CHALLENGE

Access to markets is fundamental to the goal of improving livelihood security for a growing number of micro entrepreneurs in the forest produce domain. But this access depends on efficient service delivery which in turn relies on useful and complete information provision to micro entrepreneurs.

APPROACH

As part of the Forest Connect alliance, the Forest Enterprise Information Exchange (FEINEX) initiative is evaluating the processes and systems that enhance efficiency in the agricultural SME sector.  It will then incorporate and adapt lessons to enable increased profits – economic and ecological -- for the forest enterprise sector.

The project will generate three databases 1) a portfolio of services offered by the agriculture service extension system of the central and state governments, 2) a plant disease outbreak and management information database, and 3) a stakeholder database of current service providers and intermediaries.

In addition to creating its own communications and sharing platform, FEINEX is sharing lessons learnt through the Forest Connect alliance.

RESULTS

With PROFOR support, an Indian non-profit organization called Community Enterprise Forum International (CEFI) produced in 2010 a database of 7,000 small and medium scale forest enterprises (SMFEs) and service providers that is helping link enterprises to markets, service providers and policy processes in the Indian states of Orissa, Maharshtra, Tamil Ndu, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Chhattisgarh.

The size of the database largely exceeded initial estimates as interest from SMFEs escalated. The database includes more than 1,000 non-timber forest product gatherers, classified and categorized by the species they usually collect.