Constraints faced by tree growers:

Dear friends,

I have been asked to prepare a list of constraints faced by tree growers in India by a Chief Conservator of Forests, Department of Forests, Tamilnadu. He would have thought that obtaining this kind of information directly from a tree grower will be realistic and an eye opener to the higher echelons in his department and the Government. But what he received from myself must have left him embarrassed, no doubt.  

When I started to type the list, it grew to 32 hurdles to my utter disbelief and to the dismay of our respected officer. 32 hurdles will be difficult even for an Olympic hurdles runner to surmount. Truly a huge task for a tree grower.

    Constraints faced by the tree growers: 

I. Constraints from Nature (God?):

1. Vagaries of monsoon (Poor rainfall, excess rain, high temperature and  prolonged drought).
2. Pest and disease occurrence.
3. Damage to crop by cattle and wild animals (especially wild boar).
4. Damage to crop by Birds (especially peacock).

II. Constraints from Govt.:

5. Poor assistance from Govt. for land development.
6. Poor assistance for Soil reclamation.
7. Poor assistance for water reclamation.
8. Poor assistance to establish ‘Farm ponds’ and ‘Percolation ponds’.
9. Poor assistance to put up solar fencing.
10. Nil assistance to fence our farm land (other then solar).
11. Nil assistance to avail drip irrigation facility for tree cropping.

III.  Constraints in schemes of Dept. of Forests:

12. Non availability of preferred species.
13. Non - availability of good seedlings.
14. Non – availability of seedlings at the preferred time.
15. Provision to supply plants of various types with different maturity periods (short, medium and long duration varieties) is not adhered to.
16. Maximum ceiling level for the supply of seedlings is not adhered to.
17. Quality of seedlings from Forest nursery.
18. Transport of Seedlings from nursery. Cost / Damage / Other hurdles.
19. Replacement for plant mortality (for gap filling) is inadequate.
20. Inadequate training and lack of sound and easy to adopt technical guidance.
21. Market promotion and publicity materials are quite inadequate.
22. Delay in inspection and issuing of cutting / transport permit.
23. Non-Establishment of Agro-forestry model plots.
24. Incentives:
    a)      Inadequate provisions.
    b)      Duration of period (Max. No. of years) to avail incentive 
    c)      Delayed payment of Incentives.
    d)      Method of Incentive payment. 

IV. Infrastructure Constraints:

25. Inadequate credit facility from Banks/Govt. institutions/NGO and others.
26. No provision for Crop Insurance.
27. Lack of awareness and knowledge about growing trees.
28. Lack of organized groups like  SHG, NGO, and other forums to support.
29. Quality of seedlings from private nursery.
30. Non - availability / timely availability of quality organic manures.
31. Labour shortage.
32. High labour wages.

Of course, I might have left some 'constraints' by oversight here. I kindly request our readers to point out the omissions in the above list to draw a complete (pathetic) picture. 

Comment for the future of farming is your 

comment for the future of mankind.

Regards,

A.Vishnu Sankar.

President, 

Tirunelveli District Tree Growers Association.

Tamilnadu.

Suggestions to improve 'Tamilnadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project':

Dear Friends,

We would like to bring to everybody's notice that through 'Tirunelveli District Tree Growers Association', we have made several suggestions to the Forest Department of Tamilnadu to improve ‘Tamilnadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project’ (TBGP), to turn it more farmer friendly at the execution level, in order to achieve the desired objective of planting 10 crore trees in 5 years. As special invitees, we had participated in many TBGP meetings right from the time of its inception to its' present advanced execution stage.

In reel life it is very common to witness scenes where petitions from a common man on submission to our rulers (read all powerful politicians and even more powerful bureaucrats) finds its way to dustbin in a matter of minutes. It is no different in real life also. But by God’s grace, nothing sort of that happened to our demands submitted to the State Forest Dept. There are one or two honest officers still alive and kicking in the decayed corrupt system. May be the presence of these tribe who are on the verge of extinction (endangered species of course) are the reason for the failure of these doomsday/apocalypse predictions like ‘end of Mayan calendar and the end of world on 21^st Dec, 2012’. It is a mere coincidence that I happen to publish this article a day before the much hyped doomsday. 

(Pic. courtesy: ecofuture). 

It is a great pleasure to announce that most of our suggestions were favorably considered by the Forest Department of Tamilnadu and found incorporated in the 'TBGP' project. Our heartfelt thanks to Mr.K.Chidambaram.,I.F.S., and Sri.Irulandi., I.F.S., Chief Project Director and Project Director respectively, who head the 'Project Management Unit' of TBGP, for their continuous support in achieving this impressive feat. Some of the suggestions made to them on behalf of farming community are given here: 

1.  Farmers normally don't have the knowledge to select a Tree variety that suits his land's soil type and water quality. Under the existing scheme, he is planting whatever variety he is getting from the Dept.of Forests. Due to wrong selection or supply, plant mortality is high at the field in the initial months itself. So before effecting supplies, the Dept. should take soil tests and water analysis tests in the identified farm land and should suggest to the farmer, suitable crops and the necessary cultivation techniques.

2.    At present 'Drip irrigation subsidy' is not available for the cultivation of Trees. It is sad to note here that our Govt.rules and Acts not spared even border crops that act as fencing or as wind breakers to the farmer's field. More area will be brought under tree cultivation if the Govt, permits 'Drip irrigation subsidy' for tree crops. This is surely a short cut way to increase our country's green cover.

3. More number of Pamphlets and brochures with details of tree varieties, cultivation techniques, their maturity, preferable soil types Etc. should be released by the Forest Department for the farmer's benefit. 

4. It is advisable to provide plants of various types with different maturity periods (short, medium and long duration varieties) to the marginal farmers instead of a single variety there by assuring him of a regular income.

5. Maximum ceiling level ( number of plants) for Bulk plantings should be removed. 

6. Incentives for the tree growers may be increased to 3 years for short term tree crops and 5 years for long gestation tree crops. It is better to release the incentive amount at the end of the year, after seeing the results, instead of at the year beginning as is the case now.

7. It is not possible to raise the required number of plants and all the varieties in the nurseries of Forest Department alone. So, we should entrust this work to interested individual farmers, NGOs and SHGs. The planning should be in such a way, so that only plants identified for that particular village are allowed to cultivate in the nursery. By this way the farmer can avoid the huge transportation costs, and he is free to take delivery of the plants whenever he feels that climatic conditions are favorable for planting.

8. In continuation of the above, the farmer who is willing to establish a nursery exclusively for timber plants may require bank finance. So, a recommendation letter from the Forest department to the concerned banker to the effect that the farmer is a technically qualified person in the nursery keeping and the buy-back of the raised plants from the nursery by the Dept is guaranteed.

9. Farmers who are willing to do Agro forestry but have lands in rain fed areas and drought prone areas usually don’t come forward due to the high cost of land development expenses. We should help them by providing subsidies in leveling the field, to form bunds and to create structures for rain water conservation.

10. The tree crops raised under ‘TCPL’ scheme (Tree Cultivation in Private Lands)  should be allowed to cut on maturity. These scheduled timbers should be allowed for transportation after sale and the Dept. should issue “No Objection Certificate”.

11. The Govt. should give importance and priority to “Agro-forestry” also, like the encouragement it gives to Horticulture and Spice crops. This can be done by enacting laws and by providing adequate funds to enhance acreage, coverage and productivity of timber crops so that farmers can be weaned away from water consuming traditional crops there by assuring them of appropriate returns. 

Before concluding this post, I want to share this rather sad information: 

This year under 'TBGP' project about 1 Crore tree seedlings were raised at various forest nurseries and kept ready for free distribution to farmers at the onset of monsoon. But, due to total failure of both South west and North east monsoons in Tamilnadu, the authorities could not able to move even 50% of the raised seedlings to the identified beneficiaries. 

 "Man proposes, God disposes". 

May be man proposes only disposables.

(Pic.courtesy: multiwood).

For Tirunelveli District Tree and Medicinal Plants Growers Association

A.Vishnu Sankar,

President.

Workshop on cultivation of Tree crops in dry lands

Topic: WORKSHOP ON CULTIVATION OF TREES IN
DRY LANDS

arranged by the Department of Forest Extension, Tirunelveli
Division, and Tirunelveli District Tree Growers association.

Venue:

• Donavur Fellowship premises, Near Kalakad, Tirunelveli District, Tamilnadu.
  

Location:

• Tirunelveli to Nanguneri 40 Kms, Nanguneri to Kalakau 20 Kms, Kalakadu to Donavur 8 Kms,

Mode of Transport:

• Two private minibuses and Vans of Forest Extension Division of Tamilnadu are exclusively arranged to bring in participants from Kalakadu Bus stand.

Date and programme timings:

• I day - 02/09/2010 Time 10.30 AM to 5.00 PM
  
• II day - 03/09/2010 Time 10.00 AM to 3.00 PM
  

Fees if any for Registration, Food and Accommodation:

• No registration fee.
  
• Food will be provided free of cost.
• Accommodation for the night stay on 02/09/2010 is free.
• Transport from the seminar hall to the lodge on 02/09/10 evening and back to the seminar hall on 03/09/10 Morning are free.

Programme for I day - 02/09/2010:

• 'Cultivation of 'Ailanthus'- by Dr.P.Rajendran, Associate Prof, Dept. of Tree Breeding, Forest college & Research Institute, Mettupalayam.

• 'Cultivation of Eucalyptus and the benefits of selecting Euclayptus clones as planting material.' - Resource person from F.C & R.I.

• 'Cultivation of 'Melia dubia'- Resource person from IFGTB.
  

• 'Cultivation of Neem and Albizia lebbeck' by Shri.S.Saravanan, IFGTB (Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding Institute)
  

Programme for II day - 03/09/2010:

• 'Cultivation of Trees in dry lands and the selection of suitable intercrops' by Dr.T.Rengarajan, Associate Prof, Dept of Agronomy, TNAU, Tamilnadu Agriculture University, Agriculture Research Station, Kovilpatti.

• 'Various Soil types and selecting appropriate Tree variety that suits your soil type' by Dr. Salia, Professor, Dept. of Soil Sciences, TNAU, Tamilnadu Agriculture University, Madurai.
  

• 'Contract Farming in dry lands' by Sri. Srinivasan, Plantation Manager, TNPL, Tamilnadu News Prints and Papers Limited, Karur.

• 'Soil and water conservation in Dry lands' by Shri. Chandran, Executive Engineer, Agriculture Engineering Department, Tirunelveli.

PARTICIPATE FOR YOUR PROSPERITY .

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar
President,
Tirunelveli District Tree Growers Association

Seminar on Tree cultivation

"Workshop on Oil palm cultivation and selection, cultivation of Tree crops suitable for Paper and Biomass Energy Industries"

Venue: Donavur Fellowship, Kalakad, Tirunelveli Dist., Tamilnadu, India.

• Date: 28/01/2010, Thursday, Time: 10.30 AM to 4.30PM

Number of Participants : 188
Programme in brief:

• Oil palm cultivation - M/s. Godrej Agrovet
• Trees for Biomass Power - M/s. Auro Mira Energy Co.
• Teak cultivation - Forest Extension Officer Mr.Amalraj,
• Speeches by Kumil, Melia Dubia cultivating farmers.
• Pulp wood trees - A.O., TNPL, Karur.
  
• Bank finance for tree cultivation - Senior Manager, Canara Bank.
• "Insects are our friends" - by N.Selvam, Entamologist, Kovilpatti.

The administrator of 'Donavur Fellowship' Mr.Jeremiah Rajanesan had made elaborate arrangements for this seminar. It is a real treat to witness numerous varieties of trees in thousands of numbers in the fellowship campus. All the trees in their smart little arboretum were painted either with the botanical name or with the local name for the benefit of farmers.

Conducting a Tree growers meeting at this kind of natures best setting at the foot of western ghats is a pleasant and ever memorable experience.

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar

'Commercially important Tree crops'- Seminar at Puliangudi on 08-12-2009

A section of the participants:

Sri.Dinkarkumar,IFS, DFO, Soc.For, Tirunelveli

Sri.Gomathinayagam, Organic Agriculturist, Puliangudi

Sri.V.Anthonysamy, Organic Agriculturist, Puliangudi

Some Ppt presentations and Photos from the TDTGA seminar conducted on 20/11/2009 at Tirunelveli:

----------------------------------------------------------



A sample slide from the above presentation:


Augur Demo:



Demo of "Tractor Mounted Post Hole Digger":


Presentation by Agri. Engn. S.E., Er.Tamilselvan:


Section of the crowd:


F.E.O' s of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin:


Address by Conservator Sri.Rampathy, IFS.,:


Chief Guest planting a tree:

Workshop on selection and cultivation of Tree crops

Dear Friends,

TDTGA's main objective is to impart knowledge about tree cultivation to the farming community by conducting periodical meetings, seminars and workshops. It acts as a bridge, connecting the hapless farmers with scientists, forest officials, nursery people and wood based industries of both public and private sector.

For the month of November '09, we have joined hands with Forest Extension Division of the Dept. of Forests to conduct a workshop on tree cultivation. The program details are:

"Workshop on selection and cultivation of Tree crops suitable for Paper, Plywood and Biomass Energy Industries"

• Venue: Tamil Valarchi Panpaatu Manram, Near Central Excise Office, NGO Colony, Palayankottai, Tamilnadu, India.

• Date: 20 /11 / 2009, Friday, Time: 10.30 AM to 4.30PM

• Presided by: Mr.Irulandi, IFS., Chief Conservator of Forests, Forest Extension Division, Chennai.

Programme in brief:

• Success stories of "Tree crops in Private Lands Scheme (TCPL)" Ppt presentation of pictures taken from the fields of our members.

• Speech by two successful tree growers of our area.

• "Selection and cultivation of Tree crops suitable for Paper mills and Biomass Energy Industries" - Speech by the Chief Guest Mr.Irulandi, IFS., C.C.F, Forest Extension Division, Chennai.

• "Cultivation of Pulpwood Trees for Tamilnadu News print and Papers Ltd., under contract farming" - Speech by the officials from TNPL, Kagithapuram, Karur.
  

• "Sustainable Agriculture" - Cultivating Tree varieties suitable for 'Wood fired Biomass Power companies" - speech and Ppt presentation by Sri.K.Chidambara Manickam. Assistant General Manager, M/s. Auro Mira Energy Company P.Ltd., Chennai. (This company has obtained a 15 MW license for developing a Biomass project near Oothumalai village in Tirunelveli district and the project is expected to be commissioned by mid 2010.)

• "Cultivation of trees under contract farming for M/s.Auro Mira Energy Company P.Ltd and the supply of seedlings at subsidized rate, availability of credit facilities, crop Insurance cover Etc.," by Mr. G.Ramasubramaniyan, Manager, Plantations Division, M/s.Auro Mira Energy Company P.Ltd., Chennai.
  

• Q & A session: Members doubts on site selection, crop selection, species selection, cultivation technology, Govt. subsidies, marketing., Etc., will be cleared by the visiting dignitaries and the C.C.F.

• Crop of this month: Cultivation of 'Green Vulgaris' Bamboo and Anthocephalus cadamba.
  

Members are kindly requested to participate in this workshop without fail.

TDTGA is actively lobbying for the farmers cause and represents the interests and concerns of members and enables them to take advantage of opportunities in agroforestry and in commercial timber production. So become a member now.

Nonmembers can register for membership at the venue itself and are eligible to participate.

All are welcome.

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar
President
TDTGA

Tree Growers Association

(click on the picture for an enlarged view)

Dear Friends,

We all know that there was a long felt need to form a ‘tree growers’ association’ in this part of southern Tamilnadu as a means of facilitating extended forestry services to farmers.

To materialize this dream, the Forest Extension Division of the Department of Forests invited some well known farmers who are already doing Silviculture and agroforestry in Tirunelveli district and they were given the task of creating a private tree growers association.

In accepting the challenge, a core committee presided by me was formed to form an association with the name "Tirunelveli District Tree and Medicinal plants growers Association" and get it registered under Society Registration Act of Tamilnadu.

The task was accomplished and office bearers were elected to pursue the following objectives of the Association:

................................

Invitation for the First General body meeting:

(click on the Logo to enlarge)

Venue: Tamil Valarchi Panpaatu Manram, NGO Colony, Palayamkottai, Tamilnadu, India.

Date: 14 /10 / 2009, Wednesday, Time: 3.00 PM to 6.30PM

Presided by: Mr.Irulandi, IFS., Chief Conservator of Forests,
Forest Extension Division, Chennai.

Programme:

• Action plan for 2009 -10.
• Forming a steering committee to popularize the objectives of the Association.
• Identifying trees that are suitable for cultivation in Tirunelveli District.
• Speech by two highly successful tree growers of our area.
• Contract farming.
• Growing trees to generate electricity from its' biomass.
  
• Screening the past US Vice President Mr. Al Gore's film on the effects of 'Global Warming": 'An Inconvenient truth'
• Ppt presentation about the cultivation of 'Green Vulgaris' Bamboo, and Anthocephalus cadamba.

Members are kindly requested to participate in this General body meeting without fail.

Nonmembers can register for membership at the venue itself and are eligible to participate.

All are welcome.

Regards,
Vishnu Sankar

Suggestions to Tamil Nadu State Forest Commission

The Govt. of Tamil Nadu has formed a “State Forest Commission” (Environment and Forests (FR.Spl.A) Department, G.O.(Ms) No.87, Dated: 14.08.2007), a first of its kind in India, with a Chairman and two Member Secretaries. The commission has been asked to submit its recommendations to the Govt. within a year regarding the various aspects of Forests and Wildlife Management in Tamil Nadu, and to make recommendations in this regard.

The Terms of Reference of the State Forest Commission can be viewed at:-http://www.tn.gov.in/gorders/eandf/eandf_e_87_2007.pdf

The suggestions are welcome from NGOs, persons living near forests, farmers doing forestry, village level forest committee members, industries depending on forest produce, environmentalists, Scientists, forest officers and from the general public. They can be sent within a month to ‘The Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Forest Commission, Panagal Maligai, Saidapettai, Chennai – 600 015’ or to the E mail address: forcom@tn.nic.in

I request this forum members and anybody who has interest in tree growing and forest conservation to forward their esteemed opinions to the commission for its kind consideration.

A copy of my E-mail (mostly about the Forest Department’s TCPL scheme) sent to “State forest commission” on 09/10/2008 is given here below for your valuable comments.

Suggestions to Tamilnadu State Forest Commission:

I am a farmer from Tirunelveli District, greatly benefited from the Tamilnadu Govt.'s 'Tree crops on patta land' ( TCPL) scheme. I hereby humbly submit some suggestions regarding the above scheme, with a fervent hope of turning it to more farmer friendly scheme and if implemented will naturally increase the forest cover in our state.

1. Farmers normally don't have the knowledge to select a Tree variety that suits his land's soil type and water quality. Under the TCPL scheme he is planting whatever variety he is getting from the Forest Dept. Due to wrong selection or supply most seedlings will perish at the field in the initial months itself. So before effecting supplies, the Dept. should take soil tests and water analysis tests in the identified farm land and should suggest to the farmer, suitable crops and the necessary cultivation techniques.

2. At present 'Drip irrigation subsidy' is not availabe to tree crops or agro forestry or Silviculture or timber plantations or whatever name we have for the cultivation of Trees. It is sad to note here that our Govt.rules and Acts not spared even border crops that act as fencing or as wind breakers to the farmer's field.
To start with Govt. may allow 'Drip irrigation subsidy' for the tree crops planted on the borders and bunds there by encouraging the farmers to go for these boundary crops in a large scale. Later after seeing the results we can think of providing drip irrigation subsidies to bulk tree plantations also. This is a short cut way to increase our state's green cover. So 'Drip irrigation subsidy' for the tree crops is the need of this hour.

3. More number of Pamphlets and brochures with details of tree varieties, cultivation techniques, their maturity, preferable soil types Etc. should be released by the Forest Department for the farmer's benefit.

4. It is advisable to provide plants of various types with different maturity periods (short, medium and long duration varieties) to the marginal farmers instead of a single variety there by assuring him of a regular income.

5. Maximum ceiling level ( number of plants) for Bulk plantings should be removed.

6. Incentives for the tree growers may be increased to 3 years from the present level of 2 years. It is better to release the incentive amount at the end of the year, after seeing the results, instead of at the year beginning as is the case now.

7. It is not possible to raise the required number of plants and all the varieties in the nurseries of Forest Department alone. So, we should entrust this work to interested individual farmers, NGOs and SHGs. The planning should be in such a way, so that only plants identified for that particular village are allowed to cultivate in the nursery. By this way the farmer can avoid the huge transportation costs, and he is free to take delivery of the plants whenever he feels that climatic conditions are favorable for planting.

8. In continuation of the above, the farmer who is willing to establish a nursery exclusively for timber plants may require bank finance. So, a recommendation letter from the Forest department to the concerned banker to the effect that the farmer is a technically qualified person in the nursery keeping and the buy-back of the raised plants from the nursery by the Dept is guaranteed.

9. Farmers who are willing to do Agro forestry but have lands in rain fed areas and drought prone areas usually don’t come forward due to the high cost of land development expenses. We should help them by providing subsidies in leveling the field, to form bunds and to create structures for rain water conservation.

10. The tree crops raised under ‘TCPL’ scheme should be allowed to cut on maturity without any beaurocratic hurdles. These scheduled timbers should be allowed for transportation after sale and the Dept. should issue “No Objection Certificate”.

11. The Govt. should give importance and priority to “Agro forestry” also, like the encouragement it gives to Horticulture and Spice crops. This can be done by enacting laws and by providing adequate funds to enhance acreage, coverage and productivity of timber crops so that farmers can be weaned away from water consuming traditional crops there by assuring them of appropriate returns.
Thanking You,
Yours truly,
Vishnu Sankar
The same subject was also discussed at: http://www.agricultureinformation.com/forums/blogs/vishnusankar/458-suggestions-tamilnadu-state-forest-commission-reg.html