The Kendu Leaf Trade: Problems & Prospects in Orissa - Vasundhara

7.Implications of the crisis:
While difficulties in sales are causing loss to the state exchequer, the impact on the livelihood of
the poor people dependent on KL operations at grassroot level has become of a matter of concern
because decrease in the target quantity and closure of phadis have been the fall out of the
claimed crisis in the bidi industry. During the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on
25 th April 2005, a member expressed concern if the KL trade was proving unprofitable for the
government then there was no use of doing this business; and the Principal Secretary(Forest
Deptt.) responded to this unenthusiastically just by saying that from overall point of view the
trade was not a loss-making one. We say ‘unenthusiastically’ because there was no attempt on
the part of Forest Department to convince the committee about the fact that at almost zero
investment, the government used to get more or less 25% of the total transaction value(in rupees)
as net profit; but the instance itself indicates that the government may someday consider
discontinuing the state trading of the produce if the situation deteriorates continuously.
Whereas the nationalization is said to have substantially increased the average annual production
as compared to that of the pre-nationalization years(vide Report of the Task Force, pp.v-vii),the
current situation is that between 1998 to 2000, the annual target of KL production used to be 5
lakh quintals in the state, but since 2001 it has been reduced by 5% or more. However, at phadi
level the reduction in target has been sometimes much more conspicuous. In some areas phadis
have either been closed permanently, or procurement has been totally stopped there temporarily
leaving the pluckers of the area in lurch. For instance, poor sales resulted in the temporary
suspension of procurement in 4 Ranges of the Navarangpur KL Division in a recent year.
While it is true that lack of sufficient quantity of good leaves in a particular area has made phadi
running economically not viable there, thus leading to a closure of the concerned phadi;
mismanagement is an open truth which has also played a significant role in some cases. For
instance, in the Ranapur region(Nayagarh district) there used to be several phadis during the
early nationalization years, but almost all of them were closed afterwards whereas large scale
bidi making takes place in the Balia-Raimula area and the leaves for this purpose are collected
mostly from the local area. Although it is a fact that the leaves of that locality are not of the
quality and quantity required to sustain so many phadis, but why not one phadi particularly when
so much bidi is being made there using the local leaves Bhasker Mohapatra and Maguni
Pradhan, who respectively worked in the Raimula phadi as the munshi and labourer, recall that
mismanagement was an important factor behind the closure of that phadi(per.comm..). And
newspapers have published even photographs showing how carelessly leaves were stored in a
phadi of the Ranapur area. Added to this is the lack of proper bush cutting operations. Does this
not suggest that if some areas are proving not to be economically viable, then that is partly or
wholly because of the mismanagement and/or corruption of the responsible officials
When the uneven distribution of phadis creates problem for the pluckers, it can be well-imagined
what would happen to them if the government totally closes procurement from their area by
closing phadis. In that case either they would have to travel to greater distances in order to reach
the next phadi of their area, which in turn would mean loss of persondays, not to speak of the
physical pain and other complications; or else they would have to sell their leaves at a lower
price to the illegal traders who take advantage of such situations.
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