In an initiative to increase green cover and support farmers and promotes timber based industry at greater level in the state of Haryana, the Forest Department has decided to sell tree saplings at subsidized cost to involve more farmers and private land owners to adopt agro forestry. It will also help in increasing availability of timber for the increasing manufacturing strength of wood based industries in the states like Haryana, UP and Punjab. The department has been distributing 2.5 crore seedlings every year to the farmers and other tree growers free of cost to promote agroforestry. On the other hand the state planted 60 lakh saplings of eucalyptus, and 50 lakh of other trees, on the occasion of Golden Jubilee celebration of the state in November 2017.
The recently announced new forest policy by the Central Government has helped the department to increase green cover by involving private land owners. According to the new policy of not having any restrictions on felling of trees from private land, and on transit of wood, has also helped in expanding the timber trade and wood-based industries. “Our endeavour is to create favourable conditions so that wood-based industries and agro-forestry activity can grow simultaneously,” said a senior official (IFS) of the Forest Department of Haryana. The state government is also establishing an organised timber market at Yamunanagar district to facilitate transparent trade of farm-grown wood.
“The average productivity of plantations in forest and wastelands is approximately four to five cubic metres per hectare per year, seed-route agro-forestry plantations in irrigated land ensure average productivity of 10 to 15 cubic metres per hectare. The average productivity has been enhanced to 25 to 30 cubic meters per hectare per year from Poplar and Eucalyptus plantations. Thus, by all aspects, agro-forestry is a cheap, profitable and sustainable alternative,” he informed.
“There is a vast scope for research and development (R&D) in the field of agro-forestry. Many high-yielding clones of agro-forestry species have been evolved which need to be demonstrated in the field, so that tree growers can increase productivity of their plantations. High-yielding and disease-resistant clones of Eucalyptus, Poplar, Teak, Ailanthus, Khejri and many others need to be evolved through continuous research,” he added.