Bamboos for Social Forestry

12 Bamboos for Social Forestry P. Shanmughavel 1. Introduction Bamboos are giant, woody, tree-like grasses with a long history as an exceptionally versatile and a widely used resource. Bamboo is a cultural feature of South and Southeast Asia. No country in this region is without an indigenous bamboo species. Its plethora of essential uses has led to the use of terms such as the 'poor man's timber', 'the cradle to coffin plant', 'green gold', 'friend of the people', etc. Over-exploitation associated with growing human population destruction of tropical forests and new demands on the resources for industrial uses, especially by the pulp and paper industry, has resulted in large scale decimation of bamboo stocks. Compared with the vast forests of bamboo found in South and Southeast Asia at the beginning of this century, we are left with the current situation of acute scarcity. Research is underway into cultural and agronomic techniques to boost bamboo production (Shanmughavel, 1995a, b, c). Bamboo is an important species in social forestry programmes of the forest department. 2. Social Forestry Programmes Social forestry programmes in India have grown in importance and scale and now constitute a major element in India's overall programme of rural development. From modest beginning about three decades ago, there has been an almost exponential growth in the human and financial resources allocated to social forestry. The term social forestry is difficult to define precisely, but is generally understood to mean tree-growing (including associated products, e.g., bamboo, grasses, legumes) for the purpose of rural development. As social forestry has a rural development focus and is heavily dependent on the active participation of people, it is also known as 'forestry for local community development' or 'participatory forestry' (FAO, 1985, 248 P. Shanmughavel 1986). Although, wide ranges of activities are included in social forestry, five main components can be distinguished in India. With variation, these are: 1. Farm forestry (tree growing on private land) 2. Farmer leasehold or tree patta 3. Village woodlots or community forestry 4. Strip plantations alongside roads, canals, railways, etc. 5. Reforestation or rehabilitation of degraded forest areas Social forestry programmes usually include one or more of these components. There are also distinctions between and within these components depending on who owns the land on which the trees are being planted (e.g., farmers, private industries, municipalities, forest departments, revenue departments, etc.) or who is responsible for the planting (e.g., farmers, villages, cooperative, voluntary agencies, rural development departments, schools, etc.). These distinctions are sometimes blurred, and there is an increasing involvement of the rural population in decision-making, management and as beneficiaries. Farm forestry is tree planting undertaken by individual households on their own land or land they have rented from others. Tree seedlings may be planted in blocks (small plantations), on field boundaries, or around homesteads. They may be intermixed with agricultural crops in several forms, or they may be planted alone on either agricultural land or uncultivable wastelands. Farmer leasehold (or) tree patta denotes a kind of farm forestry in which poor farmers or landless labourers are given leases to tracts of public land on which, with varying degrees of public support, they are constrained to grow trees. Village woodlots are small plantations on community or governments land, operated by or on behalf of the village, for the benefit of the village as a whole, although there may be special arrangements, which provide preferential treatment to the under-privileged. Strip plantations are relatively narrow areas along the sides of roads, canals, railways and rivers, established by the government (usually the forestry department) with the intention of providing the benefits of forest products to local people and to serve as demonstration areas. The reforestation or rehabilitation of degraded forest refers to large plantations on public lands, which have been degraded, and which are often in environmentally critical areas. Such plantations may, or may not, be considered a form of social forestry depending on whether or not there is significant involvement of local communities (FAO, 1985). The objectives of social forestry necessarily differ with components. While all social forestry aims to increase tree production and reduce environmental degradation, the nature of the product, the type of management, and the distribution of benefits depend on the type of social forestry involved. Farm forestry is designed to help rural households better meet their own needs, whether through the direct production of fuel wood, fodder, and poles for their own use or though the production of a commercially Bamboos for Social Forestry 249 marketable crop of poles or pulpwood. Tree patta forestry is similarly designed to increase the incomes of poor households through the sale of forest products and at the same time to help satisfy their need for fuel wood and fodder (NWDB, 1989). Village woodlots are intended to provide tree products, particularly fuelwood and fodder, for the community as well as (in many cases) income to the local village panchayat. Strip plantations and reforestation are designed to provide local communities with some of their fuel wood and fodder needs and to conserve and improve the environment. To a varying degree, each of these components has features, which deliberately target benefits towards the poorest and most under-privileged sections of society, including rural women who are frequently among those hardest hit be the growing scarcity to tree products. However, these poverty-alleviation objectives and those related to production are often confused and this contributes to the widespread controversy surrounding the social, economic and environmental effects of social forestry (FAO, 1986). The massive social forestry programmes being carried out in India are, at present, spearheaded by the National Wasteland. Development Board in the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. While the principle implementing agencies for these programmes in each state are the forest departments, other government departments and private and voluntary agencies are increasingly being mobilized to meet national objectives. State forest departments have typically introduced new organizational structures to plan and implement social forestry activities and have appointed separate staff in the field and at headquarters for forest departments as much as for other departments and agencies. Social forestry represents a departure from traditional forestry activities and styles of working (FAO, 1986). 3. Guidelines to Raise Bamboo Plantations By far the single-most important item of forest produce used by rural communities of the tropics, is the bamboo. Cultivation of bamboo can provide a cost effective return within short term (three years). To increase the pace of greening the country and alleviate poverty, it is expedient to evolve an appropriate technology for raising economically viable bamboo plantations, through community forestry. The methods of successful raising of bamboo plantations at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore are as follows: 3.1.Preparation of Nursery Nursery beds of 10 m x 5 m are prepared in the field and filled with a mixture of soil and sand (3:1). The tissue cultured seedlings of B. bambos, when about 7 cm in height, are 250 P. Shanmughavel picked out from the polythene bags. About 15-25 plants are planted in 1 m2 of raised nursery beds (one week prior planting, the nursery beds are drenched with 0.01% Aldrex and 0.05% Bavistin to prevent termite and fungal attack, respectively). Watering is done 2-3 times a day. Care is taken to avoid over watering. Nursery beds are provided with a thatch to protect the plants from direct sunlight. 3.2.Transplanting The plants in the nursery are uprooted carefully and transplanted to 45 cm × 45 cm × 45 cm pit in the fields, before the onset of monsoon. The seedlings are planted at 6 m x 6 m spacing with 250 seedlings/ha. To provide better initial growing environment to the seedlings, the upper halves of the pits are filled up with a mixture of 25 g fertilizer (17:17:17 N:P:K) per pit, while lower halves were filled up with the original soil. The transplanted seedlings are watered two hours regularly in the morning and evening. Weeding is done as and when required. After one year, the plantation is irrigated at 15 days interval. Protection against damage by rodents, grazing and browsing animals is provided by brushwood fence. 3.3.Growth and Production of Culms Generally, all the transplanted seedlings produce rhizomes. The culm buds emerge with the onset of early rains and grow rapidly. The total number of culms in 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year-old clump ha-1 has been found to be 1250, 2250, 3000, 3500, 4000 and 4250, respectively. The culm height in 1st yr has been 1.4 m, 3.2 m in 2nd yr, 9.6 m in 3rd yr, 21.8 m in 4th yr, 27.2 m in 5th yr and 28.5 m in 6th yr. Their corresponding diameters at different ages were 2.3, 3.3, 4.3, 4.8, 6.3, and 8.3 cm, respectively. An unusual rain during winter months may induce the emergence of new culms but they do not grow successfully, like those produced in the rainy season. The productivity of new culms mostly depends on the degree of congestion, clump age and rainfall of the previous year. It has been noticed that annual recruitment of culms increases proportionately with age (Table 3.3.1. and 3.3.2.). 3.4.Process of Growing The culms are very slender and the growth of sprout is slow in the beginning. They gradually begin to grow faster till the culm reaches maximum size. The average height growth of the culm is found to be approximately 30 cm by 32nd day, at that stage the internodes were wrapped with sheaths and, thereafter, in the following month the culms shed their sheaths.

Load more