Farm forestry can combat climate change

The National Forest Policy 1988 brought in a strategic policy change by shifting the focus from forests as a “source of revenue” to ‘forest conservation and enhancement’. This shift implied lower wood supplies from forests and growing trees outside forest areas to meet the growing demand for wood. The massive afforestation drive launched since has led to gradual increase in the trees outside notified forest areas. Industries such as ITC, have also adapted to the above policy change by establishing a partnership with farmers through farm forestry, to grow trees for fuelwood, fodder, timber and industrial wood.

To make the farm forestry plantations an economically viable proposition for farmers, huge resources were invested by ITC under its targeted Tree Improvement Programmes (TIP) to develop high-productivity disease-resistant clones of targeted species such as Eucalyptus, Subabul and Casuarina. Once the clonal TIP efforts got successfully translated and transferred to the field, farmers began to realise its economic benefits, mainly on the strength of almost 400 per cent increase in productivity of the clonal plantations vis-à-vis seed-based plantations. Clonal development of eucalyptus also ensured that its root system does not go more than 1-1.5 meter underneath the soil, thereby not having any adverse impact on ground water. This development brought an exponential growth in farm forestry plantations in the states like Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Success of farm forestry plantations has contributed immensely to the increase in trees outside forests (ToF), and according to the State of Forest Report (SFR) published by the Forest Survey of India, tree cover over 11,100 sq km was added during the period 2001 to 2015. ITC itself raised more than 2,250 sq km of farm forestry plantations during this period in its promoted-catchments, mainly located in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Studies on growth of farm forestry plantations in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha indicate that regulatory provisions in terms of requirement of felling and transit permissions have hampered the growth of farm forestry in these states. Though transit pass requirement have been relaxed in these states for species such as eucalyptus lately, continuing restrictions in terms of requirement of felling permission or inability of the administrative system to ease it fully at the field level deprive farmers from realising appropriate farm gate price. This is likely to adversely impact the economic viability of farm forestry plantations and thereby hamper the growth of farm forestry in these states in coming years.

There is yet another type of limiting factor created by a protective regulatory regime implemented in Tamil Nadu. Transport of debarked farm forestry based eucalyptus wood is not permitted outside the state. Apparently, it aims to protect the pulpwood industries operating in the state. However, it has gone against the interest of the farmers, as they could not realise competitive and market-driven farm gate price. Average farm gate price for eucalyptus in Tamil Nadu has always been about 20-25 per cent lower than in the adjacent states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Also, such a regulatory regime has not benefitted the industry, as it hampered the growth of farm forestry plantations in the state. This has compelled the industry to bring required pulpwood from Puducherry and Karnataka by paying a much higher transportation cost.

Farm forestry plantations benefit in situ soil and moisture conservation, ground water recharge, soil enrichment due to accumulation of leaf litter and (leguminous) inter-croping and direct sequestration of carbon in trees. To demonstrate the carbon sequestration potential, 3,070 hectare farm forestry plantations raised in Khammam district of Telangana were registered by ITC in 2009 as reforestation clean development mechanism project under Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In December 2012, 4.03 lakh certified emission reduction carbon credits were issued to the project for the period 2001-2009, indicating that this plantation contributed towards carbon sequestration benefit of 4.03 lakh MT CO2e during relevant period. According to the Ernst & Young LLP Independent Assurance Audit, around 5.12 million MT of CO2e has been sequestered in the farm forestry plantations (225,000 hectare) of ITC during the assessment year 2015-16.

India has submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to the UNFCCC, wherein it is committed to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 Gt CO2e through enhancement of forest and tree cover by 2030. Growth of farm forestry plantations across the states can potentially make significant contribution towards meeting this target. A policy framework that encourages farm forestry is necessary to actualise carbon sequestration benefits for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Future policy interventions must consider the reasons for limited success of farm forestry growth in certain states during past two decades, despite favourable attributes pertaining to land holding, quality of land, enterprise-level of farmers and industrial demand of wood. Easing out felling and transit restrictions for farm forestry tree species and establishing enabling mechanisms for seamless supply and movement of wood to benefit the farmers is necessary. Opportunity for market-driven farm gate price, not restricted by Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee pricing regime, is vital for growth of farm forestry. Innovative “win-win” arrangements like leasing or community pooling of land for farm forestry with mechanisation has the potential to scale-up production.

Such policy measures would enhance the overall availability of biomass for livelihoods sustainance in rural India, and to bring in carbon sequestration benefits to achieve Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

Jagmohan Sharma is additional PCCF, Karnataka and Suneel Pandey is vice-president, ITC Limited