The Forestry Research Institute will establish a commercial nursery for poplar trees at lalkuan.
The Government has approved Rs 71 lakh for the nursery which will be established on four hectare land with a target of preparing one lakh saplings, said Chief Conservator of forests (Biodiversity and Research) SK Singh.
He said that with this and other efforts, the institute will rise in its national standing in the next 10 years. Singh said that there is high demand for popular among the cultivators in the Terai region of Uttarakhand with an annual demand for about five lakh poplar saplings in the State alone.
However, after supplying the saplings to the forest department, the institute is able to sell only about 5,000 poplar saplings to farmers. Due to absence of productive breeds of poplar in the market, the farmers have to make do with whatever is available in the market. Farmers growing such poplars are unaware of the breed of the tree which in turn affects their income from cultivation.
Taking serious cognisance of this the forest department has taken the task of supplying high quality poplar saplings to cultivators. To facilitate this, the department is developing its nursery in lalkuan and will establish a commercial nursery of high quality poplar clones. If everything goes as planned, this nursery will start selling poplar saplings after three years.
It is pertinent to mention here that the existing nursery of the forest department prepares saplings of l clone poplars which are supplied to the department every year for new plantations while the remaining saplings are sold to farmers.
This poplar variety is popular among cultivators due to factors like the comparatively lesser time it takes to become ready for harvest.