KFRI Research Report No - Kerala Forest Research Institute

Peermedu (Vallakkadavu) in high ranges. Based on the observations on growth anddisease resistance of these provenances in the field, promising provenances havingbetter growth and disease resistance were identified and recommended to the KeralaForest Department for raising plantations during 1998.Acacias were introduced in Kerala on a large scale during 1980’s as part of thesocial forestry project funded by Word Bank. The two main species planted were Acaciaauriculiformis and A. mangium, popularly known as mangium. These two species werealso found suitable for afforestation of degraded lands. However, information onadaptability and growth performance of various provenances was unavailable. Twoprovenance trials involving A. auriculiformis (11 provenances), A. mangium (12provenances), A. peregrina (8 provenances) and A. crassicarpa (7 provenances) werecarried out at Kodanad (4 ha) and Kulathupuzha (2 ha) during 1997 to generate thisinformation.This report is a consolidated result of the research project carried out in twophases. The first phase started in 1998 and ended in 2000 and the second phase started in2001 and ended in 2003. The objectives of the project were maintenance of theprovenance trial plots of eucalypts and acacias, evaluating growth performances,monitoring disease and pest incidence, and identification of provenances suitable forKerala. The project also envisaged identification of candidate plus trees of all the species,development of fast growing, disease and pest resistant clones, supply of the clones toKerala Forest Department for raising clonal multiplication area and clonal pulpwoodplantations, and supply of quality seeds to Kerala Forest Department, Kerala ForestDevelopment Corporation, Hindustan Newsprint Ltd., and other user agencies.2