The Hindu Business Line : Govt to tap potential of bamboo

THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Friday said that the Government wants to change the image of bamboo from being an orphan crop into "green gold" in view of its massive employment generation potential for the rural and urban poor.

Inaugurating the seventh World Bamboo Congress here, the Prime Minster said, "Our aspirations and expectations are indeed high. We hope to create about 8 million jobs in the bamboo industry, lift 5 million families out of poverty and earn Rs 16,000 crore by way of revenue by the end of the Tenth Plan period (2006-07)."

The Prime Minister said that India would particularly like to develop bamboo cultivation and bamboo industry concentrated in the North-Eastern region and would like this to promote into new areas too. The Prime Minister also referred to the Mission approach being suggested by the Plan Committee which proposes organisation of community level common facility centres where village artisans could work for value addition to bamboo.

In his remarks, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr K.C. Pant, said that the Government of India has recognised the potential of bamboo both as a commercial product and for employment generation particularly in tribal and rural areas. Mr Pant said that a national mission has been proposed to promote not only industrial application of this group of plants, but also for cultivation of suitable species for specific end uses. This would ensure scientific development and utilisation of these resources and prevent their over-exploitation, as has been the case with timber the world over, he added.

He said a Committee set up by the Plan panel under Member, Dr D.N. Tiwari, made the recommendation for a Mission on Bamboo Technology and Trade Development. The report of the mission was presented to the Prime Minister on July 11, 2003 in which it has envisaged strengthening of the resource base by planting bamboo in 2 million hectares in forest and non-forest lands including wastelands. The report also envisages development and adoption of technologies and processes for enhancing efficiency and quality in the production of bamboo based products. TIFAC under Ministry of Science and Technology is also working on networking for development of bamboo-based enterprises, Mr Pant added.

Stating that the World Bamboo Congress has come at an opportune time for India, Mr Pant said that a number of countries were well ahead of India in the technologies of bamboo production and usage.

Knowledge of practices, traditions, usages and markets of such products all over the world would certainly help India to benefit from the experience of others in the use and augmentation of bamboo resources, Mr Pant said.

Earlier, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Congress by lighting the lamp and the Union Minister of Agriculture, Mr Rajnath Singh, presented a copy of `Field Guide of Bamboo' to the Prime Minister.