TREE CROPS DIVERSIFI

closed

The project would be the Government's initial effort in a long-term program to rehabilitate, diversify, and settle degraded mid-country lands, mainly nationalized tea estates. It would provide financing for diversification of about 11,500 ha of marginal tea land, scrub land, or degraded forest, and would include establishment of about 4,500 small farms based on mixed minor tree crops, mainly spices; some 1,300 of these farms would be provided with a dairy cow. The project would provide the 27,000 settlers with both regularly paid work opportunities in land development and about 5,700 ha of developed homesteads, with garden plots (0.2 ha) and farms (0.8-1.6 ha). The entire settled area would be protected by soil conservation measures. In addition, some 3,700 ha of forest would be developed on a commercial basis with fuelwood and timber, while about 2,200 ha would be kept as conservation forest. Necessary social infrastructure, including housing, water supply, and access roads, would be provided at low cost.