diploknema butyracea (roxb.) lamb.: a viable livelihood option for hill communities of central himalayan region

Research Article
Ashish Tewari*, Shruti Shah, Nandan Singh and Krishna Kumar Tamta
DOI: 
xxx-xxx-xxx
Subject: 
science
KeyWords: 
Livelihood, Diploknema butyracea, Regeneration, Oil yield, Seed kernal
Abstract: 

Mankind has been exploiting forest resources for many million years which is adversely affecting the environment and livelihood of people of Himalayan region. It is important to reforest the wastelands and degraded areas as they remaining unutilized or under-utilized. Diploknema butyracea is one important multipurpose species which is suitable for reclamation of these wastelands. The main objective of present study was to assess the regeneration status of this multipurpose tree species, estimate fruit and seed yield and identify the high oil yielding sites. Across all the sites the tree density of D. butyracea ranged between 2 trees/ha and 33trees/ha. The seedling density ranged between 30 seedlings/ha and 310 seedlings/ha. At several sites absence of saplings shows that conversion of seedlings into sapling is poor. Across all the sites the average seed yield varied between 28.1±0.52kg tree-1 and 45±0.94kg tree-1 and average kernel yield varied between 17.8±0.59kg tree-1 and 33.7±0.70kg tree-1. The oil content percentage (kernel dry weight basis) ranged between 60.6±0.75% and 38.8±1.12%. Production of D. butyracea oil can be a viable livelihood option for the local farmers. A hectare of plantation can generate 65,360 rupees to 2,45,400 rupees per year from sale of oil at the rate varying from 80 to 120 rupees kg-1