Enhancing the Contribution of Agroforestry and other Tree outside Forest Resources of India in National Development (2024)

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2001

A sustainable forestry scenario aimed at meeting the projected biomassdemands, halting deforestation and regenerating degraded forests wasdeveloped and analyzed for additionality of mitigation and cost-effectivenessfor India. Similarly, mitigation potential of a commercial forestry scenarioaimed at meeting the biomass demands from forestry activities on privateland was assessed. India has a significant scale baseline scenario afforestationand effective forest conservation activities. India is afforesting at an averagegross rate of 1.55 × 106 ha yr-1 over the past 10 years, while the gross deforestation rate was 0.272 × 106 ha yr-1 during the same period. The sustainable forestry scenario could lead to an additional carbon (C) stock of 237 × 106 Mg C during 2000 to 2012, while the commercial forestry scenario apart from meeting all the incremental biomass demands (estimated for 2000 to 2015) could potentially lead to an additional carbon stock of 78 × 106Mg C during 2000 to 2012. Short- and Long-rotation forestry activities arecommercially viable. With appropriate policies and financial incentives allthe industrial wood, sawnwood and commercial fuelwood requirementcould be met through commercial forestry, so that government funds couldbe dedicated for conserving state owned forests and meeting subsistencebiomass demands. The commercial forestry activities could receive financialsupport under greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement programmes. The government, however, needs to develop institutions and guidelines to process, evaluate, approve and monitor forestry sector mitigation projects.

Van Sangyan

India is the leading producer and consumer of wood in the Asia Pacific region, although the country produces the tropical hardwood species domestically to fulfill the increasing wood demand. The requirement and simultaneously shortage of wood are increasing day by day due to increasing population, urbanization, industrial development, etc. After the enactment of the forest conservation act (1980) and national forest policy (1952) and legal restriction, the supply of wood/wood products reduces or stopped almostand forest has been recognized more towards conservation than the timber production is also one of the causes of wood production shortage. The demand for wood and wood products increasing, but there are no Farm/Homestead plantation programs that were carried out before and this shortfall can be fulfilled by the adoption of an agroforestry system in farmer's fields. Agroforestry is the art and science of judiciously managing agricultural crops with woody perennials on the same land unit to increase the productivity and profitability for combined goods and services. Integration of trees on farms provides opportunities for improving variation and range of livelihood security for small holder farming household's andcreated a synergy between farming crops, tree species, and animal rearing on the same plot of land. Agroforestry also contributed to obtaining the national goal, as the required tree cover to 33 percent, in the country can only be attained by the planting of trees in farm fields/bunds.Agroforestry supplies nearly 72 % of the demand of fuelwood, 2/3 of the small timber, 70-80 % wood for plywood, 60-80 % raw material for paper pulp, 9-11 % of the green fodder requirement. This paper is highlighting the potential of wood-based agroforestry system for increasing the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers and the direct and indirect benefits of agroforestry to the environment.

Natural Resources Forum, 2016

Agroforestry for Climate Resilience and Rural Livelihood. (Eds. Dev, I., Ram, A., Kumar, N., Singh, R., Kumar, D., Uthappa, A.R., Handa, A.K. and Chaturvedi, O.P.)., 2019

Private sector is playing a pivotal role in promotion of agroforestry and plantingstock production and supply chain for securing raw material production fortheir factories. The experiment started around four decades back by WimcoLtd- a safety matches making company in North India is now matured andspread to different parts of the country. The sector has developed ultramodernproduction facilities for producing quality planting stock and providingtechnical know-how to grow good plantations along with agricultural cropsand take back wood on harvesting. This is backed by a strong research anddevelopment, experienced extension staff to interact with farming communitieson agroforestry related issues. The skill acquired by numerous employees andworkers in these excellent nursery production facilities have started their ownnursery production, on separation, as a mean for self-employment. These arenow producing and supplying bulk of the planting stock to various agencies.