Trees for Wealth: Three million jobs estimated for Northeast region by 2050

Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 4 (EMN):  At least three million jobs are estimated to be generated in the north-eastern region of India by 2050 under the Trees for Wealth (TfW) movement, stated Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Entrepreneur Associates (EA), Neichute Doulo, on Monday.

Launched in 2019, Trees for Wealth is a ambitious movement initiated by the EA with an aim of planting two million fruit trees by 2025, 200 million by 2035, and one billion by 2050.

“There is a huge silent movement going on in 12 districts in Nagaland and two districts in Manipur,” he said while addressing a press conference in Kohima on Monday.

In 2021-22 alone, the movement has been able to impact 1455 men and 824 women. Meanwhile, over 12,000 farmers have been trained and inducted into the movement since 2019. A total of 4.6 lakh fruit trees have been planted since the movement started and EA’s target for 2022 is to plant five lakh fruit trees, he said.

A large percentage of the saplings under this movement are being raised by women, farmers, persons with disabilities (PwDs), daily wagers and labourers, he added. 

‘The EA will work with one million farmers, ensuring their income generation and livelihood sustainability to generate an income of INR 2 lakh per family by 2030 from fruits. Ultimately, the movement will generate one million farm-based jobs and two million jobs in logistics and food processing activities by 2050, generating at least three million jobs for the NER,’ he estimated.

Control migration to urban areas

He went on to say that if the movement receives continued support, it would provide opportunities for families and youth to be meaningfully engaged and financially secure to stay back and earn in their native villages.

“This will reverse the trend of unmitigated urban migration and also migration from NER to metros. All of these interlinked developments will ultimately usher in an INR 1 trillion local economy (2020 constant price), while simultaneously addressing the effects of climate change through the increase in tree population,” he said.

While Nagas give priority to government jobs and tend to “look down” on business people and entrepreneurs, EA is “fighting against this mindset”, he said.

‘For the Nagas, to alleviate poverty is within us. We only need to think and act differently,’ he added.

By demonstrating a successful fruit tree model of business and showcasing its benefits and viability, he hopes to make people undertake fruit tree plantation on their own and adopt it on a mass scale.

Already, few farmers have planted over a thousand fruit trees after attending EA training, it was informed.

‘The evidence from the ground since the launch of the movement is very encouraging and insightful regarding the potential as well as the challenges of bringing about attitudinal change and introducing new ideas,’ he said.

Providing initial support

Giving further update, he informed that many farmers who have joined the TfW movement to experiment with fruit tree plantations are willing to scale up but remain to be cautious as it is a new venture.

‘In this regard, providing assistance to scale up production and hand-holding support in the initial years of the business is crucial. Provision of training and mentoring farmers on scientific care and modern techniques of horticulture are some needed areas for scaling,’ he pointed out.

He also said that market fluctuations and unforeseen natural calamities remains a risk factor, which EA is trying to address through its buy-back policy and providing credit facilities to enable farmers to meet their urgent needs.

Fruit trees and climate change

The social entrepreneur believes that planting 1 billion fruit trees will add value to reverse climate change.

‘It will make NER India and the north western region of Myanmar to truly take advantage of being the six hotspots of the world’s biodiversity, by adopting mass fruit tree plantations,’ he added.

The Trees for Wealth (TfW) movement was introduced to bring about a revolution in the local economy alongside restoring and conserving the environment through the wide scale plantation of fruit trees. A mixed variety of fruit trees like plum, orange, lime, guava, persimmon, avocado, mango, fig, tamarillo (tree tomato) etc. are being introduced under the movement.