Bamboo biz is booming in Rajahmundry

The bamboo plantation project in the Rajahmundry region has become a cash cow.

The earnings from the project are filling up the coffers of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation, (APFDC) Rajahmundry region. Spread in an area of 11,723 hectares, the project covers the forests of Maredumalle, Jelugumalle, Eluru, Palvancha and Kothagudem in the East Godavari, West Godavari and Khammam districts in Andhra Pradesh.

APFDC is planning to expand the plantation to another 8,000 hectares in the next fiscal. The demand for bamboo is increasing steadily, and according to a study, it would increase by 60 per cent during the next 10 to 15 years in the industrial, cottage industries and household sector.

The Rajahmundry region recorded an overall turnover of Rs 7 crore in the financial year 2003-04 and the profits earned was Rs 2 crore. In the current fiscal, the total turnover is expected to be Rs 15 crore while the profits are expected to be Rs 8 crore on its products, bamboo and eucalyptus, N Prateep Kumar, regional manager of APFDC, told Business Standard.

The corporation's expenditure on bamboo cultivation per hectare covering a period of three years was Rs 35,000 while the revenue per hectare per year was Rs 19,282.

"Last fiscal, the revenue from the sale of pulp wood and bamboo props was to the tune of Rs 5 crore. This fiscal, it is expected to cross Rs 6.5 crore," said Kumar.

The bamboo project of the corporation has proved to be highly cost-effective with the cost benefit ratio being between 1.3 and 1.4. Though bamboo plantations are being harvested with a felling cycle of three years, efforts are being made to bring the felling cycle to two years.

Old bamboo plantations raised with traditional methods are being replaced with modern methods of intensive site preparation based on scientific methods for increasing the bamboo yield. The raising of plantations under intensive management has been taken up since 1999.

Its salient features include intensive site management with watershed approach, which is by uprootal, deep ploughing and improved planting stock. One traditional bamboo tree gives six to seven culms (bamboo shootings) per year while the bamboo raised with intensive site preparation gives 35 to 40 culms per year.

There are two harvesting periods in a year. Where intensive management is done, the survival is 99 per cent whereas in the traditional plantation, the survival is 50 per cent.

The cost of production per hectare in the traditional bamboo plantation is Rs 10,800 while in the intensive site management, it is Rs 35,800 per hectare.

The revenue per hectare in the traditional bamboo plantation is Rs 58,000, while the revenue on the upgraded bamboo under the intensive site management is Rs 2.10 lakh per hectare.