Transforming Rural Uttar Pradesh through Integrating Tree Cultureon Farm Land : A Case Study of WIMCO’s Poplar Programme
R.C. DHIMAN*
ABSTRACTThe state of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) with 5.95% of its land area under forest cover is far below the target of20% of its geographical area required to be maintained under forests as per the National Forest Policy,1988. Tree culture outside forests and specifically on farm land is immensely helping in increasing the treeand forest cover and also in over all rural development by generating employment in plantations and theirgrowing, maintenance, harvesting, transportation; generating additional income to the growers from thesale of trees; and in establishing new wood based industry based on sustained availability of wood rawmaterial from such tree resources. The main tree species planted by the farming community on theirfarmland are eucalypts, poplar semal, kadam, shisham etc which are fast grown and farmers are able togrow agriculture crops in their association. WIMCO- a matches manufacturing company with its factorylocated in Bareilly started promoting poplar for match wood in U.P. and some adjoining states 1970’sonward. The company is a leading stake holder in poplar R&D, nursery production, supply of plantingmaterial to growers and procurement of wood grown therefrom. WIMCO is one of the main users of poplarwood and has successfully developed backward and forward linkages in sapling supply- wood procurement-wood processing chain. WIMCO’s endeavors in promoting this tree on farmland has made U.P. a leadingstate in poplar culture and the state has planted approximately 1.2 crore saplings covering an area of overaround 24,000 ha equivalent in just concluded planting season (2012). The main poplar growing districtsof the state are Shaharanpur, Muzaffarnaagr, Meerut, Baghpat, Jyotiba Rao Phule Nagar, Bulandshahar,Hapur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit, Shahajahanpur, Kheri and Bahraich wherefarmers are growing it as a cash crop. It is generating an employment of around 6 crore man-days innursery and plantation culture and associated activities of harvesting, transportation and wood processingin wood based industry. Poplar is now a raw material for around three dozen products and has created awin-win situation for all that include government institutions which are earning appreciable revenue fromtaxation and licensing mechanisms.
Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) is primarily an agrarian state.79.22% of its 199.58 million human population (census2011) and a very large percentage of its 58.33 million cattlepopulation (cattle census 2003) live in rural areas anddepend on local land resources for sustenance and lifesupport system on day to day basis. It is one of the highlypopulous state (473 person/km2) accounting for 16.4% ofthe country’s population which inhabits in 1,12,804villages, and 901 development blocks. Agriculture alongwith a few other government initiatives like MNREGAand rural development programmes have been engagingmost of the rural masses in obtaining daily needs includingwages from part-time employment. A long term andsustainable economical activity to the major part of ruralmasses, however, does not exist. The economy in the statehas regional imbalances in term of economic indicators
like agricultural productivity, infrastructural facilities, andindustrial growth. The state with vast human, land andnatural resources has enormous potential to grow andimpact the economical transformation of its rural parts. Along term focus on developing complete chain ofproduction, marketing, processing and distribution ofagriculture produce could significantly transform the ruralU.P. Of late, better realization of ecological andenvironmental values of forests, and deliberateinterventions at policy and planning levels haveencouraged conservation of natural resources. Tree basedneeds of the community and industry are now met withfrom trees grown outside forests (ToFs). The beginningof such a programme was made within the state by theactive role of a private sector viz., WIMCO- matchesmanufacturing company by developing backward andforward linkages in production and usage of wood rawmaterial in association with rural farming community.
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This could be seen as a case study for development inmany regions of the country which are currently laggingbehind in term of a number of important aspects of wellbeing and social progress. This paper presents this casestudy that has ecologically, silviculturally, economically,and industrially transformed many locations those havebeen growing this tree now for over three decades in thestate.
Present forest scenario
Forests and produce derived therefrom have beenextremely important components in overall developmentof the state, region and the country. 23.41% (7,69,538 km2)of the geographical area of the country and 6.88% (16,593km2) that of the state have been designated as forest area(ISFR 2011). This important land resource is managed bythe state forest departments for obtaining timber, non-wood forest products and for maintaining ecologicalbalance. Forests have also been the source of livelihoodfor tribes and poor people living inside and on theirperipheries for obtaining firewood, medicinal herbs, foodand other life support needs. The state with 14,341 km2
area under forest cover (IFSR 2011) is miserably low inthis important land resource attribute and thereforecertainly a forest deficit state. The latest report alsodocumented a decline in 3 km2 forest cover (mainly fromdense forests category) in the state between last report(2009) and the latest report (2011). The Indian Forest Policy,1988 lays emphasis for creation of 33% of land area underforests with a rider of 60% in hills and 20% in plains. Thestate is largely plain area and tree cover as per therecommendations of the Indian Forest Policy needs to be20% of its geographical area. Only two districts of thestate viz., Sonbhadra with 37.43% forest cover andChandauli with 22.17% forest cover meet the criterion ofover 20% forest cover in the state. Six other districts viz.,Bakrampur (17.75%), Chitrakoat (18.14%), Maharajganj(15.62%), Pilibhit (19.95%) and Mirzapur (19.16%) aremarginally below the target and could attain the desiredforest cover of 20% geographical area with some concertedefforts. There are only a few districts with geographicalarea between 10-15% viz., Bahreich & Sharavasti (12.33%),Lalitpur (11.31%), Lucknow (11.91%) and Shaharanpur(10.47%) and all other districts are far below the expectedlimits needed to be maintained under the forest cover asper the forest policy. The task of greening the state istherefore more challenging than many other states andthere needs to be all out efforts to green U.P. to meet itstarget of forest cover. There would be increased pressureto protect and maintain the existing forest cover fromever increasing human and cattle populations and alsofrom other developmental activities taking place all
around. The state further needs a very large quantity ofwood based products for expanding economy andconstruction activities for which either wood needs to beimported at very high price or tree resources are requiredto be developed on land outside forests. All sourcesindicate shifting of the wood production system fromforests to non forest areas and from forestry sector to nonforestry sector in many parts of the country including thestate of U.P. It is estimated that over 90% of total woodavailability for domestic and industrial use now comesfrom non-forest areas especially from the farm land andsome from imports (Dhiman 2011). It is therefore expectedthat growing trees on farm land will continue to expandin order to meet this scarce resource in future.
Evolution of tree culture on farm land
Retaining and maintaining trees of natural originwith some exceptions of planting selected ones on farmland especially on bunds or near water sources have beentraditional practices in the state and the country. Thesetrees have been providing shelter to the farmers and theiranimals during farm operations in addition to yieldingsmall timber and for meeting other tree based needs onday to day basis. Establishment of local forest basedindustry had been based on the assurances given by thestate for providing raw material from the governmentforests. Growing trees, scientific management, harvestingand their timber trade has traditionally been with thestate forest department with strong regulations on theirharvesting and movement from one place to other.Dependence of humans, cattle and industry on forestscontinuously increased enabling judiciary andadministration for certain interventions to curtail harvestsfrom forests in order to avoid their depleting health infavour of environmental values. This also witnessedinternal and external financial supports for initiatingforestry programmes involving local people to promotesocial and farm forestry. Farm forestry by the year 1980has been included in the 20 point programme for ruraldevelopment announced by the Government of India inthe year 1976. The state of U.P, implemented WB/USAIDprogramme, over 90% of which was having farm forestrycomponent, between 1985 to 1990 for involving localpeoples in the state. There was mixed response to theseprogrammes since most of them were meant to createawareness among locals regarding growing trees forenvironmental and local needs and were not takenseriously by the growers. Bareilly based matchesmanufacturing WIMCO realized that involving peoplefor growing wood raw material for its factories hasbecome inevitable for its long term sustainability. Thislinking of tree based raw material production with
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economical considerations initiated promotion of treeculture on farm land and is on the rise since then withincreased demand for the same. Policy and regulations inforestry, agriculture and rural development a few timeshad an adverse affect on the programme temporarily yetthis opportunity for regular and sustainable productionof trees on farm land as raw material for wood basedindustry is realistic and now unavoidable.
WIMCO’s forestry initiatives and its poplar programme
WIMCO Ltd., India’s largest manufacturer of safetymatches started its product manufacturing in 1923. Thecompany, till recently a part of Swedish Match and now asubsidiary of ITC, is engaged in business of matches,packaging & filling machines, and tree nurseries andplantations. The company has one of its factories inBareilly, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) for which it startedpromoting poplars as match wood plantations on farmland in North India. The company raised first ever poplarnursery outside government sector with its introducedclones at Bareilly, UP during 1969-70. A few saplings outof this production were planted on farmers’ fields aroundBareilly during the following years. Fast growth of itsintroduced poplar clones on farm fields impressed themanagement to initiate a planned programme forpromoting its plantations on suitable locations. Thecompany also shared its clones with U.P. ForestDepartment (now Uttrakhand) that was conducting trialswith its many introduced species and clones on the forestland in hills and locations near foot hills. The departmentintroduced WIMCO’s introduced G3 clone in its plantationprogramme in 1972 and G48 in 1975 (Chaturvedi 1982).The company later on created Agroforestry ExtensionDivision in 1976 and a subsidiary company-WimcoSeedlings Ltd. in 1984 for focused R&D and extension onpoplar and some other socially and industrial importantforest tree species. Wimco Seedlings Ltd. was merged withWIMCO Ltd. in the year 2007 and since then it is functioningas one of the division of the company.
WIMCO has now established itself as a trustedpartner of tree growers and the acknowledged leaderamongst producer of quality planting stock of poplar,eucalypts, kadam and a few other forestry andhorticultural tree species. It has been recognized as suchby the enlightened & discerning farming community ofU.P., Haryana, Punjab, Uttrakhand, the forestry andagricultural establishments and research institutes inIndia. It introduced poplar to the farming community ofnorth Indian states around 4 decades ago and since then isa backbone and at the center stage of poplar culture in thecountry. The company has also introduced, refined andoperationalized root trainer technology for seedling
production among many user agencies in the country.First cloning of eucalypts, kadam and gambar in Indiahas been reported by the company (Chandra and Gandhi1995a, 1995b, Chandra and Yadav 1986). WIMCO is theonly organisation credited with registration of poplarclones with the International Poplar Commission (IPC)from India. It has released 15 clones so far which are inhigh demand from the farming community. Three clonesviz., Udai, Kranti and Bahar were released during the year1992, six clones viz., WSL 22, WSL A/26, WSL 27, WSL 32,WSL 39, WSL A/49 were released during the year 2000and six others viz., Wimco 62, Wimco 81, Wimco 83,Wimco 108, Wimco 109 and Wimco 110 were releasedduring the year 2010. Company’s developed andintroduced clones including G48 are still the leading clonesdemanded by the growers. G48 followed by WSL 22, Udai,WSL 39, S7C15, Wimco 81, WSL 32, S7C8, Kranti, Wimco108, WSL A/26, WSL A/49 and around a dozen others aregrown by the company. Clones G48, WSL 22, Udai, WSL39, WSL 32, Wimco 81and Wimco 110 together constituteover 90% of the total planted poplar in the country. Out of6 recently released clones viz., Wimco 81, Wimco 83,Wimco 108 and Wimco 110 are now on high demand fromthe progressive farmers. Whereas, G48, WSL 22, WSL 39have widespread acceptability, many others are restrictedto a few locations. Clone G3 once a dominate clone inpoplar culture over the greater part of the poplar growingregion has developed susceptibility to leaf blight (Bipolarisspp.) and is now restricted to only Aligarh/Bulandshaharlocations in UP where it does not attract fungus infestationdue to drier weather conditions. Similarly, clone G48 themost preferred clone among the growers over the greatpart of Region of Intensive Poplar Culture (RIPC) is notgrown towards eastern limits of poplar culture especiallyeastward Bareilly (U.P.) because of its high susceptibilityto sap sucking insects including red mite (Dhiman 2009a).Farmers prefer to grow poplar on farm land since its betterintegration with agricultural crop production that meetsthe long term and short term financial and sustenanceneeds of the growers. They plant around 500 saplings/hain compact blocks or around 250 saplings/ ha at 3 m spacingon field boundaries. Farmers prefer to grow sugarcaneand mentha crops during the first two years followed bywheat as a winter crop throughout the retention of treeson their fields.
The company is credited for first ever successfulPublic Private Partnership (PPP) model implemented onforest trees in which finance to growers was arrangedthrough nationalized banks and the refinance scheme waspopularly known as WIMCO-NABARD poplar scheme.Pursuant to the recommen-dations of the NationalCommission for agriculture and the priority assigned tofarm forestry, NABARD was requested to provide
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refinance assistance against loans to farmers by local banksfor encouraging tree planting in the rural areas. A projectwith this objective submitted to NABARD for theirconsideration by WIMCO was in principle approved.According to Deshpande (2005), “WIMCO poplarprogramme succeeded well by all standards since it gavebetter than expected results in the field, had higher levelof farmer’s satisfaction, continuation of the activity evenafter withdrawl of the financial support. Totalcommitment of WIMCO’s management to poplarprogramme helped in establishing its culture in thecountry”. According to National Afforestation andEcodevelopment Board (NAEB 1993), “WIMCO’s poplarprogramme is an ideal example of fruitful partnershipbetween agriculture and industrial sector. Theprogramme has become a model for agro-forestryschemes for generating wood resources and protectingnatural forests from further felling of trees. WIMCO-NABARD poplar scheme was a noble venture of jointpartnership between the industry and the banking sectorof working together for the benefit of the farmingcommunity besides serving the cause of eco-development.The programme provides a complete package to thefarmers in terms of the best possible planting material,most appropriate technical guidance and of course, the
optimum income from the plantation at the end of eightyears. WIMCO technology has contributed a major shareto the success of the programme”.
Extent of poplar nursery and plantation culture
Nursery production
State Forest Department has been raising somepoplar saplings in its nurseries. The records show totalnursery stock of 8,76,32,706 number of plants of 72+ otherspecies in 925 nurseries in 72 Forest Divisions (http://forest.up.nic.in/plantation.pdf). However, poplar nurserystock is reported as 84,099 which is grown in 52 nurseriesand it comprises less than 0.1% of total planting stockcategorized as naked root, seedling polypot, and root-shoot stock type as retrieved from the state website inSeptember, 2012. The major share of poplar nursery andplantation production is in the private sector which growspoplar saplings as naked root plants in open beds andcalled as Entire Transplants (ETPs) or saplings.Conservative estimates indicate that the private sectorhas grown around 1.5 crore nursery saplings during thejust concluded planting season (Table 2). The informationon nursery stock has been collected from WIMCOs fieldstaff posted across the main poplar growing districts andlocations from Hapur in eastern U.P. to Baihraich ineastern part and from Aligarh in south to Shahranpur/Bijnor/Pilibhit in the north parts of U.P. The name ofdistricts in this case does not mean the administrative andrevenue districts as per government control but theboundaries of our district units are overlapping with theadjoining districts in many locations.
Till 1994, most of the poplar plantations grown bythe growers were under the WIMCO-NABARD refinancescheme. WIMCO was responsible for supplying thesaplings to the growers under the PPP model and thewood grown from these trees was purchased back by thecompany at already disclosed prices. The company wasthe only source for supplying the saplings to the growerstill that stage. On termination of the WIMCO-NABARDscheme, and with the success of the direct sale of saplingsoutside refinance scheme started in 1993, prompted thecompany to redesign its programme for direct sale ofpoplar saplings to the growers. It also providedopportunity to the staff having technical skills to growpoplar saplings on leaving the company and sell them tothe growers. As a result the business of making privatenurseries started growing hereafter. WIMCO, Ex-Wimcoites, individual farmers and unemployed villagersare the main nursery growers in the state and most ofthem found it as business opportunity inside rural areas.The location-wise growing of poplar saplings is given inTable 3.
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WIMCO has a network of over 40 nurseries andsimilar number of extension staff located in the entireRIPC. The company is growing 6.5 million saplings duringthe current year. Some nursery stock is also shifted fromnurseries being grown in the adjoining locations of otherstates. Our nurseries located in border districts especiallyin Yamunanagar, Karnal in Haryana, and Haridwar/Roorkee and Udham Singh Nagar in Uttrakhand alsosupply poplar saplings to the growers of the adjoiningdistricts of U.P. Many of the private sector nursery growersprocure original and pure propagation material ofidentified clones from us and multiply them for growingnursery stock for sale to the farming community.
Plantation activities
Poplar culture is not uniformly distributedthroughout the state. Approximate boundaries for differentscale of its planting are marked in Fig.-I and locationsgiven in Table 4. Most of it is grown in the northwesternparts of the state which is already known for good cropproduction. The scale of poplar planting decreases fromwestern to eastern direction and from northern to southerndirection of the state. Approximately 60% of poplar in thestate is planted above the green boundary and is markedin the extensive scale of poplar culture. Similarlyboundaries for large scale poplar culture (20% of totalpoplar culture), Medium scale (around 10%), low level(8%) and casual/rare (2%) are marked in the Fig. 1. Within
these boundaries also, poplar is not uniformly plantedthroughout the marked zones and one encounters patchesof its culture preferably more near the river basins existingin the state. Major poplar in the state is planted along theGanga and Yamuna river basins and in the Tarai Regionof the state. Out of total poplar sapling production, themajor share is field planted, around 10% is used forrecreating nursery for next year and some portion of poorquality remained unsold since there was some overproduction of its stock in some locations during the justcompleted planting season (WSD 2011).
In many parts of the state, casual growers also retainstump sprouts to grow into trees of coppice origin in orderto save on cost and inputs. This practice has attainedsignificance in boundary planted poplar and compromiseswith growth, yield, productivity and quality of poplarwood. It has been estimated that around 8-10% percent oftotal standing poplar belongs to the coppice origin in thestate and the trend is again not uniformly distributedthroughout yet its contribution to the total poplar cultureand wood availability is significant.
Most conservative estimates forecast planting ofaround 1.20 crore poplar saplings in the state. Location-wise estimated planting figures are given in Table 5. Thesefigures have been compiled from the information collectedon nursery saplings grown in each location, saplings leftunsold and movement of the saplings across the stateboundaries with the help of field staff from across thestate and through personal contacts.
Poplar is a forest tree and planted on agricultureland for which no reliable estimates or database areavailable. We have been forecasting nursery and plantingfigures each year to keep track on its culture and no otherreliable information on its culture is quoted bygovernment and non-government sectors. Forest survey
FIGURE 1:Approximate boundaries of scale of poplar
culture in U.P.
TABLE 4:Scale-wise locations for poplar culture in the state
Casual Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow, Faizabad, Sulatanpur, Azamgarh, and others
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of India first time has reported poplar culture having7,58,0700 numbers of stems of different thickness and145.427 mm3 volume wood among the total trees grownas trees outside forests (ToFs) in the country in its latestreport (ISFR 2011) without information on its distributionin different states and locations. National PoplarCommission in its latest report has estimated poplarculture over 3,12,000 ha area across the country (Anon.2012). Based on the existing information, the estimates ofplanting 1.2 crore saplings with some additional poplartrees of coppice origin in the state is reasonable and fair.
Role of poplar in transforming rural Uttar Pradesh
Economical impact of poplar culture
Poplar is grown as a cash crop by the farmers in
association with agricultural crops. Seasonal and annualcrops grown under poplar plantations provide regularlife support system and the consolidated money obtainedfrom tree harvest helps them in meeting their pendingfinancial obligations or in acquiring new properties/businesses. Farmers are harvesting trees from around 4to 10 years age whenever they need money to meet theirfinancial needs. This is against the silviculturallyrecommended longer rotation for better wood andeconomical returns from poplar culture. Data of poplarsale proceeds that WIMCO factory purchased and givenin Table 6 clearly indicates that growers who haveharvested poplar at longer rotations got better returnsthan those who harvested them at young age. Farmershave also started looking at net collective returns per unitarea per unit time from poplar and intercrops together.This along with daily, periodical and annual fluctuationsin poplar wood prices in the unregulated market forcegrowers to realize money during their need hours.
Poplar nursery production demands heavily on time,labour and land resources. Its cuttings are planted in themonth of January/February which grow to full sizesaplings of 3-4 m height in 10-11 months. These are liftedfrom the nursery beds during next January to March andfield planted. Cultural operations include good soilpreparation, bed preparation, and hoeing, weeding,irrigation, debudding and lifting which involve heavylabour inputs. Around 20,000 saplings are grown in onehectare nursery area. The price of saplings in the marketis varying from around Rs. 5 to Rs. 25 per saplingdepending on demand and supply for the same. Assumingan average sale price of Rs. 15/sapling, the total turnoverin its sapling sale in the state is therefore worked out tobe Rs.18 crores. The major share in the production cost isthat of labour inputs which most of the unorganizednursery growers and farmers do themselves and this hasproved to be a good business opportunity and a means ofself employment to most of them in the villages. In most
TABLE 5:Estimated Number of poplar saplings planted in
TABLE 6:Log and firewood volume, weight and value per tree from different aged plantations in some locations in U.P
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cases, the growers purchase a few good quality saplingsof newly developed clones from the company andthereafter multiply them and sell their saplings to otherfellow farmers. The average number of saplings grownin the forest nurseries is around 1,700 per nursery (Table1). The average number of saplings produced by farmerseven if considered double than this, it is estimated thatover 4,000 nurseries exist in the private sector and is asource of not only self employment to the growers butalso a strong mean of livelihood especially in the ruralarea where employment is hardly available due to poordevelopment activities in such remote areas. The nurserygrowing activity for individual families could also beconsidered as part time business for additional incomegeneration. However, there are cyclic and periodical upsand downs in poplar nursery and plantation productionwhen the earnings from these activities are affected. Poplarculture has been expanding from the year 2005 after verylow prices in 2003-5 due to closure of the unlicensedplywood industrial units. Poplar wood has seen all timeplanting and wood prices during this year and appears tobe stabilized at these higher levels.
U.P. Forest Corporation has harvested 2,00,582 m3,3,10,673 m3 and 2,50,101 m3 (estimated) timber during 2006-7 and 2007-8 and 2008-9 respectively (http://forest.up.nic.in/plantation.pdf). This possibly is from all the foreststhat includes salvage and commercially felling fromgovernment forest area including commercially grownplantations under different schemes till date. The timberavailable from approximately 1 crore trees (final survival)is approximately over 25 lakh m3 per annum which isapproximately 10 times from alonepoplar grown on farmland, in comparison to the total harvest by the forestcorporation from the state government forests.Considering a very conservative present price of Rs. 7,500/m3 for poplar wood, total revenue earned is estimated tobe over Rs. 1,600 crores which is evenly distributed amongnumerous growers proportion to their plantation efforts.Further the growers are able to realize value of their treeproduce whenever they actually require money avoidingtheir exploitation from the money lenders. It is widelyquoted that some good farmers in the state are presentlyearning a net amount of Rs. 1 lakh/acre/year from poplarbased agroforestry and these returns are 4 times higherthan the traditional wheat-paddy rotation and sugarcanecrops (Chaudhary and Chaudhari 2012). Poplar and similarother trees are considered fixed deposits by the growerswhich are being encashed during the financial crisis.Further timber trade of this wood generates equally goodamount of revenue to the state in the form of mandi andtransit taxation, service tax on traders, licensing andrenewal fees on peeling and plywood unit in addition tothe revenue from the supportive sector of farm related
industry. The tree culture and the income from them isnow sustainable and without much financial implicationsand burden on the government.
Role in enhancing forest cover
India State of Forest Report 2011 recorded50,68,024,000 number of trees (above 10 cm diameter atbreast height) grown on non forest area with 1,548.427mm3 volume contained in them throughout the country(ISFR 2011). This data is not available state-wise. Howeverit is reported that the ToFs in the state of U.P. inventoriedfrom 19 districts of the state between 2004-2010 covers7,382 km2 (3.06% of geographic area). Further reportindicates that these trees in the state have 83.44 mm3 timbervolume on ToFs compared to 122.96 mm3 on trees grownon the forest land. The volume of wood in ToFs ismaximum in U.P. among all the four poplar growingmajor states. Viz., Punjab, Haryana and Uttrakahndindicating that poplar represents a sizeable proportion ofToFs in the state. The fact that most of the ToFs are fastgrowing and harvested much earlier than the slowgrowing trees existing in state forests, the former aremeeting the most of the wood related needs and indirectlyhelping in conserving the natural forests. Their role issignificant in increasing the area under tree and forestcover to 9.01% of the geographical area in the state (ISFR2011). The report further identified poplar as one of theimportant ToF at the national level with 7,58,07000number of trees (1.50% of total ToFs in the country) and12.402 mm3 volume (0.80% of total ToFs in the country)in them against the total of 145.427 mm3 at the nationallevel for all the ToFs.
Poplar trees are fast grown and they readily attainsize to qualify the criterion of “forest” fixed by the ForestSurvey of India for this purpose. The accepted definitionof “Forest” in India is a minimum area of 0.05 ha with treeheight over 2 m and crown cover over 15%. The tree isgrown in three forms, i.e., in nurseries at 20,000 saplings/ha, as block plantation of 500 trees/ha andas boundaryplantations of 200-400 trees/ha. Poplar both in nurseriesand plantations quickly attains minimum height andcrown cover required for qualifying its land use as forestand as such is captured as forest during the estimation ofthe forest cover by Forest Survey of India. It is evidentfrom the data given in Table 7 and Table 8 that poplarwhether planted in blocks or as boundary plantationattains the criterion of forest during the first year itselfwith defined number of stems per hectare at that age.
Approximately 60% of poplar in the state this yearwas planted inside fields as compact blocks and theremaining is planted on field boundaries (Table 5).
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Poplar as a mean for rural development and employmentgeneration
The expanded poplar activity viz., nurseryproduction, plantation growing and utilization of its woodin numerous wood based industrial units provideexcellent opportunity of employment generation for manysections of skilled, semi skilled and unskilled workersthroughout the poplar growing region and outside. Eachtree that is finally harvested is able to generate five mandays from its nursery production to final wood processing(Dhiman 2008). It has been estimated that poplar generatesone man day per tree from nursery growing to makingand its maintenance in plantation till harvests, one day inharvesting and handling logs, three man days inprocessing wood in wood based industry Final harvestingof one crore trees wood therefore generates one crore
mandays in nursery and plantation production, one croreman days in wood harvest and wood handling and threecrore man days in wood processing. Additional one croreman days are believed to be generated in supportivesectors helping in poplar nursery and plantationproduction systems that includes machinery, tools,chemicals, fertilizers and their handling. Since this activityis in rural areas, many of growers perform many culturaland tending operations themselves and therefore it is asource of self employment. Since some wood istransported to other states, the opportunity for generatingemployment is therefore shifted to those states. It is alsobelieved that the main requirement of firewood whichearlier used to be met from the government forests isnow being met from trees grown on farm land includingpoplar. Each poplar tree yields around 35 kg roots and 20kg firewood from lops and tops and they meet thefirewood requirement of the rural masses where no otherfirewood is easily accessible for them. This by all standardsis a significant development of employment generationfor rural poor especially for women who get wok in itsnursery and plantations in their local areas and aregenerally not able to move outside their localities. Thefigures of employment generation presented here are nearrealistic for nursery production, plantation making andmaintenance, wood harvest and transport but they arevery rough estimates in wood processing.
Role in ecological amelioration and sustaining agricultureproduction system
Poplar has a great potential for sequesteringatmospheric carbon in tree components, lock up it in woodproducts for long period and also offset carbon emissionsto the atmosphere through fossil fuel displacement.Approximately 6 lakh tones sustainably produced
TABLE 7:Crown cover at different ages of poplar block
Note: Bold figures indicating >15% crown cover qualify the land use as forest.Crown cover area for boundary plantations calculated based on crown width strip of trees.Figures over 100% crown cover are theoretical added values for all trees with overlapping.
Table 8:Crown cover (%) in boundary planted poplar with different field dimensions.
Field size Age of trees (Years)
Crown diameter (cm) 1 ha 0.75 ha 0.50 ha 0.25 ha 0.1 ha 0.05 ha
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firewood (35 kg roots and 25 kg billets per tree) on poplartrees helps in replacing that much of fossil fuels on regularbasis. Poplar therefore helps carbon mitigation by threeways viz., grow and sequester, harvest and store, and useand offset (Dhiman 2009b). Gera (2006) reported poplarsequestering maximum carbon of 93t/ha compared to 51,79, 38, and 38t/ha by eucalypts, teak, mango and litchirespectively grown under agroforestry practices in UdhamSingh District of Uttrkhand. Chauhan et. al. (2009) reportedthat poplar stored more carbon than eight other species atthree years age in a study carried out in Punjab. Theseauthors further reported that poplar at this stage had atotal of 10.74t carbon/ha which was further allocated as4.8t in stem, 3.67t in above ground litter, 2.27t in roots,and 5.95t in soil (roots+litter). The average increment inagroforestry based poplar plantations is 25 m3/ha/yearcompared to a best average of 3 m3ha/year for most otherforest plantations on public lands. This implies that poplarbased agroforestry is more efficient in sequesteringatmospheric carbon than public sector forests.
Growing poplar and other trees on farm landincreases plant and animal diversity on this highlyintensive land use with monoculture of a couple of cropsmainly paddy-wheat rotation which is now beingconsidered causing much damage to the sustainability ofthis productive land use. Western part of U.P. is highlyvulnerable to this slow land degradation similar tofarmland in the states of Punjab and Haryana.Incorporation of trees with agri-crops restricts growingpaddy and avoiding harmful effect of heavy water use.Poplar based agroforestry (PBAF) is widely quoted toimprove the soil through building up organic matter,improving nutrients levels and moderation of pH and ittherefore provides stability to the agriculture productionsystem. Complete leaf shedding by poplar trees duringwinters add a lot of leaf litter and organic matter into thesoil each year. Thind (2004) reported addition of 3.16 to7.51 t/ha leaf litter in 4th year growth of PBAF, whereas,Toky et. al. (2004) reported it as 5t/ha/year in 7th yearPBAF. Singh et. al. (1997) reported improvement in pH,and available nitrogen (kg/ha) before and after practicingpoplar based agroforestry and reported that there wasreduction in pH by 8.63%, improvement in OC by 65.38%,and available N by 36.76%. PBAF thereforesimultaneously achieves both carbon sequestration andincreased tree and agricultural crop productivity together.Diversification plans in Punjab and Haryana haverecommended the practice of PBAF to replace thetraditional paddy-wheat rotation.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
There are number of policy and administrative issues
that need to be readdressed for not only to continue thisenvironmental friendly activity but also to promote andexpand it for better synergy between economy andecology. Many of these are discussed in the followingpages. The above inferences simply indicate that thepresent limited efforts needs to be multiplied toencourage farmers to continue with culture of poplar andother tree species.
Encourage wood processing industry within the state
Uttar Pradesh with largest area under poplar cultureamong the poplar growing states and its wood availabilityhas enormous potential to develop the wood basedindustry within the state. The state has 311 veneer andplywood units and 2346 sawmills in the state many ofwhich use poplar timber for semi-finished and finishedproducts (http://forest.up.nic.in/plantation.pdf). It is alsospeculated that many unlicensed veneer units also operatein the state and use poplar wood for peeling veneers.Poplar wood availability from the existing plantations ismuch higher than the actual requirement of the existingpoplar wood using units within the state, As a result hugewood quantity of poplar and other trees (approximately1000 trucks/trolleys per day) is being regularlytransported to Haryana, Uttrakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan andoccasionally to other states for meeting the wood rawmaterial requirements in those states (Fig-II). The statemay be getting some revenue in the form of transit feesfrom the export of wood outside the state, yet it losses ahuge opportunity for economical transformation inemployment generation and wood based industry withinthe state. The present process of granting permission for
FIGURE 2:Red arrows show movement of poplar and other trees
wood to other states
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new wood based units has now been simplified to anextent that the state needs to document the additionalavailability of wood, put up a case to the CEC (CentralEmpowered Committee) for establishing new woodprocessing facilities. The state can draw experience ofcreating single window clearances on the pattern ofUttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh states for similardevelopments in the state. The additionality of wood inthe state could easily be documented and established fromwood movement across check posts on interstate borders.
Relax the taxation and regulation system
U.P. needs to follow the footsteps of adjoining statesfor administrative reforms to encourage poplar and othertrees culture and wood usage within the state. It needs toliberalize felling and transit regulations on trees grownon farm land irrespective of the species grown by thefarmers. The felling and transit regulation imposed underold laws enacted during the British rule are no morerelevant today. These were imposed when wood fromforest was harvested and transported across the countryfor avoiding pilferage and monitoring movement of theforest produce from one place to other as almost the entiretimber and other produce in those days was obtained fromforests. The scenario is now totally changed when most oftimber and the forest produce are now obtained from thefarm grown trees. Farm grown wood of tree speciesincluding that of poplar is subjected to double taxationfrom both agriculture and forest departments. Transitregulations are little more complicated in U.P. which hasexempted certain tree species from these regulations incertain divisions (GoUP 1977). Movement of the farmgrown timber in the districts where such species are notexempted cause a lot of confusion in the minds of growers.Only 42 districts especially those away from the naturalforests are exempted from felling and transit permissionfor cutting and transportation of poplar. Others especiallyhaving natural forests needs such permission from thestate forest department. 2.5 % Mandi tax is charged underMandi (Marketing) regulation and Rs. 75/cmh for dayhours and Rs. 150/cmh for overnight movement is chargedas transit tax by the forest department from many locationsin the state. All other poplar growing states viz., Himachal,Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Uttrakhand haveno restrictions on felling and transit regulations on poplartrees, though some of them plant more poplar ongovernment forests than U.P. The state of Uttrakhandsoon after its formation and separation from U.P. issuedthe notification for relaxing all regulations on felling andtransport on poplar which existed when it was a part ofU.P. The state can simply protect its limited forest resourceswith a huge organizational structure and encouragegrowers to plant and sell more farm grown trees without
restrictions. Forestry sector is covered under theconcurrent list in which case some regulations formulatedby the centre and some by the state are applicable onforestry produce. Ministry of Environment and Forests,GoI has understood to have issued the directions during2004 to states for relaxing such regulations on certain treespecies grown by the farming communities. Permissionfor felling and transit of some category of trees isprovided after these are verified by the revenue, forestand sometimes also from the marketing boards. The entireprocess of procuring this permission is tiring, frustrating,time consuming and also financially taxes the permissionseekers.
The statutory ceiling limits to hold land for growingtrees by individual farmers and private tree growers isextremely low. Tree plantations are not even treated atpar with that of horticultural and other sector plantationsfor holding the land. In U.P., a farmer can hold 12.5 acreland for the practice of agroforestry including agricultureunder the ceiling laws whereas this limit is 40 acres forhorticultural orchards. Agroforestry, therefore, needs tobe treated at par with atleast horticultural orchards underland ceiling laws.
Establish information base for tree culture on farm land
Presently, the tree culture on farmland is sandwichedbetween agriculture and forest departments. Agriculturedepartment support farmers for growing agriculturalcrops, whereas, forest departments has better commandon forest tree species. The practice of agroforestry onagriculture in association with agricultural crops isdifferent than growing trees on forest land. The treesgrown on farm land are under higher level ofdomestication with increased input levels. As a result thetrees and timber produced therein are more productiveand uniform. Farmers fail to get adequate information onsuitability of trees and their cultivars to different landtypes; availability and identification of clonal plantingstock; profitability and returns on plantation harvest;quantification and projection on yields; market trends;suitability of agricultural crops for integration under theirshade; felling and transit regulations; planting, harvestingand consumption trends; etc. This information gap and itstransmission to the actual users is visible because there isno apex body to look after this emerging discipline. Theactual knowledge and information base on goodagroforestry practices is, however, restricted with a fewgood growers and those limited organizations who havebeen in this discipline for quite some time now. Theseindividual farmers and organizations have theirlimitations to gather this huge information and transmitto the actual users.
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Poplar and a few other trees are now grown as cashcrops and farmers harvest them whenever they needmoney. Sometimes premature harvests are made due torumors for the lack of factual information. The crisis inpoplar wood prices across the poplar growing region in2003 and 2004 was initiated with the massive wind damageof trees on 29th June 2003 when 50% of poplar and manyeucalyptus and other trees in and around Muzaffarnagar,Meerut, Moradabad, Shaharanpur etc. were uprooted orbroken and supplies from such trees flooded the market.Subsequent developments including a rumor thatplywood industry is going to close down as a result oflikely supreme court orders and that there will not be anyfuture for poplar, forced many farmers to prematurelyharvest their plantations. Farm grown trees are mostlyscattered and intermixed with other production systems.The scenario of existence of trees and wood availabilityunder farm grown trees therefore changes fast andtherefore it affects prices and market trend on trading thewood. A strong information gathering and disseminationsystem could updated the growers regarding prices anddemand and supply scenario.
Numerous farmers and investors were exploitedduring the last decades of 20th century when around 1000companies mobilized between Rs. 100 billion to Rs. 250Billion from 2.7 to 15 million investors (Saigal et. al. 2002).Most of these companies lacked in forestry base, convincedthe investors regarding the better returns on theirinvestment. There was no organization to guide theindividual investors and growers against suchunscrupulous activities and many unrelated tree specieswere planted here and there which ultimately resulted intheir failure. Planting stock of numerous unsuitable treespecies is still being supplied by some of the greedynursery growers for making a quick money out of thisbusiness and it leaves farmers unaware when they do notget the projected returns.
Regulate wood marketing and trading
Farm grown wood trading is in the unorganizedsector. There are quick changes in wood trade withchanging demand and supply scenario. The marketsometimes turn in favour of buyers when there is surplusproduction and sometimes in favour or sellers when thereis low availability of wood as is seen these days. Farmerssell their wood to the wood based industry, contractorsand also in unregulated wood markets that havemushroomed at numerous places. Presently there arearound one dozen wood markets in North India wherewood is traded on day to day basis and each locationquotes a different rate for each kind of wood on each dayand sometimes during different sessions within the day.
Hapur and Rampur wood markets are well establishedwood trading centers in addition to similar activities atlow level at number of places in the state. This system issubjected to lot of manipulations and ultimate victim inthis process of wood trading is the farmer who is beingexploited by most of the market players. These marketsare required to be regulated so that wood sale andpurchase could be conducted as per the laid downprocedures. Agricultural mandies get a lot of revenue inthe form of mandi tax on sale of wood, pulp wood etc. andit is high time to start forest mandies for the sale of farmgrown wood along with other forest produce likemedicinal herbs grown by them. Uttarakhand has alreadycreated three mandies for auction and sale of medicinalherbs and scope of such mandies could also be expandedto include sale of other forest produce including woodproduced by the farmers.
Create provisions for financial support
Credit availability to the fund starved farmingcommunity plays a significant role in promoting growingtrees on farm lands atleast in the beginning of theprogramme as has been demonstrated in WIMCO-NABARD poplar refinance scheme. Once the farmers startearning handsome money by selling the trees, they feelcomfortable in purchasing poplar planting material oncash basis. The experience gained in this WIMCO-NABARD scheme was integrated in plantation schemespromoted by some other corporate houses to developtheir wood raw material. Based on the overall success ofWIMCO-NABARD scheme; NABARD, now has reportedlyapproved refinance on growing poplar throughnationalized bank and farmers need not to prepare aseparate project report to get the loan sanctioned fromthe banks (NABARD 2005). The facilities could be used todevelop farm grown trees in many districts of the statewhere such activities are presently at low scale.
Provide support price
Support price to farm grown tree produce on theline of agricultural produce is not provided by the stategovernments as a result there is a very high level ofuncertainty and risk on growing of many trees especiallywhen returns from their growing are available after avery long time during their harvesting and sale in themarket. The problem of the farming community is furthercompounded when trends on planting and harvesting arenot readily available to them and Some time governmentpolicies like the closure of numerous wood basedindustries during 2002-04 on the name of theirregularization caused huge losses to numerous growers.Wood based industry needs to play a constructive role by
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declaring a minimum purchase price during the periodswhen prices of wood crashes so that farmers do not getexploited by the middlemen and contractors.Unfortunately the industry also exploited the growersduring 2003 and 2004 when the poplar wood prices werecrashed to an all time low.
Avoid conflicts in agroforest : forest interface
Of recent, some conflicts are developing betweenfarmers and state forest departments on the choice ofspecies grown on forest lands and on farmers’ fields. Insome states, farmers are agitating against growing of fastgrowing species like eucalypts and poplars on forest landswith an argument that these species are now being grownon farm lands and state forest departments are unnecessarycompeting with them in their marketing. The state of U.P.,though, does not have stack in poplar plantations; it growseucalypts plantations in number of locations. The state ofU.P. has a very high nursery stock of eucalypts in its nurserymost of which is likely to be planted on the forest land.
Recognition for R&D and other initiatives of privatesector
Indian Forest Policy 1988, lays emphasis that thewood based industry needs to establish direct linkageswith the farming community to produce raw material fortheir units. Expansion of tree culture on farm land is aresult of direct engagement of the private sector withfarming community to purchase their produced wood rawmaterial. Most of the poplar clones and eucalypts clonesgrown in the country originate from WIMCO and ITCresearch initiatives respectively, indicating the direct andsignificant contribution of some of them in farm treeculture. R&D in the private sector needs to be encouragedby providing tax holidays and incentives for theircontribution. For example, it is WIMCO’s developedpoplar clones and programme that produce maximumpoplar wood used by others to an extent of more than99.5% without much contribution from their side.WIMCO’s consumption of poplar wood for matchesproduction is less than 0.5%.
CONCLUSION
Establishment of poplar culture on farmers’ fieldsthat has been promoted by WIMCO in North India do nothave a parallel in the country and elsewhere. The fact thatthe state forest department grows only 88,094 poplarnursery saplings out of 8,72,32,706 total nursery plantsthroughout the state (http://forest.up.nic.in/plantation.pdf) indicates that almost the entire poplarculture is in the private sector and self sustaining. Whereas,
cumulatively trillions of rupees spent on the numeroussocial- and farm-forestry projects targeting to encouragetree cultivation by farmers have been of little success. Theplanting of poplars has continued to expand even afterthe refinance WIMCO-NABARD scheme culminated,affirming its popularity as an economic tree species witha ready market. Poplar grown is now sustaining woodraw material for most of the 2,000 factories locatedthroughout the poplar growing region and elsewhere.Numerous poplar wood users and government supportto poplar culture is very low. The advantage wood basedindustry getting ensured raw material and the statesgetting regular revenue from poplar trade and processingare indicators of promoting similar linkages betweenindustry and farming community for not only woodproduction but also for overall rural development. Thereal credit for creating a win-win situation for all goes tothe farming community who took great risks and made ita successful case study.
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