Need to Strengthen Market Strategy of Timber Products in Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Anubha Srivastav*, Anita Tomar and Prabhakar Singh
Centre for Social Forestry & Eco-Rehabilitation, Allahabad, U.P, India
A Centre of Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education, Dehradun, India

A B S T R A C T
The state of Uttar Pradesh is deficient in forests and as such to fulfill the demand of wood and firewood from forest itself is difficult. The gap between demand and supply of these wood products can be maintained by increasing agro forestry in the region. In Eastern part of U. P., status of agro forestry is in very early stage. Due to lack of knowledge and unawareness about the concepts, people have not adopted agro forestry up to a remarkable extent. The gap between demand and supply of forestry products is being tried to bridge up by increased emphasis on afforesation programmes. Thus, daily needs of rural people of this region are fulfilled by adjacent forest of the area and local market. The farmers engaged in farm forestry, agro forestry and social forestry suffer a lot due to non-availability of adequate market of different forest species in different parts of the country. Bamboo growers suffer a lot due to non-availability of paper and pulp industry in Eastern U. P. The absence of industries affects adversely the plantations of important tree species specifically, the plantation of Poplar, Semal, Kadamb etc. and non-availability of market information system of important timber species, their up to date rates and traders associated with business of rural as well as urban areas with the grower affects adversely the cultivation of the species. Thus, stream lining of existing marketing channel for local farmers/ villagers for sale of important tree products, viz. timber and firewood will be of paramount importance for developing agro forestry in the areas. Thus, existing market information of important agro forestry species as Teak, Shisham, Eucalyptus , Neem, Mahua, Jamun, Kathal, Babool, Mango & Poplar for their  traders, demand and fluctuations in sale and purchase rates and marketable tree produce of tree growers has been studied in districts of Allahabad, Sonbhadra, Gorakhpur, Behraich, Raebareli and Barabanki lying under different agro-climatic zones of Eastern UP. The extension works/ training programmes were carried out in selected districts for strengthening the existing market linkages to different stakeholders.
Keywords: Market information, tree species, timber products, stakeholders, agro forestry