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Natural Resource Management
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Wasteland
Development Social and Farm
Forestry
During 2005-06, 2,179 hectares were
brought under plantation through social forestry, taking the cumulative total to 6,822
hectares. The project today covers 19 mandals, 298 villages and 8,000 poor households.
The collaboration between ITC and the
Government of Andhra Pradesh for wasteland development under the Indira Kranthi Padham
scheme was successfully scaled up during the year –980 hectares of plantations were
promoted through this public-private partnership. |
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covered under the Social Forestry Programme continue to reap the benefits derived from
harvested plantations. Not only have their earnings per acre improved significantly, most
beneficiaries have been able to sustain their contribution to the Village Development
Fund. Their own incomes have been wisely invested in productive assets ensuring a
long-term virtuous cycle of development. ITC’s
social and farm forestry programmes have todate greened nearly 41,000 hectares with over
149 million saplings.
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Sowing prosperity
Satyavadi Laxminarayana of Nandigamapadu village in the Khammam
district of Andhra Pradesh has been a farmer for over five decades. Despite these long
years of farming, his savings amount to nil. Unreliable monsoons have meant |
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unreliable crops and income from his arid land. Over the last five years,
his life and land have transformed. As a beneficiary of ITC’s Social Forestry
Programme, he has been able to convert 4.6 acres of wasteland into viable plantations.
When he reaped his first
pulpwood harvest in September 2005, it was nothing less than a windfall. He sold 102 tons
of pulpwood and earned Rs 1,65,555. He repaid Rs 20,000 he had borrowed from the village
rotating fund set up by ITC to help tribals like him raise plantations. Even after
repaying his bank loan, he had enough surplus cash to invest in a motor pump for
agricultural use, start a fixed deposit worth Rs 85,000 with the State Bank of India,
purchase an acre of paddy land and take an LIC policy. Laxminarayana wants to grow more
trees. Because he has a house to build and a younger son to settle.
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