ITC
has set up a state-of-the-art clonal production facility spread over 30 acres
of land, near the ITC Paper Mill in Bhadrachalam, India. The new Clonal
Production Centre was commissioned in the year 2013 with a production capacity
of 15 million saplings. It is the largest facility for pulpwood tree
species clonal nursery in India. Apical cuttings produced from mother plants
are grown with hydroponic technology in soil-less media in sand beds. The
growth & health of the apical cutting is extremely important for the
production of high-quality saplings.
A soil testing lab has been set up at the Clonal
Production Center having following facilities :
- Mist
chamber with 2,500,000 capacity
- 32,000 sq.
mtrs. Green House area
- Mechanized
tray filling machine
- Rail cart
system for plant movement
- Fully
automated IoT enabled mist chamber operations
ITC
Research & Development team has developed and released a series of Next
Generation new clones in the year 2018 with 15-20% higher wood yield of
Pulpwood tree species like Eucalyptus, Subabul & Casuarina. These new
clones are fast growing, highly productive & site specific.
Effective extension services and competent
technical guidance is provided by ITC Managers to the growers from planting
till harvest. Laboratory and research assistance is provided to the needy
farmers. Regular meetings are conducted to address the problems faced by the
farmers.Farmers are happy that they
have an assured market with ITC which provides buy back of plantation wood at
prevailing market prices.
Greening
waste lands is another facet of ITC’s strategy. Hilly, rocky, boulder ridden,
waterlogged, river islands, refractive waste lands have been put to productive
use by planting pulpwood tree species.
In
a span of more than 3 decades, the skyline has changed with the spread of
uniform plantations of Eucalyptus, Casuarina and Subabul covering an area of
more than 876,000 acres. The pioneering efforts have led to the adoption of ITC
developed clonal saplings by farmers, forest departments, forest development
corporations and various paper mills across India. Such large-scale acceptance
and adoption of the high yielding, vegetatively propagated trees redefined productivity
and profitability of pulpwood tree species.
For
more information:
You
can call ITC's Farmer Helpline: 040-30015860
(OR)