Agriculture and Industrial Agro-forestry

A Model for Food, Fuel and Wood Security

A diversified Indian conglomerate

ITC’s

Paperboard business and Forestry Programme

Paper Manufacturing depends upon pulpwood as raw-material

ITC’s Bhadrachalamunit, at current production capacity:

• Pulpwood requirement = 11 LT

• Area to be harvested (approx)= 24,000 Ha/annum

Challenge

Wood based industry depended on existing natural forests - forest cover in the country less than desirable

ITC’s Solutions

R&D: clonal technology for productivity improvement and commercially viable lines

Farm Forestry: Promote plantations with farmers through extension and sale of saplings

The Challenge

R&D Result: Bhadrachalam Clones

• Increased resistance to diseases

• Significant productivity gains in same land - 24 to 58 CuM (tons)/ha

• Improving Survival Rate to 90 % in harsh conditions

• Compressing Harvesting Cycle from 7 years to 4 years

Challenge

Farm-forestry is opted by big farmers with potential to invest, whereas 70% of land is with resource poor small and marginal farmers

ITC’s Solution

Social Forestry: financial & technical assistance to the resource-poor farmers with surplus wasteland and without any buy-back compulsion

Next challenge

ITC works with NGOs to …• Promote Village Plantation Committees• Train Farmers in Plantation Package of

Practices• Investment for Sapling cost

Programme becomes sustainable by…• Farmers Repaying Project Support to Village

Committees• Committees re-investing the amount for

plantation and development activities

ITC’s Solution

Agro-forestry: Promote tree based farming through agroforestry model accommodating trees and field crops

Challenge

Limitation of land-resource availability lead to a situation of competition in choosing between plantations and field crops

The Next Challenge

Spread and CoverageIn 15 years…

• 1.96 lakh ha under plantations

• 107 Million saplings planted to date of EC, Subabul and Casuarina

• 70 thousand direct beneficiaries In AP and Telangana states

• Replicate the model elsewhere to meet energy needs of farmers

• Agro-forestry plantation – 24 thousand hectares

• In the journey, there were new challenges from time to time and each

time there was a solution brought-in, which could be possible only

because there was a strong business need

• While there is a strong business need, enlightened corporates like ITC

identified the potential for Greater Shared Value creation in it and

incubated the programme with emphasis on small and marginal farmers

• Scale and Reach of such idea in private farmlands is possible only

through business linked solutions

Business and Forestry

• The programme is a clear success with small and marginal farmers and it has been proved

as better model in terms of income

• Next challenge is to see that farmer earns same income from both trees & field crops as is

earned when they are cultivated in pure block model. Which means farmer earns around

Rs. 21,051+ Rs. 22,633 from one acre of agro-forestry

• This challenge entails research in tree and crop productivity enhancement and ITC is

looking forward to work with Research bodies and Institutions for the betterment of

resource poor farmers with rainfed fields in drought prone conditions

Going Forward

Block

Plantations Agro-forestry

Only Agriculture

Total Earnings (Rs) 7,346,900 18,861,367 1,202,210

Total Area (acres) 349 715 54

Earnings per acre (Rs) 21,051 26,370 22,263