If the growing needs of timber and fuel wood are to be met without chopping forests and inflating wood imports, a key option can be promoting agroforestry - growing trees and shrubs, along with crops, on agricultural lands.
Even today, about 65 per cent of the requirement of timber and nearly half that of fuel wood is met through farm forestry. Going by projections made by the Jhansi-based National Research Centre for Agroforestry (NRCAF), science-based farm forestry can make the country nearly self-sufficient in timber. That would, obviously, obviate the need for timber imports, which currently averages about six million cubic metres every year. Besides, it can sharply reduce the dependence on forests for fuel wood. And, a carefully chosen combination of trees, shrubs and crops in agroforestry can help address the paucity of green fodder, estimated at about 35 per cent.
This aside, agroforestry can support forest-based industries such as saw mills, plywood-manufacturing factories, and pulp- and paper-producing units, most of which run at below-rated capacities for want of adequate raw material. This huge sector comprises about 23,200 large saw mills, thousands of small wood-cutting units, about 60 large and medium plywood factories, 2,500 small-scale plywood plants and about 660 pulp-and paper-making units. Notably, a sizeable part of the biofuel requirement, too, can be satisfied by including suitable biofuel-producing trees in farm forestry. And, fruits, oilseeds and a host of other useful commodities can be produced through such ventures to improve nutrition and farm incomes. The employment generation capacity of agroforestry is estimated at 450 man-days per hectare, per year.
Apart from such enormous economic gains, farm forestry offers several environmental advantages which are no less significant. NCRA's scientists believe expansion of farm forestry should be a key component of the strategies to achieve the coveted goal of stretching the country's vegetative cover from about 25 per cent to 33 per cent of its geographic area. Trees growing along agricultural fields can serve as important sinks to sequester the environ-injurious carbon dioxide, mitigating climate-related risks.
India is among the few countries that realised the need to develop research capabilities to generate situation-specific technologies for farm forestry about three decades ago. Institutions created for this purpose include NRCAF and the all-India coordinated research project on agroforestry, both run by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and the various wings of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education. Many state agricultural universities, too, have agroforestry departments for research and education in this discipline. It is, therefore, appropriate for New Delhi to host the 'World Congress on Agroforestry 2014' in February 2014. The congress is being sponsored by ICAR and the Nairobi-headquartered World Agroforestry Centre.
Farm forestry researchers have already identified the trees and shrub species suitable for the different agro-climatic zones across the country. "Our work has shown native trees and shrubs, which are well acclimatised to local climatic regimes, are the safest choice for agroforestry," says NRCAF Director S K Dhyani. Many plant species recommended by NRCAF are targeted at conserving biodiversity, enhancing soil health, providing timber and fuel wood, mopping up carbon dioxide and delivering various other socio-economic benefits.
However, the agroforestry sector is beset with some formidable constraints that need to be addressed to accelerate its growth. Among these, one is the lack of uniformity in the policies and regulations relating to felling and transporting farm-grown timber and other products in different states. Besides, the agroforestry produce is neither covered under agricultural insurance schemes nor entitled to marketing support. It is also denied the soft bank loans available for crop farming.
Currently, a framework of the national agroforestry policy is being prepared. Hopefully, this will address these issues. It should also moot measures to exploit the synergies between farming and forestry. The underlying objective of the policy should, obviously, be to optimise exploitation of the massive socio-economic and environmental potential of agroforestry.
surinder.sud@gmail.com
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