PLY INSIGHT EDITORIAL SEPTEMBER 23

“Indian entrepreneurs are intelligent and hardworking. However, we tend to waste a significant part of our business life learning things individually and in isolation. For various reason, there is very little collaboration between research institutions and entrepreneurs.”

In this article, find out how seasoning is important to save the solid wood industry from Naval Kedia, Rajneesh Tyagi, and Ply Insight.

In Punjab, some recommendations have been made to encourage agro forestry equivalent to cash crop wheat/rice. It attempts to understand the initial problem, which should also be taken seriously by the industry

According to this report:-

“One major concern for farmers is the long gestation period of 5-7 years for tree crop harvest, which poses a cash flow issue. Unlike annual crops that provide regular income, the initial years of agro forestry may not yield significant earnings. Intercropping may offer some income during the initial 1-2 years, but farmers face limited or no earnings in subsequent years, creating uncertainty.”

“The agro forestry sector experiences significant price volatility due to the lengthy gestation cycle and planting behavior. During the year 2014, an excess supply of timber led to a crash in prices. Consequently, many farmers stopped/reduced planting trees, leading to a surge in demand. Such price fluctuations undermine farmers’ confidence in the industry and makes them hesitant to invest their resources and efforts into agro forestry. This uncertain growing pattern also creates ambiguity for the wood-based industries.”

The Bihar government has announced the “Bihar Wood-Based Industry Investment Promotion Policy 2020 considering these same issues.” This policy includes provisions for subsidies to encourage the establishment of new industries and technological advancement in existing industries.

It mentions the following:-

“To provide incentive to the farmers to grow more trees on their farmland, it is important that they get a better price of their tree crop-timber. This can be achieved by creating the demand side pull, which is possible by promoting the efficient and integrated wood based industry, which buys the tree crop at a competitive price, and the farmers are encouraged to grow and protect the tree on their farmland.”

These issues were also discussed in the first meeting of the ICFRE-Wincoin. The industry should actively participate in research activities by joining IWST, which has now merged the IPIRTI, and should collaborate with IWST and FRI for technological advancement.

Here, a quote from Rajneesh Tyagi is highly relevant:-

“Indian entrepreneurs are intelligent and hardworking. However, we tend to waste a significant part of our business life learning things individually and in isolation. For various reason, there is very little collaboration between research institutions and entrepreneurs.”

Suresh Bahety
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