Published on TECA (http://teca.fao.org)
Innovations for raising Malabar Neem (Melia dubia) in Tamil
Nadu, India
SUMMARY:
This practice focuses on facilitating the nursery germination and plantation of the ?Malabar Neem? (Melia
dubia), which is locally known as ?Malaivembu?. The tree is found in forest plantations in India and is a fast
growing tree crop with up to 20 meters height. It produces greater bio-mass in relatively shorter period. As
the seed has a tough seed coat, that does not allow water to penetrate easily, the germination becomes rather
difficult. By softening the coat of the seed, the germination difficulties can be solved and enable fast
germination. This practice presents valuable cost-effective methods for small-scale farmers to raise their
own Melia dubia seedlings and establish a plantation independently from seedling suppliers.
KEYWORDS:
Melia [1]
agroforestry [2]
nursery raising [3]
Seedling production [4]
seedling [5]
CATEGORY:
Forestry [6]
Natural Resources Management [7]
COUNTRIES:
India
DESCRIPTION:
What is Melia dubia?
Malabar Neem (Melia dubia) is a tropical deciduous tree that grows up to 20 meters height. The tree is one of the fast growing species under
irrigated conditions. It can be harvested early i.e. within 4 years for plywood production or for paper industry. Long term harvest beyond 7-15
years ensures good quality timber with advancing years of maturity that can be used for
construction.
The softwood trees are suitable for plywood production and paper pulp industry, which make them the
favorites for farmers to cultivate them in Agro-forestry systems along with vegetables, groundnut and
banana. It will grow best in well-drained fertile soils with ample moisture supply. The tree will grow erect
with a single trunk up to 3 meter (10 ft.) height or more without branching when pruning side shoots or
nipping the nodal buds is done.
A famer can earn profit of about Rs. 90,000 by growing 1 acre of land (0.4 ha) area with about 1000
seedlings planted. This corresponds to a yield of 30 tons of wood per acre/75 per hectare respectively).
Intercrops, like groundnut, green gram or black gram can be raised within the interspace in the first year of
planting. Banana can be included as a crop, if Melia dubia is planted for timber purpose with wider spacing
of 5-6 meters between rows of the planted trees. Intercropping the tree with other tree species is not
advisable as it could slow down the growth or the erectness of the Malabar Neem, and lead to bending.
[8]
Melia dubia is often grown along with other trees such as Teak, Nutmeg and coconut trees to fill the inter
space between trees in a garden. Melia dubia is usually planted within large gaps in the existing garden
where other tree species like coconut and teak are cultivated to utilize the empty space advantageously.
Intercrops, like groundnut, green gram and black gram could be raised within the inter space in the first year
of planting.
[9]
Main steps of preparation of Melia dubia seedlings
1. Loosening the hard seed coat
The Melia dubia seeds have a tough coat that hampers water penetration and germination accordingly. Here
it is described, how to loosen the seed coat to facilitate germination:
The first step is to loosen the seed coat. For this process, the seed should be partially rotten or
decomposed by placing the seeds in a moistened cow dung heap.
For the heap, you can collect dried cow dung and sprinkle it with water. Then keep it under shade for
about 2 months. Take about 5 kg of dried cow dung for the treatment of about 2 kg of seeds.
By testing the softness of the peel, one can find out the exact time for peeling the external coat of the
seeds. Usually, it is roughly about 2 months.
When the outer seed coat becomes soft, the coat can be removed and the inner hard layer can be
peeled by making three shallow cuts longitudinally using a knife to take out the kernels. The seeds
look similar to sunflower seeds.
In each seed 2-3 kernels can be extracted. This should be done very carefully, so that there isn?t any
slight damage to kernels. The kernels should then be dibbled in a seed bed, specially made for
husbandry.
[10]
2. Preparation of the seedbed and dibbling of the seed
Melia dubia will grow well in fertile soils with sufficient moisture supply. Prepare the seedbed by
mixing red soil with fine sand (In the case of Tamil Nadu).
Dibble the seed kernels evenly and sprinkle water twice a day, in the morning and evening uniformly.
Cover the seedbed with poly-spread sheet as to maintain the optimum temperature and moisture for
the seed planted inside. An example of how this so-called mist chamber could look like can be found
below.
[11]
[12]
3. Germination and seedling transplantation
The seeds will start to germinate in about 3 months? time but only 30% of them will germinate
completely (natural germination rate).
When the seedlings have grown to two-leaf stage (i.e. plant physiological stage when the 2nd leafs of
the seedling have emerged completely), they are uprooted carefully without damaging the rootsystem and planted into polythene bags of 15 x 8 cm dimension. The bags are made out of
thermoplastic material and are filled with a mix of red soil, fine sand and organic manure (compare
figure 1).
Whenever there is rain, the excess water should be drained off the bags. Otherwise, the young
seedlings in the polythene bags are likely to rot, due to excessive moisture in the root zone.
The seedlings will grow up to 60 cm height (2 ft.) in another 30 days. At that height, they are ready
to be planted in the main field.
[13]
[14]
4. Plant health measures and irrigation
To avoid the rotting of the young seedlings in the polythene bags drain off excess water. In case
there is a sprinkler system available, it should consists of installed sprinkler tubes that will pass on just
above the seedling-bags. The entire seedlings can also be placed in a polythene sheet covered chamber
of dimension 3 x 3 x 3 meter (10?x10?x10? ft.), in order to prevent rainwater to enter the bags.
Planting Melia dubia seedlings in the main field
[15]
First dig out a pit of 60 cm cube (2 ft. cube).
Leave space either 2 x 2 meter (10 x 10 ft.), 4,5 x 4,5 meter (15 x 15 ft.) or 6 x 6 meter (20 x 20 ft.)
between the pits (1000 seedlings per 0.4 ha for paper industry or 110 seedlings for timber purpose).
Dug pits manually by using a hand-hoe or mechanically by using an augur mounted on a tractor.
Fill the pits with red soil, fine sand and well decomposed manure.
Plant the seedlings at the center upright and make sure to press the soil well around the seedling
base.
Irrigation
Follow planting by light irrigation on the 3rd day after planting. This could be done through drip
irrigation via installation of drip pipes (compare figure 8). Thereafter, apply light irrigation once in 7
to 10 days (for a guideline how to design and evaluate surface irrigation systems, follow
http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0231e/t0231e00.htm#Contents [16]).
The seedlings will grow up between 1. 2 meter (4 ft.) to 1. 8 m (6 ft.) height in another 4 months.
During rainy season, try to prevent the rain water to stagnate around the seedlings. Drain off
excess water effectively.
Planting seedlings at the end of the rainy season or summer is advisable to avoid stagnation of
rainwater in the pits.
[17]
Pruning
Prune the branches when the seedlings attain 2 meter (6 ft.) height, periodically at 15 days
intervals so that one straight trunk up to 10 meter (30 ft.) height can be achieved.
Prune the side shoots or nip the nodal buddings grown-in between the main trunk and the side
branches as shown in the pictures below.
[18]
[19]
Harvesting products from Melia dubia
After 7 to 12 years the trees offer good timber, which can be cut and sold profitably.
Nowadays, for quick return, famers usually cut the trees at 3 years of age for selling the wood to paper industries. It is estimated to
obtain around 75 tons/ha of land (30 tons/acre).
The paper industry procures the wood at Rs. 4500/ton; usually, famers engage laborers and pay Rs.1500/ton of wood as cutting and
lorry transport charges to the site of the pulp industry on a contract basis.
Cut the trees just above the ground level. Then, there will be many side suckers emerging from the basal region of the stem. Allowing
only one sucker from the tree clump is the usual practice (leaving the plants) as ratoon crop[1]. Perennial crops avoid costs for the
preparation of the field and additional planting. Continue with the irrigation.
Ratoons will grow fast and attain sufficient thickness within short time compared to freshly planted seedlings. Allow three
successive ratoons for optimum production with maximum returns without affecting the productivity or profitability of tree farming.
Leave only one sucker and remove other suckers in one tree clump.
Nowadays due to shortage of labor or high labor costs, tree farming withMelia dubia is more profitable compared to raising annual crops
under intensive systems as experienced by the innovating farmer inKallipatti village in the Erode district, Tamil Nadu.
[20]
[21]
[1]Ratooning (from Spanish [22] retoño, "sprout") is a method of harvesting [23] a crop which leaves the
roots and the lower parts of the plant uncut to give the ratoon or the stubble crop. The main benefit of
ratooning is that the crop matures earlier in the season. Ratooning can also decrease the cost of preparing the
field [24] and planting. This method cannot be used endlessly as the yield of the ratoon crop decreases after
each cycle. Ratooning is most often used with crops which are known to give a steady yield for three years
under most conditions (Wikipedia)
FURTHER READING:
A video, explaining the different techniques in Tamil language is available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2sOnXkjteE [25]
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/melia-dubia-tree-holds-prom... [26]
FAO Irrigation guidelines: http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0231e/t0231e00.htm#Contents [16]
SOURCE(S):
Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Voluntary Action - SEVA [27]
Country:
India
Telephone:
+91-452-2380082
Source URL: http://teca.fao.org/technology/innovations-raising-malabar-neem-melia-dubia-tamil-nadu-india
Links:
[1] http://teca.fao.org/taxonomy/term/16916
[2] http://teca.fao.org/keywords/agroforestry
[3] http://teca.fao.org/keywords/nursery-raising
[4] http://teca.fao.org/keywords/seedling-production
[5] http://teca.fao.org/keywords/seedling
[6] http://teca.fao.org/technology-categories/forestry
[7] http://teca.fao.org/technology-categories/natural-resources-management
[8]
http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Farmer%20standing%20Melia%20dubia%20plantations%20of%202%20years%
[9]
http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/A%20farmer%20is%20hugging%20a%204%20year%20old%20tree.jpg
[10]
http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/The%20seed%20after%20removal%20of%20the%20final%20seed%20coat.jpg
[11] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Locally%20made%20mistchamber%20for%20raising%20seedlings.jpg
[12] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Locally%20made%20mistchamber%20for%20raising%20seedlings2.jpg
[13] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Seed%20transplantation%20in%20polythene%20bags.jpg
[14] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Seed%20transplantation%20in%20polythene%20bags2.jpg
[15] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Melia%20dubia%20tree%20in%20a%20plantation.jpg
[16] http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0231e/t0231e00.htm#Contents
[17]
http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Farmer%20in%20front%20of%20a%20Melia%20dubia%20seedling%20with%2
[18] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Pruning-
removal%20of%20side%20shoots%20grown%20from%20internodal%20buds.jpg
[19] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Internodal%20buds%20in%20Melia%20Dubia.jpg
[20] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Trees%20showing%20pods%20matured%20during%20FebMarch.jpg
[21] http://teca.fao.org/sites/default/files/Matured%20Melia%20dubia%20fruits.jpg
[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest
[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillage
[25] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2sOnXkjteE
[26] http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/melia-dubia-tree-holds-promise-of-good-returns-forryots/article228515.ece
[27] http://teca.fao.org/partner/sustainable-agriculture-environmental-voluntary-action-seva