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Context

• The Union Agriculture Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has approved the formation of an Advisory Group for streamlining the development of the Bamboo sector. 

 

Details

• The Advisory group encompasses the representation of various stakeholders viz., academicians, researchers, innovators, progressive entrepreneurs, designers, farmer leaders, marketing specialists and policy makers.
• The inter-ministerial and public-private consultation is envisaged to dovetail the bamboo initiatives of the Ministries/ Departments and to help revamp the developmental architecture of the sector by incorporating synergy between all the sections related to the bamboo value chain. 

 

Status of Bamboo Forests in India

• India is the world’s second-largest cultivator of bamboo after China, with 136 species and 23 genera spread over 13.96 million hectares.
• Around 80 per cent of bamboo forests lie in Asia with India, China and Myanmar having 19.8 million hectares of bamboo.

 

• Bamboo forests have grown from 13,882 million culms (stems) in 2019 to 53,336 million culms in 2021 - Forest Survey report 2021.
• Despite all this, the country’s share in the global bamboo trade and commerce is only 4 per cent.

 

Read about Forest Survey Report in details here: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/forest-survey-report-2021

 

Some Bamboo Initiatives

National Bamboo Mission

• About: With a view to harness the potential of bamboo crop, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is implementing a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme called Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) in which National Bamboo Mission (NBM) is being implemented as a sub scheme.
• National Bamboo Mission was launched in 2003. The restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) was launched during 2018-19 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. 

• Aim: The Mission envisages promoting holistic growth of bamboo sector by adopting area-based, regionally differentiated strategy and to increase the area under bamboo cultivation and marketing.

 

Project BOLD

• It is an initiative of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC).
• Aim: It was launched with an objective of preventing land degradation and developinggreen cover. To create sustainable income for the local tribal population and also contribute to environment and land protection.

 

Challenges in Bamboo Sector

• Untapped Potential: Bamboo has tremendous untapped potential for transforming India’s rural economy. There is vast scope for expanding bamboo in areas outside forests because:
• Its management is easier in these lands than in natural forests.
• Due to close to user agencies, economic harvesting is possible.
• Weak Framer Industry Linkage: Emphasis of NBM has, by and large, been on propagation and cultivation of bamboo, with limited efforts on processing, product development and value addition. This has caused weak linkages between farmers and the industry.
• Land Degradation: According to the State of India’s Environment 2017, nearly 30 per cent of India’s land is degraded. With its unique ability to stitch and repair damaged soils, bamboo is ideal for rehabilitating degraded soil.

The way forward

• National programme of intensive bamboo plantation: To arrest the pace of land degradation in the country, a national programme of intensive bamboo plantation involving all stake-holders needs to be undertaken.
• Usage in Construction: Though bamboo has been used in various pioneering structural applications in the past, it is still seen as a “poor man’s material”. The National Housing Scheme (PMAY) should utilize bamboo as construction material.
• Boosting Exports: Edible bamboo has a huge demand in East Asian cuisines and medicine. Bamboo grown in the Northeast (which is 66 percent of the growing bamboo stock in India) can be exported to East Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan for competitive prices with the GOI’s support.
• Policy for leasing revenue degraded ravine lands and liberalization of ceiling limits/restrictions: A large portion of degraded lands, which could be profitably used for raising bamboo, are under the control of the Revenue Department/ Forest Department. Such lands are neither being developed by the Department nor leased away to the interested entrepreneurs for development. These lands can be economically utilized for promoting bamboos.
• Capacity building: Wide-ranging national programs to build the capacity of the rural artisans in bamboo craft be initiated towards developing bamboo based cottage industry in the country and enhancing cash incomes of the rural artisan.
• The need of value addition: Most of the handicraft sector in bamboo is traditional due to which the production level is low. For production of bamboo handicrafts, huge quantity of splits, sticks and semi-processed raw materials of various specifications are required which presently are obtained by manual processing of whole bamboos by artisans which results in more wastage and reduce the quality of the end product.

Trivia

• In 2017, the Government, amended a 90-year-old law and categorised bamboo as grass.
• Following the amendment in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, bamboo has been removed from the category of tree. Now there is no prohibition on growing or cutting bamboo trees even outside the forests.
• As bamboo was defined as a tree under the previous law, its inter-state movement required a permit. Consequent to the change brought in by the amended Act, felling or transportation of bamboos grown in non-forest areas will not require such permits.

NECBDC Formerly known as ‘Cane and Bamboo Development Council’ (CBDC), North East Cane And Bamboo Development Council (NECBDC) was incorporated with the objective of organizing the hitherto untapped bamboo sector of NE India which is a significant occupant of its topography, culture and customary practices since time immemorial. Its formal existence came into being as a coordinated effort headed by North Eastern development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) along with the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India, UNIDO and UNDP.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1881040