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The present function of corporation revolves around marketing of timber salvaged by Forest Department, kendu leaves processed by Forest Department, salseed and bamboo and other non-timber products collected/ produced by raw material procurer and directly. It regulates the distribution of timber, firewood, commercial bamboo, and other small timbers as per availability to the local people through about 150 numbers of depots of the corporation in the state. Physical and financial achievement under different activities during last few years are given below.
The volume of timber operation continued to increase and recorded its maximum at 3.29 lakh cubic meters in 1982-83 and thereafter recorded downward trend when ban on felling of the trees has been introduced ( in November, 1992 ) by the state Government.. It has been earlier possible for OFDC to contribute royalty on timber annually of about Rs. 20 crores upto 1992-93 and now the same has been reduced substantially to the tune of around 10 crores. The volume of timber trade oscillates between 15000-30000 Cum for the last 8 years. A brief account of the total transaction of timber and firewood through OFDC during last few years is given as under
Since nationalization of Bamboo w.e.f. 1.10.88, the Corporation was entrusted with extraction of Bamboo from the forest and supplied to four paper mills as per order of the Government. Since 1993, the paper mills of the state had been engaged as Raw Material Procurer (RMP) for OFDC Ltd. by the Government with extraction of Bamboo in all the divisions. Subsequently, a few forest divisions were worked by OFDC simultaneously to sale the Bamboo to industries upto 1999-2000. Due to ad-hoc continuance of RMPs for OFDC without an agreement of working conditions, lot of violations and complications by RMPs have got in built to the nationalized Bamboo trade, resulting in huge non lifted Bamboo stocks in depots over 50,000 SU (MT) throughout the state with heavy losses. Due to non-committal of Paper Mills for Industrial Bamboo production from 2000, the Bamboo trade has got severely affected, and no Bamboo was extracted from forest in 2001-02 season. The OFDC has taken repeated attempt to dispose the stock inside and outside Orissa but still there are about 23000 SU left over in the depots which are by and large completely damaged by now. A brief account of the bamboo working through OFDC during last few years last few years is given below:
Prior to nationalization of Salseeds trade in 1983, the OFC had been collecting and selling the seeds from selective areas from 1973 to 1979. During the period 1980-81 to 1982-83 the corporation had no business in Salseed. Since its nationalization, the Corporation has been entrusted with collection of Salseed in major portions of the State upto 1994 directly, from 1995 to 1998 with engagement of Raw Material Procurers (RMP). The royalty payments and collection charges have gone down thereafter to about 15 lakhs and about 1.5 crore respectively. The year 2002 has been very bad seed year and the worst in the allotted areas due to rains, hails and storm in April-May 02. The total collection has got limited to about 300 MT only. The physical collection and royalty to Government for last 4 years are given below.
Commercial plantation: The Corporation has finalized to reforest after harvesting the commercial plantations raised over about 45445 Ha upto 1992-93. In this regard approval of harvesting schemes of 35862.14 ha commercial plantations raised from its own resources is awaited from the competent authorities ( i.e. GOI). The receipt from these will be ploughed back for raising the plantation. Coffee plantations in Koraput district and Environmental & Aesthetic Plantation at Khandagiri- Udaygiri hills in Bhubaneswar on experimental basis had also been taken up by OFDC Ltd. Besides, it takes up other deposit works for plantations from State/ Central Public Sector Units and Government Departments. Cashew plantation Cashew plantations raised upto 1991-92 with expenditure of 1130 lakhs and cumulative revenue of about Rs.1900 lakhs in the erstwhile Puri and Ganjam districts over 11054 ha (Pure Cashew) and 7651 ha(Mixed cashew) are yielding nuts and revenue annually. The revenue earned from sale of cashew nuts during last few years is given below)
Crop protection and improvement measures are to be introduced for improvement. Rubber plantation Rubber plantations had been also raised over 34 ha in Keonjhar district and 64 ha in Puri district by 1990-91 with an expenditure of Rs. 10.99 lakhs and Rs. 16.09 lakhs respectively. The tapping and marketing has been restarted in 2002. Plantation from deposit fund After 1992-93, OFDC has not taken any regular plantation but has undertaken the plantations under deposit schemes funded through the agencies namely Paradeep Port Trust, HAL, MCL, NTPC etc. A brief account of different types of plantation is given below.
The Corporation also process few NTFP items such as Honey, Arrow root, Pickles and Squash of various species. There is a processing plant where above items are manufactured is located as Jashipur under Bhubaneswar Zone. Raw materials for preparing the above items are collected by the field staff of the Corporation. A brief account of the trade of the above NTFP species undertaken by OFDC is given below.
A mini project on marketing information on NTFP and medicinal plants is currently being implemented through the OFDC with the financial assistance ( Rs. 10 lakhs) from the National Medicinal Plantation Board, Government of India. The project aims to collect the marketing information on NTFP and medicinal plants , develop the data bank and disseminate these information through various forms of documents, seminar and workshop. Two issues of the newsletter on marketing of NTFP and MP has already been issued. OFDC has also taken a number of attempts for advance trading the sal leaves but the OFDC failed to receive the encouraging response due to illegal monopolization of the market few big private traders in the area. A scheme on Sal leaf trading prepared by DM Baripada, estimate that a net profit of Rs. 20 lakhs can be made by trading 15000 Qntls. of Sal leaf by investment of few lakhs. OFDC is making efforts to undertake the trade.
Due to ban on felling of trees by Govt. of Orissa since 1992-93, the timber business of the OFDC has considerably been shrunken . Future plan for Corporation thus rests on identification of alternate area of activities on forest based viable schemes. Some of the identified alternatives are as follows:
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