Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Co-operative Federation Limited is an apex organization with three tier co-operative structure comprising of an state level Apex body, 31 District Unions and 901 Primary Forest Produce Co-operative Societies. At present there are about 10300 collection centres (called Phads) of Tendu leaves spread over the length and breadth of the state and approximately 13.76 lakhs Minor Forest Produce gatherer families. Federation is responsible for all aspects relating to management, development and trade of minor forest produce sector in the state.

Organizational Structure

Federation's Apex Body

The Federation's apex body is situated at Raipur. It has elected board of directors comprising of Chairman, elected Directors and State government officials. The apex body performs various activities such as collection and storage and trade of MFPs and payment to collectors through district level co-operative unions. It disposes specified non timber forest produce through e-tenders and e-auctions by inviting National level participants. It also advises the State Govt. on policy formulation on conservation, collection, value addition and marketing of MFPs etc.

Forest Produce Co-Operative District Union

Forest produce co-operative district unions are the Forest Division level units, which are responsible for the production/collection, transport and storage of MFPs. The Divisional Forest Officer who is ex-officio Managing Director of District Union, is the chief executive officer. He ensures the collection of produce, storage and payment of collection wages to the collectors through primary co-operative societies with the assistance of Forest Department and other Government Departments. The Managing Director is assisted by Deputy Managing Director and other staff. The District Union is governed by the Board of directors headed by elected Chairman. The Board of Directors comprises of elected members from different areas of the forest division and nominated members like District Collector, Superintendent of Police, Divisional Forest Officer & Managing Director and Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies. This governing body formulates the field strategy and reviews the progress of work assigned to District Unions.

Primary Forest Produce Co-Operative Societies

Primary co-operative societies have been constituted with the membership of actual collectors of MFP and are responsible for collection of the MFP at collection centre level . Each primary society has 10 to 20 Tendu leaves collection centres where the Tendu leaves are purchased and purchase price is paid to collectors. Each Primary Co-operative Society has separate area of jurisdiction and elected and nominated members in the Board of Directors as in the case of district union. Each Primary Co-operative Society has a part time manager to assist the office and fieldwork. The collection centres are managed by Phad Munshis, appointed for that purpose by the societies. These collection centres are supervised and guided by Forest Department Officials.