Secondary agriculture offers a viable option of doubling the farmers’ income and also making agriculture competitive.Functional expansion of hitherto traditional agriculture can be a potential way to increase the income of the farmers, particularly those who are small, landless, and dependent on natural resources like forests for their sustenance. Besides others, utilizing the spare time of the farmer family is one of the potent approaches of secondary agriculture.Alternative enterprise linked to rural off-farm activities has been one of the approaches of secondary agriculture that adequately help utilize existing human resources, technologies, and competencies to create gainful employment and adequate income for the participants.

Gum from Palash tree is a multi utility product

Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action (SRIJAN), an internationally acclaimed NGO working across many states of central India, has successfully facilitated a better livelihood option through value addition that not only provided Sahariya tribals additional income but also helped in protecting forests in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh. The Government of India classifies Sahariya tribes, mainly found in the districts of Morena, Sheopur, Bhind, Gwalior, Datia, Shivpuri, Vidisha, and Guna of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining Baran district of Rajasthan, as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Sahariyas are traditionally expert woodsmen and forest products gatherers. Their main occupations are hunting, and collecting and selling gum, catechu, tendu leaf, honey, mahua flower, and other medicinal herbs from forests. A considerable number of Sahariyas are settled cultivators and grow wheat, pearl millet, maize, black gram, and pigeon pea.