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. 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. 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 1.16 million 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 at 040-30015860
OR
You can download ITC PSPD MyTree App from Google Play Store.