2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Effect of expansion of invasive tree species on farm household income in Tamil Nadu, India

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21580401
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Boundary agriculture
Research Institution	Kyoto University
Principal Investigator	SATO Takahiro 京都大学, 東南アジア研究所, 助教 (80444488)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	侵略的外来種 / Prosopis / 家計収入 / バイオマス発電
Research Abstract	We report on the effect of expansion of invasive tree species(Prosopis juliflora) on household income in the semi-arid farm village in Tamil Nadu, India. Prosopis land cover had been expanded rapidly since 2000, and it shared 72% of the agricultural land. The invasion of Prosopis forced the farmers to give up their agricultural practice. However, the result of this study exhibited that the household income of the villagers was increased because the constant price of prosopis increased more than double. Such price changes were created by the increasing demand for prosopis, because several power stations using prosopis as an electricity generation material had been established nearby village.