Achievements of National Bamboo Mission

Till recently, bamboo has remained confined mostly to the forest (12.8% of forest area), two third of the growing stock being located in the North-Eastern States. Importance of the crop as a source of raw material for industrial and domestic use with its growing demand all over the country necessitated its cultivation in farm lands as well.

Major focus was given in area expansion under bamboo crop and an area of 48475 ha has been covered both in forest and non-forest lands during the period 2008-10. A sizeable portion of the existing bamboo is old and senile, out of which, an area of 11609 ha has been rejuvenated during the last two years.

Capacity building through training of farmers and field functionaries has been priority for the Mission. During the two years, 5054 farmers have been trained within the state, 1296 outside the state and 1079 field functionaries were trained under TOT. Bamboo Technical Support Groups (Dehradun, Peechi in Kerala and Guwahati) are supporting in training programmes for farmers and field functionaries in various aspects of bamboo like nursery management and plantation/cultivation technology.

Productivity of bamboo in the country before launch of National Bamboo Mission was as low as 3-4 tons /ha. To raise it to international level of about 20 tons /ha, systematic efforts involving use of quality planting material, establishing micro-irrigation and pest and disease management are being made. Having established 1164 Nurseries in preceding years, initiatives for pest and disease management were taken in 16440 ha.

One Retail Outlet was established during 2009-10 to improve marketing infrastructure of products of bamboo in the country. Projects under Research and Development concentrate mainly on technology generation as appropriate to each region/state, keeping in view their specific agroclimatic and socio-economic conditions. Emphasis is given on effective documentation/transfer and dissemination of technologies available in India. Since inception, a total of 23 R&D projects have been sanctioned to various National/ State level institutions/State Agriculture Universities (SAUs), etc. which are under different stages'of progress. The salient findings of these projects are as under:

• Clones of important species of bamboo collected and transplanted for evaluation.
• Maximum shoot production takes place during rainy season.
• Bamboo attained greater height (2.1 m) when grown in combination with other crops than as a sole crop (1.95 m) and the intercrops recorded higher growth and yield when grown in combination with bamboo than as a sole crop.
• Rhrizomatus cuttings treated with Indole Butyric Acid (IBA) led to maximum rooting in Dendrocalamus brandisii whereas the culm cuttings treated with IBA proved to maximum rooting in D. aspen
• Bambusetum with species available within and outside the state established.
• Drip irrigation in combination with 50 per cent recommended dose of fertilizers (Chemical + Organic) have been found most effective in Bamboo cultivation.
• Chlorpyriphos (0.05%) is found to be most effective remedy for control of bamboo leaf roller

   knowledge on bamboo, it was observed that no planned market system exists in the countryside and prices vary significantly depending on its length and thickness.

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Date posted: September 2010