Parul
Ministry for agriculture and farmers’ welfare, rural development & panchayati raj has launched 22 clusters in 9 states (Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Karnataka).
A logo for the National Bamboo Mission (NBM) was also released. Lauding the success of the National Bamboo Mission, Shri Tomar said that the country is now gearing up to increase the export of bamboo products.
Lauding the success of the National Bamboo Mission, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the country is now gearing up to increase the export of bamboo products.
The restructured NBM was launched in 2018-19 for holistic development of the complete value chain of the sector. The Mission is being implemented in a hub (industry) and spoke model, with the main goal of connecting farmers to markets so as to enable farmer producers to get a ready market for the bamboo grown and to increase supply of appropriate raw material to domestic industry. The Mission was launched as a natural corollary of the historic amendment of the Indian Forest Act in 2017, removing bamboo from the definition of trees, hence bamboo grown outside forests no longer need felling and transit permissions.
The bamboo ecosystem has been energized with 23 States being assisted, including all the 8 States of North East. 10 most important species which are required by industry have been identified and quality planting material is being made available to farmers for plantations.
Assam has already engaged FPOs for raising plantations. New FPOs will also be formed under the recently approved scheme of DACFW for formation of 10,000 FPOs in 5 years. Further primary processing, CFCs are being set up close to the plantations which will enable cost of transportation of whole bamboo to be reduced, increase local entrepreneurship and move to a zero waste approach.
These will be engaged in raising nurseries and plantations and/or product development like furniture, agarbatti, venetian blinds, chopsticks, toothbrush, lifestyle products, jewellery, bottles, yoga mat, charcoal, etc. Together with industrial products, the National Bamboo Mission also endeavors to upgrade skills of traditional bamboo craftsmen as per requirement of contemporary markets with tie up with enterprises and premier institutes so that our cultural heritage is continued.
The Sector Skill Councils established under National Skill Development Agency will also impart skills and recognition of prior learning to traditional artisans. This will also encourage the youth to carry forward their family traditions.
The winner of the logo contest, Sai Ram Goudi Edigi of Telengana was selected from 2033 entries received on MyGov platform from across the country. The logo portrays a bamboo culm in the center of a circle composed of half an industrial wheel and half farmers, depicting the objectives of NBM appropriately. The green and yellow colour of the logo symbolise bamboo often termed as green gold.
