APFDC expanding area of eucalyptus plantations

Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (APFDC) which has Eucalyptus plantations in 720 hectares will be expanding its cultivation in another 1200 hectares in the district including Vizianagaram. The demand for eucalyptus cultivation is ever increasing as all the paper mills in the state had technically tuned their machinery and upgraded its technology to suit the extraction of only eucalyptus pulp for paper production.

The paper mills had earlier used the pulp of Casuarinas as raw materiel for paper production but their transition from casuarinas to eucalyptus had pushed up the demand for cultivating the later on a commercial scale. Paper mills prefer eucalyptus pulp due to its less chemical consumption and digestive techniques.

APFDC divisional manager G.Prabhakar told

The Hindu that the government had been approached for allotment of forest land for raising commercial plantations in another 1200 hectares. The corporation is earning handsome revenue in global bidding. Last year’s bidding had fetched Rs.3,500 per tone. In order to achieve much higher productivity APFDC had been raising eucalyptus clonal plantations from 1994 onwards.

The clonal technology of eucalyptus which involves selection of superior eucalyptus trees of desirable qualities, felling them, collecting the optimum sized vegetative shoots, and growing them under controlled atmosphere of humidity and temperature requires high degree of methodical working, perseverance and scientific acumen. The rain-fed plantation takes 7 years to reach harvesting stage and yields about 60 to 100 tones per hectare.1 ton of pulp costs Rs.3,500.

The plant gives a revenue of Rs.2.10 lakh per hectare. The second and third phase of yielding will take place in the next 12 years at the rate of a harvest for every six years. After three harvestings, the plant would lose its vitality and will not be fit for further harvesting. The corporation has 54,897 hectares of eucalyptus in the State. It has 729 hectares in the district and will be adding another 126 hectares in the 2012-13 year apart from its plans to expand the area by another 1200 hectares. The state government has in principle agreed to the expansion.