The history of raising container plants in nurseries is as old as modern forestry practices in the province of Sindh. Initially planting stock (saplings) was raised in the government nurseries and supplied to public at subsidized rates. In the beginning, there were only few nurseries all over Sindh to cater the needs of public, specially farming communities, to have planting stock available at their doorsteps. But with the tremendous interest shown by the people from different walks of life, and growing demand for saplings, a Social Forestry Circle was created in 1988-89 to initiate social forestry activities at grassroots level in the province. Efforts at this level resulted in sharp rise in the production as well as consumption of plants.
 
The following chart shows the trend of growing container plants in forest nurseries all over Sindh by Sindh Forest Department since 1973.
The social forestry component of the department was devolved to district governments in the Year 2001 with each district having the office of District Officer Forests under group of offices in Agriculture department. This resulted in sharp increase in the network of nurseries and most of the districts opened forest nurseries at tehsil level. This new setup showed a sharp increase in production and supply of saplings to public and other organizations at subsidized rates. This in turn directly benefited the farming communities who were interested in growing more trees on their farms.
 
After abolition of district government system in the year 2010-11, the social forestry component was taken over by the department with almost same setup under the management and supervision of two Social Forestry Circles, one each at Hyderabad and Sukkur. A network of more than 150 forest nurseries have been established in almost every nook and corner of the province to facilitate general public to avail the opportunity of buying planting stock at cheaper cost in the vicinity of their respective areas. This ever growing practice and demand for saplings is expected to enhance the tree cover of the province to an optimum level in near future.
 
The growing public response called for continuing the programme on sustained basis even after the abolition of district government system in the province. Choice of species raised in these nurseries was based on the need/desire of the people of that particular area. Eucalyptus camaldulensis being a very fast growing tree, adaptable to saline sites and with the property of high evapotranspiration of the underground water, was preferred over other species. This was followed by Conocarpus lancifolius, an exotic from Sudan & Ethiopia which, inspite of being superior timber producing species, is blessed with the unique quality of tolerating highly saline soil conditions. Other species include Azadirachta indica (Neem), Acacia nilotica (Babbur), Dalbergia sisoo (Shisham), Delonix regia (Gulmohar), Albizzia lebbeck (Siris), Syzygium cumunii (Jaman), and many varieties of ornamental as well as fruit plants are easily propagated in the nurseries and supplied to general public at cheaper rates (Rs. 2 per plant).
 
For the facility of general public and other interested organizations, SFD has created this page on its official website. The location of each forest nurseries in every district of the province along with contact numbers of the offices are given in following table: