India’s Super Fast Agro Forest. A Model for the World

A newly developed organic agro forest with 10000 trees in a 15 acre area in record five years by D.Murugaselvam, a realtor turned farmer in Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal district has turned into a model agro forest drawing attention from across India and around the world. The forest has trees from all over India from  Kanniyakumari to Kashmir, requiring varying climate conditions.  The temperature dips by five degrees in the forest, dropping to 15 degrees in winter and 35 degrees in summer. 

64 year old Murugaselvam’s vision is to contribute to increase the state’s forest cover from the present 23.27% to the ideal but difficult to achieve 33%. “Normally it takes twenty five to fifty years to raise a dense forest. I’ve proved we can do it in ten years. It’s already dense in five years. Now India can achieve this  if many individuals, groups and states could replicate this”, D Murugaselvam told tellmystory.in On what made this fast-tracking a success, he added “The organic manure Panchakaviyam prepared using cow-dung and urine, the dense 900 trees an acre pattern and drip irrigation have made this possible, as normally forests are left to depend only on rain water”.

Murugaselvam’s second aim is to turn farming lucrative to farmers. Into the fifth year, this year he has already taken fifteen lakh income which is projected to double next year. Called M D Seyyon Organic Farm, he has raised 20 varieties of trees including Mahogany, Red Sanders, Rudrakshan, Thandrika and 20 other varieties of medicinal  plants, some as intercrop including pepper, clove, cardamom and fig. “We’ve disproved the common belief that a farmer can’t make money. Actually it can be lucrative” says a proud Murugaselvam. Efforts are also underway to earn carbon credits for the oxygen the forest generates.,