Prospects of One District One Product Scheme in Tamil Nadu – An Analysis

.


INTRODUCTION
ODOP is a new scheme whose primary focus is developing clusters that would be manufacturing one product identified for the district.The project is being implemented through District Industries Centre.This scheme was first implemented in Uttar Pradesh in 2018.Due to this scheme, the MSME sector forms the backbone of economic progress and development of Uttar Pradesh, because of its contribution to industrial productivity, employment generation, versatile nature, adaptability, and contribution in export.MSME industries constitute an essential segment of the economy of Uttar Pradesh in terms of employment generation and as a source of foreign exchange earnings through exports.(The Indian Express, 24 Aug 2020).To promote MSME entrepreneurs through the 'One District One Product' scheme, the Government of U.P. collaborated with e-commerce giant Amazon India.A 'Memorandum of Understanding was signed to provide an online platform to the sellers from the selected districts of Uttar Pradesh.Amazon India declared that it would invite approximately 300 sellers from the MSME industry, especially local traders of nine districts, to progress through online selling through its social media platform.(Economic Times, 2018).Lata Bajpai Singh (2020) study revealed that the government's agenda behind the scheme was a more significant number of employment opportunities for the youth and to strengthen the inclusive and sustainable development of the state.The scheme aimed at encouraging domestic and specialized products and crafts.Due to the success of this scheme in Uttar Pradesh, the Government of India has implemented this scheme all over the states in 2020, which has been highlighted in the Union budget of 2020.In Tamil Nadu, the products were identified by the district officials based on the higher coverage of the product and finalized by the Directorate of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu.

Objectives of ODOP scheme
The objectives of the scheme are to build the capability of microenterprises to enable: (www.mofpi.nic.in)

•
Increased access to credit

•
Integration with organized supply chain by 109| Special | strengthening branding and marketing • Support for the transition of existing 2,00,000 enterprises into a formal framework

•
Increased access to common services like common processing facility, laboratories, storage, packaging, marketing, and incubation services

•
Strengthening of institutions, research, and training in the food processing sector

•
Increased access for the enterprises, to professional and technical support An outlay of the scheme

•
The scheme envisages an outlay of Rs.10,000 crore over a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.

•
The expenditure under the scheme would be shared in 60:40 ratio between Central and State Governments Programme Components (http ://odopup.in) The program has four broad components addressing the needs of the sector:

•
Support to individuals and groups of micro enterprises

•
Branding and Marketing support • Support for strengthening of institutions

•
Setting up a robust project management framework

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This study mainly focused on the perception of government officials towards the One district One Product scheme.All 36 districts in Tamil Nadu were selected.One Agricultural Officer/ Horticulture Officer who was involved in implementing this scheme were contacted.The questionnaire (google form) has been developed and mailed to the respondents.The total number of responses received was 32; hence the sample size was 32.To study the perception of this scheme, 15 statements were used.The scoring procedure has been adopted by Suresh Kumar (2011).The scores assigned for the positive statements were, 5 for strongly agree, 4 for agree, 3 for uncertain, 2 for disagree, and 1 for strongly disagree.The scoring for the negative statement was reverse.The collected data were analyzed using statistical tools viz percentage method, mean score to study the perception towards the ODOP scheme.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In each district, the specified products are listed below.It helps to resolve the issues of economic differences along with regional imbalances among states and district
It helps the farmers to take high risk in adopting new technology in particular product
It may leads to monocropping or producing only single product 2.31 XIV The Mean score was calculated by dividing the total scores given by all the respondents to the statement by a total number of respondents.Based on the mean score value, the ranking was given.
Here the perception indicates the views of the respondents towards this scheme.From the above table, the majority of the respondents stated that this scheme would help in transforming the products an artistically, it can be either through packaging or branding (4.29).Most respondents expressed that it helps promote entrepreneurship (4.28) and farmer welfare-oriented scheme (4.12).They also revealed that this scheme would improve product quality and skill development would result from this scheme (4.07) and increases access for the enterprises, to professional and technical support (4.06).The respondents also stated it is useful in preserving and developing traditional products / local crafts (4.04) and helps access marketing and export facilities (4.03).Some of them also stated that it aids in an increase in local employment (3.96) and does not improve farmer's family additional income (3.96).Few of them also expressed the negative opinion that it would not be more beneficial to individual farmers (3.53) and may lead to monocropping or producing only a single product (2.31).From the above table, the majority of the respondents had a medium level of perception (40.62%) towards the one district one product scheme whereas some of them had a high level of perception (31.25%) followed by a few of them had a low level of perception (28.13).This would reveal that since it is a new scheme, which is implemented in all districts by the government of India, it leads toa medium perception level.Since this scheme is in its initial level of progress, after two or more years impact would be more and benefit the farmers.

CONCLUSION
This study concluded that most government officials had a medium level of perception toward this scheme.This scheme mainly aims to make the farmers an entrepreneur.This would also lead to making each districtan export hub for a particular 109| Special | product.The program is particularly supportive in providing quality training to the youth, generating employment in the state and providing a holistic solution to the makers of the products.Making the lives of common people better, this program is an empowering example of the country's efforts toward the Make in India initiative.

Table 1 .
List of selected products in each district

Table 2 .
Perception of government officials towards the One district One Product scheme (n= 32)