Tripura is surging ahead to present a highly ambitious Rs 20 billion Agar economy in near future. And, going by the government policies, interests already generated and highly encouraging trends, soon the dream will come true. The massive thrust in the Agar sector can be gauged from the fact that within three years after the plan went afoot; there are about 1.38 crores of Agar trees in 15,000 plots which are ready to contribute effectively and legally in the multi-products Agar sector.
In view of the enormity of the possibilities that the Agar is poised to throw up Tripura is now holding the World’s biggest Annual Event exclusively for Agarwood sector –the three day long ‘3rd International Buyer Seller Meet of Agarwood Products’. The event gets underway in Hotel Polo Towers on Wednesday. The event –inaugurated by Chief Minister Dr Manik -Saha, witnessed about 120 participation of buyers and sellers from not only Tripura and other parts of the country but also from abroad. There are seven participants from GCC and ASEAN countries. There were also representatives of as many as seven ministries and several state government departments, apart from the top brass of the forest departments including Additional DG of the Forest ministry SP Yadav who also holds the key position of CITES management. The FFDC and Invest India are also a part of Organizing Committee.
According to Pravin Agarwal, Additional PCCF and Director of NCE, who leads the ambitious Agar related activities in the state said, the growing interest in Agar could very well be felt that while in first and second such meetings there were 50 and 80 participants, this time it is being attended by around 120.
Giving details of the steps taken to become the leader in the Agar sector, Agarwal said, it is only three years and the sector has already got fillip from all corners. It was on October 5, 2020 works were initiated with Research, discussions, field visits, and stakeholder consultations and next year Government notified Tripura Agarwood Policy – which happened to be the first ever such policy with clear visions and prescriptions in the entire country.
He said, more than 20 lakh seedlings in the last two years have already been distributed for plantation while several steps were taken to simplify and ease the restrictions hitherto imposed.
The GOI also notified the Export Quota of 25000 Kg of Agarwood Chips and 1500 kg of Agarwood oil under CITES from Tripura. Besides, Agarwood has also been included as a thrust sector in Tripura Industrial Investment Promotion Incentive Scheme, 2022. Apart from that North Tripura was identified for the One district, one product (ODOP), and Dharmanagar Railway station as one station, one product (OSOP). Collaborations with multiple organisations for R&D like NIT Agartala, FFDC, CIMAP, NECTAR, RFRI etc have also been forged.
Agarwal said, the products that the sector is going to introduce are not only Agar based perfumes but also Agar based Hair oil, Moisturiser cream, Gel to control psoriasis Skin disease, Agar Hydrosol, Agar-based soap, Agarbatti, Dhup Cone, Deodrant (Under Development), Body and Massage oil (Under Development).
“Team from World Bank visited Kadamtala; decide to include it in Element Project. And entrepreneurs from Indonesia, Philippines, Kuwait, Dubai etc. visited Tripura to have on spot understanding of the sector’s future, said the Additional PCCF.
To give an outline of the massive activities in the Agar sector Agarwal said, there are plans for inoculation of about 80000 to 100,000 tree per year, harvesting of 9000 trees per month, Chipping of 300 trees per day, Production of 300 kg chips per day requiring 6000 Skilled
workers per day and for that Rs 10 crore working capital for labour and Rs 10 crore for inoculation will be required.
However, there are also bottlenecks which need to addressed to make the dream come true—which included among others Simplification of CITES procedure—which restricts Agar movements for being the species endangered, and most importantly National Agarwood Board in accordance with Rubber Turmeric Board and other commodity Board.
Dr K S Sethi, PCCF in his speech also dwelt extensively on the prospect of the Agar sector in the state while Chief Secretary J K Sinha spoke about interest shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Agar sector of the state.
Additional DG of the Forest ministry SP Yadav in his speech gave assurances that all necessary steps to ease the formalities and straightjacket norms would be taken up by the concerned authorities to help Tripura Agar sector’s growth.
