{"id":27491,"date":"2022-04-08T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T10:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plyinsight.com\/?p=27491"},"modified":"2022-04-12T11:11:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T05:41:17","slug":"farmers-the-saviour-of-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plyinsight.com\/hi\/farmers-the-saviour-of-forests\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers -The Saviour of Forests"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Introduction<\/strong>
\nForests have been meeting the demands of timber and fuel wood for domestic and industrial sectors in the India as the National Forest Policy of 1952 envisaged that the forests would meet the raw material demands of wood-based industry. The National Forest Policy of 1988 shifted the focus of management of forests to conservation of forests. As per the report \u201cThe Puzzle of Forest Productivity (2017)\u201d published by Centre for Science and Environment, the annual harvest of timber from forests declined from 10 million cubic metres in the 1970s to 04 million cubic metres by 1990. Due to the focus on conservation of forests, the wood production from forests is about three million cum presently.<\/p>\n

Promotion of Agro-Forestry<\/strong>
\nSome of the states have implemented self-funded as well as externally aided social forestry projects from1980s’ onwards in which focus was on extension of agroforestry. The wood-based industry started meeting their demands of raw materials by establishing a direct relationship with the farmers. Due to focus on agroforestry, the area under Trees outside Forests (TOF) increased from 5.6% in 2001 to 8.9% of geographical area of India in 2019 and annual wood production increased from 69 to 85 million cubic metres as per the India State of Forest Report, 2021. As the availability of timber declined from forests and the farm wood could not replace timber from forests entirely, the Government liberalised import of timber in nineties. As per the paper Sustainable Trade of Wood and Wood based Products in India (2021), 15 million cubic metres Round wood Equivalent (RWE) of wood and wood products for about INR 450 billion, were imported.<\/p>\n

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Ambitious Wood Production<\/strong>
\nWood is environment friendly, renewable, stores carbon and resilient to the effects of climate change. The tree plantations provide employment in rural areas, increase the income of farmers, and provide wood which generates employment in urban areas through value addition, and increase the tax revenue. Hence, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) may work with States, other Ministries\u00a0Organisations, and private sector to promote large-scale use of wood. An ambitious target of production of 150 million cubic metres of wood by 2030 may be fixed along with large-scale expansion of wood-based industry. The production of large sized wood may be given special focus in the ambitious plan to replace imported timber.<\/p>\n

Promotion and Issues of Agroforestry<\/strong>
\nPresently, agroforestry is mainly popular in the villages located in the surrounding areas of wood-based industry, as it reduces their cost of procurement of raw material and assures marketing opportunities to the farmers for their wood. To expand the area under agro-forestry, the cultivation of tree crops may also be promoted in the villages located within five km on either side of rivers(to maintain steady water flow);one km on either side of highways(to avoid contamination of food crops from heavy pollution being caused by traffic);lands suffering from salinity and water logging (to rehabilitate the farmlands); high potential pollution regions like NCR (to reduce pollution and encourage wood-based industry near the consumption centres), etc.<\/p>\n

The issues affecting the growth of agro-forestry either pertain to farmers or wood-based industry. The farmers mainly suffer due to hassles in harvesting of trees and inter-state transportation of wood; lack of quality control in private nurseries; risky marketing of wood due to long harvesting\/rotation period; non-remunerative prices for pulp wood due to lower import duty (which encourages imports) and no incentive for carbon sequestration. The wood-based industry mainly suffers due to complicated licensing policy; costly farm wood due to competition with agricultural produce; import of illegal timber and stiff competition with imported wood products.<\/p>\n

Actions Required<\/strong>
\nTo resolve the issues of farmers, firstly there should be Pan India amendments to the rules on felling trees, and inter-state transportation of wood through developing an online system for registration of plantations, felling of trees and seamless movement of wood.<\/p>\n