Bamboo mission mooted to raise productivity

The Centre has decided to set up a national bamboo mission to raise production and productivity of this versatile plant and promote marketing of bamboo-based products, including handicrafts.

About 195 bamboo bazaars would be set up for this purpose. An outlay of Rs 568.23 crores has been approved for this mission for five years beginning 2006-07. It will help generate 50.4 million man days of employment for skilled and unskilled workers.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said this at a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to his ministry on Wednesday.

He said the states would have to amend the transit rules under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and remove other curbs in the development and transport of bamboo and its products.

He said the mission would make necessary technological interventions in areas such as scientific bamboo cultivation and development and marketing of bamboo products. Private companies, cooperatives and self-help groups would be involved in the process.

Bamboo plantations would be raised in compact areas using good quality planting material prepared through tissue culture and other modern techniques. A national level apex committee would provide overall guidance for this work and also monitor and review the progress made in achieving the objectives.

India has the largest area under bamboo plantations in the world. The total area is estimated at about 8.96 million hectares amounting to some 12.8 per cent of the country's total forest cover. Nearly two-thirds of this stock is in the north-eastern states.

The country is home to about 136 species of bamboos. China is the only country having a larger number, about 300, of bamboo species.

The demand for bamboo has increased in recent years because of the manifold uses of bamboo, including its industrial applications for making furniture and panel boards. These products possess considerable export potential.

The focused intervention to harness bamboo's economic potential in China has resulted in a 10-fold increased in the productivity since 1970. China's total export value of bamboo products is estimated at present at $ 550 million a year.

The proposed technology mission would aim at boosting the bamboo productivity in India from the present average level of 2 to 3 tonnes a hectare to about 18 tonnes a hectare.

About 2.12 lakh hectares would be brought under perennial green bamboo canopy. This would include development of 1.76 lakh hectares of new plantations and improvement of 0.36 lakh hectares of existing plantations.

Over 3.2 million tonnes of bamboo would be available annually from these plantations from the fourth year after sowing.