Trade of Mahua and Tora in Mandis of Bastar Division (in MT)

The Mahua prices do not seem to be following law of supply and demand, which implies that prices are determined from other parts of the country than by local factors. In Bastar (1999) the price of Mahua remained constant at Rs. 5 per kg and Mahua seed at Rs. 5.5 a kg. The oil was sold at Rs. 22 a kg whereas cake fetched Rs. 3 - 3.5 a kg. Processing of seed to oil gives a conversion ration of 30 –35%. During 2002, seeds sold at Rs 8 /- a kg in Sarguja.

Mahua in Sarguja

Mahua is a very high value product in Sarguja and is also available in plenty. Sarguja is one of the tribal dominated districts in northern part of Chhatisgarh. The major tribes of the district are majhuar and oram. About 56% of the entire population are tribes.

Apart from household consumption, huge amount of Mahua is sent to other parts of the country every year. Procurement of the flower starts from March and continues till April end. The forest dwellers leave their houses early in the morning, sometimes as early as 4 AM, for the forests for collection of NTFP. They are back sometime in the afternoon and processing immediately starts at their level, i.e. sun drying of Mahua to sell the produces. The peak time of Mahua flower collection is from 8 AM to 1 P.M and felling of mahua flower from the trees increase as the day temperature increases. Generally a family has to wait till 2 P.M to collect all the flowers and during a bumper season (2002 is one), a person can collect around 15 - 20 kg of Mahua flower per day. After collection, raw materials are dried for 3 - 4 days till they become light green and then turn reddish. The flower is then ready for liquor preparation, consumption or sale.

The price of Mahua flower varies from time to time in a particular season. At the beginning of the season it’s price is more i.e. Rs 6 - 7 a kg and gradually the price decreases as availability increases i.e. Rs 5 - 6 a kg. At the end of the season the price again increases as production decreases gradually and again it becomes Rs 6 - 7 per kg. Price can also vary depending on quality, basically dryness. The more dried it is, more will be its price as that can be stored for long time, even during rainy season. The tribal people generally keep some amount of Mahua flower for domestic consumption.

During rainy season villagers consume the quantity of mahua kept with them. During winter when the festivals start they again require mahua for social as well as domestic consumption. This time they depend on the market and buy the same produce at Rs 9 - 10 a kg. What generally happens is that traders at Ambikapur again sell stored mahua to small traders at Rs 8 - 9 a kg. Villagers are not able to store sufficient amount of mahua with them for future due to lack of storing facility and also as they need cash at the time of harvesting.

The tribal community prepares liquor in a very traditional method. Dried mahua flower is kept in a big container and water added with certain specific ratio. Then salt and a little amount of ranu guti is added and boiled for 3-4 hours. Now it is ready for consumption and the cost is Rs 10 per 750 ml in the name of Manda Arkhi.

This year being a bumper year of production, average collection of mahua per family per day has been 15- 20 kg and earning upto Rs 100. All the family members were engaged for a month during March-April in collection of the produce. During the survey time villagers were engaged in collection of tendu leaves, but it does not give them better returns in comparison to Mahua flower as the collection and marketing of tendu leaves is under govt. control. In later case, they do not get the payment immediately. Tendu leaves collection lasts upto a maximum of 10 days in a season and a person can earn a maximum of Rs 60 a day.

The villagers in gumgaon village were engaged in Mohua collection from March 2nd week to April 2nd week. 20 % of Mohua trees in the locality are either in revenue land or around the villages, rest being in forests. Villagers walk around 2 KM to reach the forest. They leave their home early in the morning at around 5 o’clock and start collecting Mahua that would have fallen the previous night. By 8 o’clock Mahua flower starts falling till 12 noon. In the mean time collection process continues and is kept in a tokni. The family would divide the trees amongst themselves to collect all produces from a single tree.

Around noon, they help each other in the process of collection and start moving. Sometimes they place the collected Mahua in the jungle for sun drying and a person is engaged there to look after the activities. About 30 % of the total collection is kept for domestic consumption. Rest is marketed either in the nearest mandi (on Saturday) or through grocery shops in the village and around. Primary collectors sell a part of Mahua procured from forests directly to consumers in the village itself or in local level weekly market. However, kutchias try their best to buy the produces from primary collectors. Kutchias in turn sell it to the traders keeping a margin of 25 to 50 paise in every kg of product. Anyways, there is hardly any difference in price wherever the produce is sold.

At times, the villagers exchange Mahua with rice in grocery shops. In barter system, 3 tami mahua is exchanged for 1 tami rice (1 tami = 2 kg). Some times members of tribal communities pledge their collection of Mahua against borrowed rice and salt from the village shop.

Average per family collection of Mahua during last season in the village has been found to be 8-10 quintal and earning upto Rs 3000/-.

In Sayar, one of the villages of Study, this season, villagers have sold mahua at Rs 5/- a kg to kutchias or the grocery shops. The channel of mahua from village Sayar to Ambikapur, district Head Quarter of Sarguja is as follows. The diagram also shows the price of mahua at different levels.

Village Sayar		grocery shops/ Kutchia		Small traders at Udaypur
Rs 5/-per kg		Rs 5.50/-per kg		Rs 6-7 per kg
				Traders at

Ambikapur

The primary collectors of village Chakeri collect mahua, dry it and sell it either in Udaipur grocery shop or to kutchia or in Udaipur Mandi (on every Monday). In the mandi it is again the kutchia who buys mahua on behalf of grocery shop owners or Trader-I. The price at this stage is Rs 5 - 6/-per kg. The trader-I may be local rich persons, called seths. With a commission of 50 paise per kg Kutchia give it to the above persons. The grocery shop owners sometimes keep a part of the produce collected after proper drying to sell in the future when prices rise to Rs 10/- per kg during rainy seasons and when the tribal community requires it for their festivals. The rest part of mahua and the collection of trader-I are sold to the traders of Ambikapur with a margin of Rs 1/- per kg. A Trader in Ambikapur, popular with the name of Makhan Lal has traded around 20 trucks of mahua this season. In this season, he got mahua at the price of Rs 6.50-7.50/- per kg. He doesn’t have any processing facility and transports the collection to Bilaspur or Raipur at a margin of Rs 1/- per kg from where it again goes to Ranchi, as per information available from local level businessmen in Udaypur. A diagrammatic representation of mahua marketing in the village Chakeri is described below.

Figure: Trade Channel of Mahua in Sarguja