Centre Plans to Rework MSP Rules for Minor Forest Produce: Regular Price Hikes for Forest Gatherers
The Centre is planning to restructure the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system for minor forest produce (MFP), such as tendu leaves, mahua, tamarind, lac and wild honey.
The aim is to build in periodic price hikes, so that MSP rates do not stay frozen for years while costs and market prices rise.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has been asked to study the current MSP framework for MFP and suggest how it can be rationalised (made more logical and up to date).
Concerns about stagnant MSP rates were raised in Parliament. Low or outdated MSPs leave forest-dependent tribal families open to exploitation by middlemen who buy their produce cheaply.
Government data tabled in Parliament in February 2026 showed that MFP procurement at MSP fell by over 92% in 2024-25 (about 3,920 tonnes worth ₹16.68 crore) compared with 2023-24 (over 51,400 tonnes worth about ₹124.3 crore).
Minor Forest Produce (MFP)
Minor forest produce means all the useful things people collect from a forest other than timber (wood from cut trees). It includes leaves, fruits, seeds, flowers, gums, honey, lac, bamboo, canes and medicinal plants. For millions of tribal and forest-dwelling families, collecting and selling these items is a main source of cash income. The word "minor" is misleading: the produce is small in size, but its importance to forest people is very large.
The planned restructuring targets the weakest link in the MFP system: prices that stay frozen for years. By asking TERI to review the framework and building in periodic hikes, the Centre is trying to make the MSP a real floor price again, so that forest gatherers are not forced to sell to middlemen at low rates.
Minimum Support Price (MSP) Mechanism
The Minimum Support Price is a price the government promises to pay producers for certain produce, no matter how low the market price falls. It works like a safety net: if traders offer less, the government (or its agency) stands ready to buy at the MSP. For farm crops, it protects farmers from sudden price crashes and encourages them to grow crops the country needs.
The MFP system borrows the idea of MSP from farm crops. The current debate shows the same weakness seen with crops: an MSP helps only when it is updated regularly and backed by actual buying on the ground.
Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006
The Forest Rights Act, 2006 gives legal rights over forest land and forest resources to Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have lived in and depended on forests for generations. It was passed to correct the "historical injustice" done when forests were declared government property without recording the rights of the people living there. Claims are first decided by the Gram Sabha and then checked by committees at the sub-division and district levels.
The FRA gives forest dwellers the right to own and sell MFP, but a right to sell is of little use if the price is unfair. A regularly revised MSP is meant to give economic value to the rights the FRA recognises on paper.
- MSP for MFP: notified for 87 items (up from about 10 in 2013-14)
- TERI asked to study and rationalise the MSP framework for MFP
- MFP procurement at MSP: 2022-23 about 26,744 tonnes (₹94.23 crore); 2023-24 over 51,400 tonnes (about ₹124.3 crore); 2024-25 about 3,920 tonnes (₹16.68 crore), a fall of over 92%
- Total released to states for MFP procurement: ₹319.65 crore (as of February 2026)
- 4,125 VDVKs sanctioned with ₹612.12 crore since 2019-20; 539 more under the PVTG saturation programme (as of February 2026)
- TRIFED: 116 Tribes India outlets
- Scheduled Tribe population of India: about 10.4 crore (Census 2011)