned such as State Governments, Forest Commission and industry associations, he said.
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