Growth performance of Santalum album its income potentiality: A study from Pyuthan District, Nepal

The Santalum album is becoming a popular income generating tree species in Nepal but its growth performance has not been assessed so far yet. Thus, this study was objectively conducted to assess mean annual increment, income from Santalum album and value chain analysis. The Private plantation of Pyuthan district was selected for the study site. The diameter and height of 450 plants were measured and their age was recorded. Total fifteen key informant interviews, forty five farmers’ interviews and one focused group discussion were conducted to collect primary data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics .Mean annual increment, price of Santalum album and contribution of Santalum album in total income were analyzed. The result showed that the highest mean annual diameter increment was 51.94 cm and lowest mean annual increment was 28.25cm, the highest mean height increment was 6.39 m and the lowest mean annual height increment was4.47m and the highest mean volume increment was 0.678 m3but the lowest mean annual volume increment was 0.134 m3. The estimated maximum range of annual income from Santalum album was US$ 221-530 which was 10-15% contribution in farmers annual income while minimum range of this was US$ 194-265 and it contributes<10%.The difference of the price of Santalum album between the farmers and users in Kathmandu was2200 times more.