TREE TALK
Multi-utility afforestation option
K. L. Noatay
TO maintain a healthy equilibrium between human existence and sustainable environment growing more and more of efficient-growth trees is of utmost importance. One such tree that can be gainfully grown in the Asian scenario, including the Indian sub-continent, is a multi-utility species, sain, asan or alsan."

VILLAGE CRY: ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
When no power is costly power
Valerie Hara
THE breadbasket of India has been left in the dark with long power cuts and breakdowns. We have given up complaining. We know we are the backward class of India, the forgotten ones. We don’t expect anything from the government.

LETTER
Versatile clones
THIS has reference to K.L. Noatay’s article on eucalyptus published in "Tree Talk" on December 16, 2002. As eucalyptus is an important tree suitable for agro-forestry plantations and rehabilitation of wastelands, I would like to add on the latest developments about fast-growing and high-yielding clonal plantations of eucalyptus.

Need to make kinnow selling fruitful

AGRICULTURAL produce marketing committees (APMCs) are totally under the control of state governments. Under the influence of political push and pull APMCs have virtually become dens of organised corruption and are practically unable to fulfil the objectives for which they were created. A large number of kinnow growers are small and unorganised, hence are bound to sell their produce to either pre-harvest contractors or on the local markets.

Local markets being underdeveloped and small, are more prone to price fluctuations. Middlemen continue to exploit both the farmers as well as the consumers. Often commission agents employ people to sell the produce in retail market. In order to make high profits, such agents are sell farmers’ produce at cheaper prices to their own employed retailers.

Many farmers have to pay commission for selling their produce in the market, even though in most markets the seller (farmer) is not supposed to pay the commission. Farmers generally lack vital information from distant markets like Delhi, hence they hesitate to take their produce to such markets. A large number of farmers have already experienced cheating and malpractices in these distant markets.

To save farmers from such exploitation there is a need for establishing more and more functional farmers’ marketing cooperatives; popularising sale and purchase in ‘apni mandis’ (currently the volume of transactions at such markets is very low); and democratic election (by farmers and middlemen) of market secretaries/ presidents rather than permanent government employees or politically selected candidates.

The establishment of sufficient processing plants in kinnow growing areas could prove to be instrumental in providing better prices to the growers, besides stabilisation of fruit prices. The news reports that Pepsi Foods has a big plan for replacing its imported juice concentrate for the ‘Tropicana’ brand with Punjab-grown exotic citrus fruits enthused growers. However, it will take time to show results as it is still at a trial stage. The plan is highly specialised and supposed to be executed with the government agencies first. Thus, existing citrus growers are not going to benefit. There is a need for establishing processing plants based on the existing citrus/kinnow produce in the region.

Cold storage and waxing facilities in kinnow growing areas are not sufficient. Quality kinnow already fetches prices up to Rs 70-80/dozen on the Delhi market and the price situation is expected to further improve. Proper and adequate cold storage, waxing and refrigerated vans would help farmers earn higher profits by selling the produce in off-season. The lack (or even absence) of good approach roads in kinnow growing areas is another impediment, particularly in Himachal. The opinion of big kinnow growers in Himachal Pradesh that marketing is the job of poor and "low class" people needs to be changed in order to encourage self-marketing.

Packing plays a great role in deciding the overall value of a product. Kinnow packed in corrugated fibreboard boxes get higher net prices as compared to baskets or "pallies (jute fabric)." While on one hand bad packing material is responsible for low prices, on the other it leads to higher losses due to crushing of fruit during transportation. Crates are very safe if the produce has to be transported over a shorter distance or period of time. Unskilled labour is also responsible for high fruit losses during packing, loading, transportation and unloading, etc. A lot of research has been carried out on safe packing and transportation of fruit and vegetables. People engaged in kinnow marketing should take care on these aspects.

Farmers’ perception: According to farmers, kinnow cultivation needs government backing and intervention. In their perception the government should announce minimum support price for kinnow and open more grading centres having mechanical graders. Provision of getting fertilisers and pesticides on credit should also be made available. Farm inputs and services such as spray pumps, crates, cartons, pruning scissors, polythene sheets (for frost-fighting) and refrigerated vans, etc., should be provided at subsidised rates. Such proposals could be better got approved politically.

The profitability of kinnow is reflected in the fact that farmers are replacing conventional crops like wheat and cotton with kinnow in Punjab and Haryana. However, if we want our growers to withstand international competition, we will have to create market infrastructure; storage and processing facilities; eradicate corruption and prune the high margins of middlemen; and gear up extension programmes to a much higher level in Haryana, followed by Himachal. Punjab also has to face many current and future challenges in this field.

(Rajesh K. Rana, Anshuman Karol, P.S. Dahiya and N.K. Pande)

TREE TALK
Multi-utility afforestation option
K. L. Noatay

TO maintain a healthy equilibrium between human existence and sustainable environment growing more and more of efficient-growth trees is of utmost importance. One such tree that can be gainfully grown in the Asian scenario, including the Indian sub-continent, is a multi-utility species, sain, asan or alsan."

With the scientific of Terminalia tomentosa, or T. alata, it belongs to the plant family Combretaceae—a group of trees extremely useful to farmers, forest managers, as well as environmentalists. The species also has many regional names like saj, asan, asain, sadri, piesal, jhau, etc. It is a large deciduous broad-leaved tree. Its bark nearly one inch thick, greyish black, has long broad and deep fissures with short transverse cracks, showing red blaze (interior) on receiving a fresh cut.

The natural habitat of sain has the higher temperature between 35° and 48° C and the lower 0° and 19° C and annual rainfall between 50 to 380 cm. Starting from costal plains it can be found up to 1200 m above the mean sea level. It is found growing naturally in the Indian sub-continent and other parts of Asia as well. It is one of the important associates of a major Indian tree, sal.

Growing on a variety of Indian climatic zones, sain adjusts itself to a host of soil and rock formations. However, it puts up best growth in deep clayey loam, well-drained soil. It does well on black cotton, and laterite soil as well and tends to grow into gregarious stands at places.

Sain is a sun-loving tree. Its leaves are opposite, oblong, elliptic, obviate, 10-20 cm long and 6-10 cm broad. These are coriaceous (thick) glabrescent above and tomentose beneath.

Sain flowers during April-May. The flowers are bisexual (male and female parts together), dull yellow and 3 to 5 mm in diameter, and occur in large erect panicled spites. The fruit appear during September-October, comprise 5 broad transverse-striated coriaceous wings, having a crenulate edge, the whole thing measuring 4-6 cm along the longitudinal axis and 3-5 cm in diameter.

Sain is fairly fast growing. It attains a technically useful stature with nearly 30-45 cm diameter and 20-25 m height in nearly 20-30 years. It attains full maturity in about 50-60 years when the diameter is about 40-50 cm and height about 30m. the crop, however, starts giving fodder and poles and posts much earlier.

Sain wood is fairly hard. Its sapwood is reddish white, while the heartwood is dark brown with dark streaks. It seasons well, which if not permitted in a cold and shady place, tends to develop splits. It weighs nearly 20-25 kg per cubic foot. It is quite suitable for most rural applications like building posts, agricultural implements, economical house construction, especially for beams and rafters, etc. It is very good as firewood and makes quality charcoal as well. The bark is used for fanning and dyeing linen black. The ash of the bark makes a kind of lime-used in "pan" by tribes people. The foliage is used as fodder for cattle and also feed for sericulture worms.

Sain bears good seed nearly every year and regenerates profusely and naturally from seed in it usual habitat and good sun. Loose soil on the forest floor enhances the chances of the seed getting buried and germinating into a good crop of seedlings. Light leaf litter cover is useful in germination while excess of weeds jeopardises the survival of seedlings. Grazing and forest fires also hamper natural regeneration. Direct sowing of seed in areas under afforestation is practised at places. Otherwise, stocking of vacant areas by transplanting the seedlings raised in systematically managed nurseries is the right answer to fight the above negative factors. The species also responds well to coppicing and pollarding (cutting middle-aged plant at base and 1-2 m above the base and nursing the new shoots sprouting from there).

With a view to increasing the vegetative cover and timber production both in government-owned forests as well as private holdings, state forest departments are running a number of afforestation schemes. Interested farmers can obtain one two-year-old seedlings of sain from state nurseries for planting this multi-utility tree in vacant pockets, bunds and edges of their holdings at highly subsidised rates like Re 1 per plant or so.

VILLAGE CRY: ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
When no power is costly power
Valerie Hara

THE breadbasket of India has been left in the dark with long power cuts and breakdowns. We have given up complaining. We know we are the backward class of India, the forgotten ones. We don’t expect anything from the government.

Whenever they throw breadcrumbs our way we run after them like beggars chasing coins tossed on the street. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Daily power cuts in rural Haryana are frequent. The farmer goes out to start the tubewell. This is followed by a visit to the field to make sure the water is distributed properly. Then the electricity fails… at times for hours together, at times longer. When the power supply is restored, the farmer again goes back, starts the tubewell and then again the supply goes off.

This keeps happening the whole day. Why is there such erratic power supply? This begs for an answer.

We in Yamunanagar district have electricity supply on alternate days for six hours in the daytime and alternate nights. Last year, it was eight hours per day; the next day, blackout from 7 a.m till 5 pm, when it came for nearly an hour to supply drinking water to the villagers, ‘generously.’

In rural Haryana, we pay a flat rate for tubewells at Rs 100 per horsepower. Remember, we get the power supply on alternate days for nearly six hours.

This totals up to Rs 5.80 per hour of usable electricity, roughl, not counting the useless hours between midnight and 7 am (it is impossible to irrigate the fields at that time).

Diesel cost works out to Rs 24 per hour to irrigate. Those nearby calculate at Rs 30. Farmers, just 10 km away, with low water table levels, have to pay an astronomical sum of Rs 80 per hour. For diesel, if we add repair, depreciation, labour, etc., it may work out to be over Rs 100 per hour.

Nearly 50 per cent of the farmers, in and around our area, are irrigating solely through diesel. In other areas, they can’t afford the huge costs involved. So they wait for the power supply. Although the farmers have submitted their deposits to the electricity authorities, yet they are awaiting the release of their tubewell connections.

The cost of irrigation through canal is between Rs 30 to 50 per acre per year. A three-acre farm holder pays Rs 150 for a year while the one using electricity pays nearly Rs 6,600. Where is the equality?

Industrialists, who run their establishments part-time on generators, too are shocked at the rates per hour that some farmers have to pay. Business sense tells them not to operate at such costs. Yet farmers have to, and do.

The power cuts also affect other aspects of life. Like children being unable to study, facing hostile weather conditions and poor quality of daily life in general.

The biggest fear is of anti-social elements that roam in search of prey. City folks groan at an hour-long cut. It is hell for them, they say. Is such a situation okay for villagers?

Lack of power supply brings up the cost of production dramatically. Even if the flat rate is doubled and we are supplied regular power we would still be way ahead.

The rates for canal irrigation could also go up to Rs 500 per acre per year. That may increase revenue, which could help subsidise other areas of irrigation, as well as help in canal maintenance.

Let the rates go up. Give us electrical connections that we are waiting for and increase the electricity supply to the rural communities. Most are willing to pay more for better power supply.

THIS has reference to K.L. Noatay’s article on eucalyptus published in "Tree Talk" on December 16, 2002. As eucalyptus is an important tree suitable for agro-forestry plantations and rehabilitation of wastelands, I would like to add on the latest developments about fast-growing and high-yielding clonal plantations of eucalyptus.

Vegetatively propagated clones of eucalyptus, developed through rooting of juvenile coppice shoots from selected elite tress under controlled environment in green houses, have lead to unprecedented high yields of 200 cubic meters, or nearly 220 tonnes of high-quality logs per acre, in 10-year rotation. High productivity combined with better quality of timber means manifold increase in profitability of clonal eucalyptus plantations. There are two centres pioneering in clonal technology applications for eucalyptus in India—one in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, and another in Jalandhar district of Punjab.

Clonal eucalyptus plantations offer an economically attractive, safe and technically sound alternative for the much-needed diversification. Moreover, most of the myths associated with eucalyptus, like depletion of underground water resources and deterioration of soils, are often exaggerated and not correct, as confirmed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN in their publication "The Eucalypt Dilemma." We should take full advantage of the vast genetic diversity of the genus eucalyptus through latest technologies.

Piare Lal, Jalandhar