活动名称：木艺木趣国际研讨会暨展览会
时间地点：2011年10月20日，印度班加罗尔J N Tata多功能礼堂
演讲嘉宾：K Satyanarayana Rao
演讲题目：Promoting technology based processing and utilization by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) - the key to develop wood as a sustainable material in India

摘要：The main thrust of the policies of the Indian forestry so far, had been on increasing forest cover, it‘s conservation, protection and management. Technology based plantations have been receiving some attention in recent years, especially in areas outside forests, but very little attention is paid to the technology-based utilization.

India is essentially a timber deficit country with huge and ever increasing gaps in supply and demand position. It currently imports timber from over 30 countries despite its rich floral wealth that include about 4000 wood-yielding species. Very low levels of absorption of scientific processing and utilization, especially in the large number of saw mills, and manufacturing units falling in the small and medium sized category (SME‘S) that form the backbone of the wood industry consuming bulk of the timber had remained a matter of serious concern over the years. It is in these units, much of the initial mechanical processing, seasoning and preservation are carried out. Improper processing and low degree of modernization in machinery and equipment have resulted in output of low value, low quality products .More importantly, many of the alternate species identified as suitable for different end uses by R&D Institutes in place of the traditionally preferred species whose availability has long dwindled, continue to remain un-or under-utilized. Exports have become negligible, despite the country being bestowed with such famed and valuable timbers as teak, rosewood, mahagony, padauk, sandal redsanders etc.
The situation clearly warrants immediate remedial actions if wood is to be developed and projected as a sustainable material in India and its full value realized in the current global scenario and the emerging opportunities presented by the revival of interest in this most ecological of all the materials we have.

In view of the importance and strategic positions they occupy, it is held in this paper, that SME‘s in particular, merit special and immediate attention and support. These include the much needed and long awaited enabling policy support, backed up by effective regulatory and legal frame works. As technology up-gradation requires incremental investments these units often find it hard to meet, financial and material incentives as well as some ?hand- holding‘ arrangements are needed to be worked out through innovative partnership models.

Also, attention is drawn towards two notable recent developments-one relevant to wood processing and the other concerning up-gradation of skills of technical manpower. These are:(1) the supreme court orders (2002) that led to enhanced production of preservative treated wood in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and (2) the establishment of an Advanced Wood Working Training Center(AWTC) at the Institute of Wood Science and Technology(IWST), Bangalore through an innovative Institute-Industry International partnership model. There is a great scope and need for replication of such initiatives.

K Satyanarayana Rao, Institute of Wood Science and Technology,(retired), Bangalore, India ,Former President, Indian Academy of Wood Science.