Bamboo Cultivation RASHTRIYA KRISHI Volume 10 Issue 1 June, 2015 47-49 e ISSN–2321–7987 | Article |Visit us : www.researchjournal.co.in| Bamboo cultivation : Generating income for the rural poor Hiralal Jana Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, BURDWAN (W.B.) INDIA (Email: [email protected]) Diminishing resources and availability of forest wood Madhya Pradesh, 9.90 per cent in Maharashtra, 8.7 per and conservation concerns have highlighted the need to cent in Orissa, 7.4 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 5.5 per identify substitutes for traditional timbers. It is in this context cent in Karnataka and the balance is spread in other States. bamboo assumes special significance. Bamboos are aptly Diversified uses of bamboos : Bamboos are employed called the poor man’s timber and are found in great for a variety of uses, these are the followings : abundance. The word bamboo comes from the Kannada Food purpose : (a) A kind of food in Thailand is glutinous term bambu. Bamboo is a flowering, perennial, evergreen rice with sugar and coconut cream is specially prepared plant in the grass family Poaceae, sub-family bamboo sections of different diameters and lengths, (b) Bambusoideae, Their strength, straightness and lightness The shoots (new culms that come out of the ground) of combined with extraordinary hardness, range in sizes, bamboo are used in numerous Asian dishes and thin soups abundance, easy and are available in various propagation and the short sliced forms, (c) The period in which they attain bamboo shoot in its maturity make them suitable fermented state forms an for a variety of purposes. important ingredient in Bamboo is a versatile, cuisines across the strong, renewable and Himalayans, (d) In Nepal, environment-friendly turmeric and oil mixed material. It is the fastest fermented bamboo shoots growing woody plant on are cooked with potato to earth. Most bamboo make a dish, (e) In species produce mature Indonesia, coconut milk and fibre in 3 years, sooner than spices are mixed with thin any tree species. Bamboo slices of bamboo shoot to can be grown quickly and make a dish, (f) Coconut easily, and sustainably milk mixed sliced bamboo harvested in 3 to 5 years shoots are cooked with cycles. It grows on marginal and degraded land, elevated vegetables to make a dish, (g) The sap of young stalks ground, along field bunds and river banks. It adapts to tapped during the rainy season may be fermented to make most climatic conditions and soil types, acting as a soil a sweet wine, (h) Bamboo leaves are also used as stabilizer, an effective carbon sink and helping to counter wrappers for steamed dumplings which usually contain the green house effect. The diversity of this fascinating glutinous rice and other ingredients, (i) Fresh bamboo plant has to be conserved, not just for financial reasons shoots are sliced and pickled with mustard seeds and and employment generation, but also more importantly in turmeric and kept in glass jar in direct sunlight for the best the revitalization of traditional science and technologies. taste, (j) Pickled bamboo shoots are cooked with blacked- Bamboo distribution : India has one of the richest eyed beans as a delicacy food in Nepal, (k) Fermented bamboo resources in the world, second only to China. bamboo shoot is used to prepare a sour vegetable soup, The annual bamboo production in the country is estimated (l) The tender shoots are cut into very small pieces and 3.23 million tons. According to Forest Survey of India (FSI), cooked with crushed jackfruit seeds to make a dish in in India bamboo grows in 8.96 million hectares of forest Konkan area. area, which constitutes about 12.8 per cent of total forest Ornament purpose : Various ornaments are prepared area of the country. Of this, nearly 28 per cent occur in from bamboo. the North Eastern States, followed by 20.3 per cent in Structural support: (a) Used as a construction material HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE HIRALAL JANA (b) Bamboo is used to hold up simple suspension bridges grow best in slightly acidic soil. It may be that you would (c) In house making as posts, walls, roofing, flooring, need to put in lime to adjust its pH level to a degree most fencing etc. (d) Used as decorative elements in buildings suitable for bamboo growing. (e) Bamboo is used for drying clothes indoor (f) Make Plantation :You can have bamboos for planting by growing floating house (g) Used for making furniture (g) Bamboo them yourselves from a seed, using node cuttings or potted is used for building roads. bamboo. To make sure the bamboo variety you’ve chosen Material making purpose: (a) Commonly used to make is suited to your place’s climate and soil, grow it on a ladders, (b) Bamboo or wooden strips were the standard small scale first. writing material during the Han Dynastry, (c) Paper mills Maintenance : Bamboos are drought tolerant and resistant use bamboo for paper production, (d) Bamboo has often to insects and diseases. But it may be that the variety you been used to construct weapons, (e) Bamboo is used as are growing needs special care. Learn what specific substitute of metal, (f) Several manufacturers offer requirements your plant needs. bamboo bicycles, surfboards, snowboards and stakeboards, Spacing : For most species a spacing of from 6m to 8m (g) Used to make fishing rods, (h) Bamboo has been between clump centres is usual. A plot with poorer soils traditionally used in Malaysia as a firecracker called should be planted at 8 metrecentres and richer soils at 6 bamboo cannon, (i) Bamboo can be used in water metre intervals. The proper number of plants is about 400 desalination (j) Basket making (k) Used for making incense per hectare. sticks and match splints (l) Handicrafts of various types Propagation : Establishing a plantation using large plants (m) in packing various things (n) Bamboo waste materials or even big divisions is very expensive. Smaller plantlets can be used for making charcoal and briquetted coal are needed. Most plantations are established using divisions Musical instruments : Flutes, drums, digeridoos, even of mature clumps. saxophones making, bamboo is used. Current methods of vegetative propagation : There are Kitchen utensils : (a) The empty hollow in the stalks of several methods of obtaining vegetative propagules. larger bamboo is often used to cook food(b) Used to make Layering whole culms: Bend outer culms of a clump eating utensils i.e. chopsticks, strays and tea scoops (c) downwards after undercutting at the base and bury the Cups and plates, spoons and ladles can all be made from culm in the soil after cutting off all but the main branches. bamboo. After a few weeks, if soil temperatures are sufficiently Medicinal purpose : (a) Bamboo is used for treating high and moisture levels maintained, roots and shoots infections and healing (b) Fermented bamboo paste is used develop at the buried nodes. Saw off the culm sections for the treatment of impotence, infertility and menstrual bearing new plants and transplant these directly into the pains (c) A primary use has been to treat coughs and desired plantation area . mucous in children (d) Leave and roots have been used Whole culm cuttings : Whole 18 month old culms may be for fevers, especially in babies, and for convulsions (e) severed from adult clumps and planted in a shallow trench. Tender bamboo shoots are used for treating respiratory Leave the top of the culm and a few branches intact and disorders and for other uses allow them to protrude above the ground. After some Other uses : (a) National plant of St. Lucia (b) Traditional weeks, new roots and shoots develop at the nodes. Cut Vietnamese villages are surrounded by thick bamboo these from the parent culm and transplant them directly hedges (c) Used as a fuel wood (d) Used for the cottage into the plantation site. industry. Double-node cuttings : Make cuttings of culms with at Cultivation method : least two internodes left intact. Trim branches from lower Bamboos in India : India is blessed with very rich bamboo node. Plant prepared cuttings vertically in warm soil with resources. With about 22 genera and 136 species, it is the top of the culm and the branches left protruding. If one of the largest resources of bamboos, next only to China using potting bags or pots, cover each with a clear or with 26 genera and 300 species. The areas particularly lightly frosted plastic bag tied in place after watering and rich in bamboo are the North Eastern States, the Western leave in part shade until new roots protrude from drain Ghats, Chattisgarh, M.P. and Andaman Nicobar Islands. holes. New roots and shoots are produced at the lower Bamboo production in North Eastern India on commercial node. Single node cuttings planted on their side with the lines would be an excellent tool for poverty alleviation branch complement upwards will work with some species. and employment generation. Branch cuttings : Propagation using branch cuttings has Land preparation : Before planting bamboo seedlings, proved successful in some cases. Cut the whole test the condition of soil, particularly for acidity. Bamboos complement of side branches from a culm using a sharp Rashtriya Krishi | Vol. 10 (1)| June, 2015 4 8 HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE BAMBOO CULTIVATION : GENERATING INCOME FOR THE RURAL POOR hacksaw and plant in warm soil. New roots appear at the 0.00003 km/h (0.00002 mph). base of side branches within a few months. Obtaining As animal diet : Bamboo is the main food of the giant new plants using these methods can take up to one year.