Kolkata, India, Aug. 6--Bamboo, traditionally considered the "poor man's timber" in India, is under consideration as a major export item by the Indian government for a global market valued at Rs 500 billion (US$11.9 billion)and producing as much as 20 million tons of varied products a year from China alone, according to the Asia Times.
The Indian government, almost 20 years behind China in commercial production, produces only 3 million tons a year. The government has lately come to regard bamboo as an easily manageable export that provides high yields, has lots of uses and has the potential to provide employment for millions, and thus stem rural flight to India's teeming cities.
Bamboo is growing in popularity in the United States and Europe as high-end flooring and decorative planking. Taiwan and China have dominated the market for raw bamboo, with demand for bamboo flooring substantially exceeding supply. From only eight Chinese yuan (US$1.20) for 50 kilograms of raw bamboo in the 1980s, the price has leapt to above 23 yuan today. Stylish bamboo furniture, much of it from Bali, is also gaining in popularity.
Between them, India, China and Myanmar have 19.8 million hectares of bamboo reserves-- 80 percent of the world's bamboo forests. India by itself has 45 percent, with nearly 100 different species of the plant, but only four percent of its global market. The government would like to see its bamboo industry, concentrated in the northeast of the country, take 27 percent of the world market by 2015. By that time, the market is expected to be Rs 950 billion.
India's Rs 20 billion bamboo economy is small compared to China's, the global market leader with an estimated market size of Rs 260 billion. It isn't just lumber. China produces an estimated 1.3 million of the 2 million-plus tons of bamboo shoots that are consumed annually worldwide.
India is seeking to host the 8th International Bamboo Congress, in competition with Brazil and Colombia. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has become personally interested in the bamboo project, undertaken by the National Mission on Bamboo Technology, which involves 13 government ministries. These ministries, under the aegis of the Planning Commission, have allocated Rs 26 billion in the Tenth Plan, by far the largest sum ever designated for such a specific program.
India's aspirations are ambitious indeed. The government hopes to create 8.6 million jobs in the bamboo industry, lifting 5.01 million families out of poverty and earning Rs 160 billion in revenues by the end of its Tenth Plan in 2007. The government also hopes to slow the flight of rural workers to urban areas, a major problem. Job losses and low pay for day workers in national forests affect large populations, where the government forestry departments manage over 9.5 million acres of mostly natural bamboo stands.
Private industry is somewhat dubious, though. Falling production from over-harvested stands and the inability to harvest bamboo during the monsoon season has soured industry on the potential for further expansion into an industrialized agriculture format for privately-managed plantations. This is further complicated in that the government wants to expand rural handicraft cooperatives to meet demand for traditional bamboo basketry, used in local transport and packaging.
Expanded industrialization of resources will affect local populations relying on bamboo for their livelihood. In the new initiative, the government is trying to inaugurate an integrated program that will balance rural population needs and provide the science to support sustainable development.
