ABSTRACT
The goal of pulp enterprises is to establish a secure raw material supply which will provide good quality fiber at the lowest possible cost. In developing countries, raw material requirements of many mills are small, and fast growing annual or perennial crops can be pulpwood sources offering considerable flexibility. Factors such as the rapid growth and multiple uses of these plants, the benefit to the soil accrued by growing legumes, and the reduced need for fertilizer inputs compared to nonlegumes enhance their desirability from the farmers’ point of view. The use of stems for pulp manufacture has better probability for future development and increases the number of potentially useful species to include other partly woody annuals as well as perennials such as S. sesban and S. grandiflora. S. bispinosa, a fast growing annual, has been the species of principal interest as a commercial pulp fiber crop.
