The Hindu Business Line : Bamboo fest in Kochi next month

The festival is designed to provide a platform for artisans, craftsmen and the bamboo industry to showcase their products. It also aims to bring together key local players and experts in the sector for sharing information and experience.

According to department officials, Kerala accounts for three lakh tonnes of bamboo a year, of which reed constitutes 90,000 tonnes. Of late, the bamboo business has come into focus with the increase in eco-consciousness in the State.

On the other hand, traditional bamboo workers, who are engaged in weaving mats and making artefacts, have been finding the going tough. They, however, stand to gain immensely in the emerging scenario, provided they go in for technological innovations, said the officials.

China exports bamboo products worth around Rs 2,500 crore annually. This has prompted attempts in the State to find various uses for bamboo, although these have been confined mainly to pulp manufacturing, besides making artefacts and other traditional household items.

The annual world trade in bamboo and rattan is estimated at $14 billion (around Rs 64,000 crore). To capitalise on the growing potential, India has launched a 15-year programme to give a fillip to the bamboo industry, through carefully planned promotion strategies, increased investments, productivity improvement and product innovations.

In line with the programme, Kerala constituted the State Bamboo Mission in November last year with the broad objective of bringing together the scattered resources of the State and adopting a focused approach to revitalise the bamboo sector.

As part of the mission's activities, steps have been initiated to promote cultivation of bamboo in select panchayats, introduce mechanisation in primary bamboo processing, impart training inputs to artisans and provide them with a platform to market their products.

The officials said the festival would help expose the State's bamboo community to mechanisation and advanced processing techniques and practices.

The festival also seeks to foster links between national level research agencies and the local industry. It will provide opportunities for the local industry to source machinery and technology for new products, interact with designers, researchers and technologists and explore new markets.

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