In their endeavor to meet their mandate, three Institutes of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) - the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) at Coimbatore and the Tropical Forest Research Institute (TFRI), Jabalpur - have developed high-yielding varieties of important plant species. The Variety Releasing Committee (VRC) of ICFRE at its meeting held here on Monday under the chairmanship of the director-general of Forest and Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Sharad Singh Negi granted approval for the release of these varieties.
According to official sources, the FRI has worked for more than a decade and has come out with 10 improved varieties of Melia dubia and three clones of Eucalyptus tereticornis, timber of which is in high demand in industry. The released cultivars of Melia, popularly known as Dreake or Malabar Neem not only have high productivity per unit area with an average of 34.57 cubic metre per hectare per annum, but also have an excellent bole form which is a desirable characteristic for plywood industry. likewise the average productivity of the released varieties of Eucalyptus has been recorded as 19.44 cubic metre per hectare per annum against the present productivity level of 5-7 cubic metre per hectare per annum. These clones have also been found to be resistant to pink disease and gall wasp.
Furthermore, the research at Institute of Forest Genetic and Tree Breeding Coimbatore has resulted in development of five inter-specific hybrids of Casuarina equisetifolia X Casuarina junghuhniana for use as timber. Similarly, Tropical Forest Research Institute Jabalpur has developed two varieties of medicinal plant Rauvolfia serpentina.
The developed varieties have to gone through stringent long field trials and testing before release. The results of the field testing were put up in the VRC meeting for approval by the experts. In all 20 varieties were released by committee.
In its earlier efforts the ICFRE had released 27 high yielding clones in 2010, 2011 and 2014 of Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus Hybrid, Casuarina equisetifolia, Casuarina junghuhniana and Dalbergia sissoo which are in commercial production now. Of these 27 varieties released in the past, Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore developed 25 varieties and remaining two of Dalbergia sissoo and Eucalyptus hybrid were developed by FRI Dehradun.
It should be mentioned here that the ICFRE is an autonomous organisation under the MoEFCC which carries out holistic research on forestry species. The nine institutes under ICFRE are actively engaged in improvement of plantation tree species to improve yield, quality and productivity to meet the demand for domestic consumption by industries.
The ICFRE director general Shashi Kumar, TFRI director U Prakasham, IFGTB director RS Prashanth and FRI director Savita among other officials and scientists were also present in the meeting.
