A Consortium of Industrial Agroforestry has been launched in India aimed at increasing green cover and coordinating efforts of different stakeholders, reports The New Indian Express.

The consortium will bring together farmers, research institutes, wood-based industries, nursery entrepreneurs, producer organizations, forest department, tree grower societies, NGOs, banks and insurance companies. It has been initiated by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)

The idea of a consortium came out of the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) on Industrial Agroforestry that ran from 2008 to 2014.

“With mounting challenges in agriculture, the need for diversification is very much felt, and tree growing is one of the prominent options,” said N Krishnakumar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Administration). “The success of any programme lies in bringing different stakeholders in a production-consumption process together, and this consortium would be an important step in achieving it,” he said.

Read the full story: In Bid to Up Green Cover, TNAU forms Industrial Agroforestry Consortium