Techno-Economic Feasibility of Wood Based Agro Forestry Models in Tamil Nadu

Background

The forests are most important and remarkable natural resources which play a very important role in the economic prosperity and ecological stability of the country. The forests of the country are shrinking under acute socio economic pressure and the foresters are at the cross roads. India’s forests till recently are being denuded at an alarming rate of 1.5 million ha per year and has fortunately come down to rapidly with the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Currently, the forest area in the country is around 24 per cent and in the state of  Tamil Nadu, it is around 17.5 per cent which is much low against the mandated requirement of 33.0 per cent with the  productivity  of 0.5 - 0.7 m3/ha when compared to the global average of 2.1 m3 /ha. The less forest area coupled with the low productivity of Indian forest has ushered in a total mismatch between the demand and supply of both domestic wood requirement both timber and secondary timbers besides creating environmental disequilibrium and de-stability. This can be bridged on promoting different wood based agroforestry models to meet the current demand. The demand of wood for paper & pulpwood, match wood, fuel wood, building and construction, furniture making, wood processing, boat making industries, bricks making units and bio energy industries are at increasing rate. The current requirement of raw materials for wood based industries does not know well in advanced manner to expand the different agroforestry models. The agriculture area is continuously shrinking over the decades due to several factors. The prime factors like climatic change and labour problems in agriculture force the farmers to technological and economic shift to wood based agroforestry models to increase the net farm income. An availability of adequate raw materials is one of the major constraints for the development of wood based industries. The rapidly changing economic, technological and regulatory environment has affected the progress of wood based industries due to the poor availability of raw materials.  The country has just one per cent of world's forest coverage but supports 16 per cent of the world's population  (Mall, 1998).   The wood based agro forestry models are the only solution to meet the current spiraling requirement of raw material requirements, as the consumption of wood based finished products are bound to increase with all round development hence there is an increasingly growing demand to grow quality wood in tree outside the forest area especially in current fallows and unutilized lands. Hence, there is a need to calculate the wood requirements of different industries in Tamil Nadu and identify and screen the suitable wood based agroforestry models in different localities.  However, such studies are incredibly insufficient and hence deserve orderly investigation.

Project rationale
To promote most profitable, market driven agroforestry models in augmenting income and employment generation activities of agricultural community as a whole.  The industries and farmers will be interlinked with supply and demand of wood and wood products. This will pave the way for revolution in agrarian community to increase productivity and livelihood securities from marginal and under utilized lands with sustainable agroforestry models with following objectives

• To  assess the  demand and supply  of  wood based  raw materials   for different  wood based industries
• To popularize  the  technologically feasible and economically viable    wood based agroforestry models and
• To augment the  value chain of wood based raw materials through profitable business models

 

Project Strategy

• To  assess the  demand and supply  of  wood based  raw materials   for different  wood based industries The secondary data on numbers of wood based industries, demand, supply and prices of the raw materials, prices of the outputs, quantities of substitutes used by industries, industrial capacity utilization will be collected by industrial survey at district level. The information related to number so potential markets; marketing channel, item wise supply and prices of the industrial raw materials will be collected by market survey at district level.
  
  The lists of tree growing farmers will be identified at village level with help of forest department extension centers and agriculture department, industries, TNAU farmers’ data base and financial institutions.  The information on area under tree crops, age of plantation and technological intervention, cost of production will be collected by farm survey through pretested questionnaire to assess supply of the industrial raw materials at farm level.
  
  The suitable demand and supply models will be included in estimating demand and supply of the industrial raw materials.  The annual compound growth rate for demand and supply will be worked out and the trend efficient will be used to project future demand and supply of the industrial raw materials in the state. All major industries and saw mills in the selected districts will be taken up for industrial survey.
  
  The real time data on prices of the industrial raw materials will be collected form industries and markets at regular basis.  The market intelligence cell will forecast the prices with help of suitable econometric survey by utilizing historical data. 
• To popularize  the  technologically feasible and economically viable    wood based agroforestry models
  • Suitable site specific agroforestry models  will be assessed by identifying  the  species like Casuarinas, bamboos and eucalyptus, ailanthus, albizzia  for pulp wood,  match wood, furniture making industries and boat making industries and  mapping will be done for different agroforestry models for entire state.
  • The optimization of resources for different agroforestry models will be evolved to augment the total productivity of the land and ultimately the income of the farmers
• To augment the  value chain of wood based raw materials through profitable business models
  • The producers are linked up with industries by assured buy back system.

In Tamil Nadu, six zones will be selected,   from each zone; three districts will be selected except in high rainfall zone. It has only one district, two taluks per district; two block per taluk; five villages per block; five farmers per village will be randomly selected.  The total sample of the project is around 1600.

Study area Western           :  Coimbatore, Erode, Karur North western  :   Salem, Dharmapuri,  Krishnagiri North eastern   :   Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Cuddalore. Cauvery delta  :  Trichy, Tanjore, Pudukottai Southern          :   Dindigul, Theni, Sivagangai High rainfall zone- Kanyakumari

Project Goals

• To increase the supply of raw materials to wood based industries in tree outside forest areas.
• To amplify  net income  of tree growers and develop  better  livelihood security
• To promote  and operate wood based industries throughout year to upscale the industries
• Overall goal of the project is to reduce the anthropic pressure on traditional forests and promote profitable business wood based agroforestry models in Tamil Nadu.

Project Components

• Collection of data on  demand and supply of wood based raw materials
• Identification and screening of different wood based agroforestry models
• Elucidating the  opinion on production and marketing of wood based raw materials
• Developing the  profitable business models to  the farmers with industries

Deliverables   

• Estimation of supply & demand of wood based raw materials
• Identification of wood based agro-forestry models in different location
• Pinpointing the constraints on production and marketing of wood based raw materials
• Generating market information for different wood based raw materials over the period of time (5 years)  as a data base for further investigation
• Policy brief on promoting different wood based agro-forestry models with suitable business model.

            The results of the project will be reported in book format or required format to the funding authority in appropriate time. The results will also be sensitized and disseminated through different mass media to all stake holders in the project area.

8. Expected outcome

• Demand  and Supply  estimates of wood based raw materials
• Popularization of suitable wood based agro-forestry models in the project areas.
• Linking farmers and industries with suitable business plan

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Contact:

Director, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies,
TNAU, Coimbatore-3
Phone: 0422-6611239/6611439
Fax: 0422-6611439
Email : directorcards@tnau.ac.in