Tobacco growers now bank on Hebbevu

Father-son duo in Hunsur taluk sets the ball rolling

Even as the governments — both Centre and state — are finding it difficult to provide alternative crops for tobacco, farmers are taking to the fast-growing forest trees to compensate for the projected loss due to the curtailment in tobacco crop area to meet the obligations under WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by 2020.

Channabasappa and his son Chandru of Hullalu in Hunsur taluk are the pioneers in growing ‘hebbevu’ (Melia dubia) after being introduced to it by former Forest secretary A C Lakshman 15 years ago. Now, they have 4,000 trees, which are five years old, on their farmland.

“We also have permit to grow tobacco and grow it as per norms. We have not stopped growing tobacco even though we do not like it. Due to continuous cultivation of tobacco, the soil has lost fertility. Curing of tobacco in barns need a lot of firewood, which is robing the environment of its precious resource. But, if we do not grow our quota of tobacco, we may lose our permit for next year. As we are not sure if tobacco cultivation would be phased out by 2020, we do not want to lose our rights,” he said.

Chandru said that if a hebbevu tree has a girth of three feet or nearly one metre at four feet height from the ground, each cubic feet (CFT) of the wood fetches Rs 300. “Hebbevu reaches a girth of three feet by three years and hence each tree is worth not less than Rs 10,000. If the trees are nurtured properly, with adequate spacing, proper depth for roots, water supply and fertilisers, they reach a girth of nearly four feet in three years itself, fetching a price of Rs 400 per CFT. So, farmers can bank on hebbevu with confidence, besides growing other suitable crops,” he said.

Lakshman, who was recently appointed as the Chairman of Devaraja Urs Bamboo Development Committee constituted as part of the birth centenary celebrations of the late chief minister, said, “Since his induction into the IFS in 1962 and even after his retirement in 1996, he has been researching about fast-growing forest trees and he considers himself lucky after stumbling upon hebbevu.”

“At least 25% of all farmlands should be reserved for trees — either fruit-bearing trees or timber trees — as a counter for drought. Besides seeding rain clouds, trees help in recharging water table. Even roots of dead trees absorb water and leave behind pores after decaying, facilitating perforation of rainwater into the ground. So, I have been encouraging farmers to grow forest trees. I have experimented with over 10 species, including a wide variety of bamboos. But, hebbevu is the most fast-growing tree and its advantage is that it grows straight with fewer branches, suitable for timber. The branches and twigs can also be used as firewood,” he said.