Ensuring Sustainability - Afforestation, Reforestation and Forest Restoration in Arid and Semi-arid Tropics - page 246

10.2.5 Reinvesting Returns

Maintenance of a plantation is the most important activity on which the annual
revenue received should be utilised. Costs incurred on repair of the fence, the soil,
water conservation structures, and the wages of the watchmen should be paid out of
it. Reseeding of the area will be necessary at an interval of 3-5 years if grazing is the
predominant mode of utilising the grass in the area. Reseeding will involve closing
the area to grazing at least for one season, ploughing it and sowing seed pellets on
the furrows.
Replanting the area is the final operation when the cycle of afforestation is com-
plete with the final felling. Such an opportunity will be rare since most of the tree
species in arid areas have a very long rotation age. They are more useful by way
of their intermediate yields than in final value of the timber. Few plantations are
likely to be feasible purely for timber production on community lands in the arid and
semiarid areas where soils are poor and productivity is low.