Status of wood demand and development of industry based out-grower schemes – An experience from T amil Nadu

Abstract

The state of Tamil Nadu is housed with wide range of wood-based industries like timber, ply, panel, pulp and paper, packing case, biomass power, boat making, construction industries, etc. and play a vital role in socio-economic development of the country in general and the state in particular. These industries over a period expanded both horizontally and vertically in terms of installed capacity and the associated product out-turn. This expansion and the increased product demand has accelerated huge volume of wood demand. To estimate the wood demand, systematic industrial assessment has been carried out through Consortium of Industrial Agroforestry and other industrial stakeholders. Among several industries, the wood demand for major sector of industries like timber (> 33 lakh tonnes), ply and panel (12.16 lakh tonnes), pulp and paper (> 17.60 lakh tonnes), packing case (2.67 lakh tonnes), matchwood (>4.50 lakh tonnes), energy (97.83 lakh tonnes) and miscellaneous (> one lakh tonnes) were assessed. To meet this demand an area of over 1.40 lakh hectare per annum needs to be raised to create sustainability in raw material resources. For this purpose, the current research team has already conceived and implemented a value chain based out-growers scheme in association with multifarious wood-based industries. This paper presents the wood demand coupled with strategies to augment plantation and agroforestry development to create self-reliance in raw material security.