Leaf cup-and-plate industry to be promoted in a big way

Friday October 19 2007 10:33
IST Express News Service
CUTTACK: A small initiative by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) promises to change hundreds of lives in the remote tribal areas of the State, ensuring good earnings for them by generating substantial employment. And that too by utilising resources that are available in abundance in the region.
The MSME Development Institute here has begun promoting the traditional leaf cup and plate making as a rewarding self-employment option which has great potential for reaping handsome returns.
According to experts, there is a vast market for leaf cups and plates not only in the State but also outside. And if properly made and packaged, the products can also find a market internationally. Being organic and bio-degradable, they can find instant acceptance among the environment- conscious people and their number is constantly growing, they observe.
The leaf products can be as durable and sturdy as their paper and plastic counterparts and be available at cheap prices. Latest advances in technology have made leaf cup and plate making automatic through machines and thus ensuring quality.
Director of the MSME Development Institute Panchanan Dash stated that the KBK region could develop this enterprise into a local industry as the raw materials, primarily leaves of sal and siali, were available in abundance there. What was needed was developing entrepreneurship among the youth of the region.
One entrepreneur can give direct employment to several persons but also open up for scores of others as suppliers of the leaves and twigs. An automated leaf cup and plate making unit would cost between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh.
The MSMEDI in association with the District Rural Development Agencies in the KBK region, NGOs and banks is set to promote the sector in a big way. A six-week entrepreneurship- cum-skill development organisation on the sector was organised by the Institute at Dayanita, ITC, G Udaygiri in Kandhamal district recently. As many as 25 youths, including 15 women, took part in the programme.
Dash said that the trainees, who are interested in setting up their units, would be assisted in project-making for availing of bank loans - the SBI and NGO Samanmwita have already come forward to extend financial assistance under group activity - and also finding markets in the State and country.

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