A ray of hope

Establishment of autonomous institutes like the State Bamboo and Cane Centres would lead to an integrated bamboo-based rural development in the North East, says SK Pandey

Bamboo is intimately interwoven in the socio-cultural fabric of the community in North East India and provides subsistence, employment and household income to a large number of the state’s population. It is estimated that the North East possesses 28 per cent of the country’s bamboo resource in terms of area and 66 per cent in terms of resource growing stock. It is one of the major non-cash capitals of the region that can be exploited on a sustainable basis for the economic development of the area.

Though the bamboo resource base in the North East is extensive, assessment in different areas has indicated a severe degradation on account of lack of proper management, excessive biotic pressure, over-exploitation and damage from fire and grazing. Current utilisation of bamboo for value addition is very low vis-à-vis total extraction and the production of value added products is highly unorganised and not in tune with the market requirements.

The level of technology used in the handicraft sector is also low resulting in decreasing productivity, high wastage, lack of quality and uniformity, and poor finishing and shelf life of products, thereby, preventing products from entering the lucrative international markets.

In the aforesaid background, a series of state level and regional level bamboo workshops have been organised in the last few years which have brought together public representatives, decision makers, resource managers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), artisans, experts and other stake holders. Through effective deliberations on identified issues, a consensus has emerged on the required interventions for bamboo-based integrated rural development in the North East.

The targeted interventions may be classified as: Common issues relating to bamboo development: These may be identified as integral to bamboo-based rural development that will help to develop the sector to its full potential.

The initiatives taken to address these issues are raising awareness, market research and market development, codes, standards, certification, and specification development, institutional systems and institutional development, contractual systems development, monitoring and evaluation; and financing systems.

Bamboo-based integrated rural development: These will be location specific, and problem (issue) oriented, and will seek to identify and address all aspects that impinge on the set of issues on hand that present opportunities and constraints to the development of the bamboo sector.

INSTITUTIONAL LINKAGES

Institutions that are entrusted with the aforementioned responsibilities should be autonomous and able to build up the capacity of the states to carry forward the development of the sector over a long period with the assistance and collaboration of other national and international agencies involved in bamboo development. Establishment of an appropriate institution like State Bamboo and Cane Centres, which is autonomous and outside the Government purview, is recommended.

State Bamboo and Cane Centers (SBAC): This would be a local, autonomous non-profit organisation set up under Section 25 of the Companies Act. A Section 25 company cannot distribute dividends to its shareholders and in this manner is able to retain profits for recycling into newer development activities.

The organisation will be professionally run, independent of the government – as government run organisations have not been able to prove themselves to being a model of success – and will be backstopped and supported by a ‘development consortium’ of technical agencies and experts. It may also facilitate the establishment of a State Chamber of Bamboo Industries to serve as a focal point for bamboo enterprises.

 

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