6. Future requirements for superior propagules

Being a vast country with varying climatic and edaphic conditions, India has a variety of vegetation types. The cultural diversity coupled with traditional practices has made the people highly dependent on various types of local vegetation. Therefore, preferences for different species vary considerably. This results in a dilemma in the species choice, especially when the sociological aspects are taken into consideration. Various state forest departments have developed strategies to grow species taking into consideration local requirements, in addition to other species that are required in large amount. The current annual rate of planting of social forestry species is around 1.5 million ha and the number of seedlings planted is approximately 3000 million. The future annual planting target is expected to be little over 3 million ha, consisting mainly of bamboos, Eucalyptus, Acacia, Albizia, Prosopis, Casuarina, Dalbergia, conifers and teak. The projected annual requirement of tree seedlings is 6160 million, of which around 23.5% is expected to be raised from SPAs of certified seed sources and around 15% is expected to be raised from genetically improved sources. Fifty per cent of the teak seeds will be coming from SPAs and 25% from genetically improved stock. Likewise, about 25% of future Eucalyptus seeds is expected to be provided as genetically improved stock. In the case of Acacias and Albizia, not less than 30% of seeds will be collected from identified/certified seed sources. In the case of Casuarina and Dalbergia sissoo, 20 and 10%, respectively, will be made available from genetically improved plants. It is possible that the amount of seeds of these two species available from the genetically improved plants may be doubled as a result of a tree improvement programme. In the case of conifers, however, only 20% of the seeds would be collected from the SPAs and the supply of genetically improved seeds may not be more than 2% (Table 4).

Table 4. Projected quantity of seeds needed for tree planting activities in India, including improved seeds
(all figures in kilograms, percentages are in parentheses)