NDA Govt @ Nine Years: National Bamboo Mission boon to rural people
National Bamboo Mission is playing a key role in providing employment to rural people along with environment and zero carbon emission. It is a good result that mission programs have been expanded during the Nine Years tenure of the NDA government.
Bamboo is an important and versatile plant in Guwahati. It is very fast growing and has countless uses such as construction, cloths, food and fuel. Planting bamboo is one of the best ways to help our environment. It is a crucial element in the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Though it grows like a tree, it belongs to the grass family.
Bamboo is a versatile, the fastest growing and easy to cultivate plant. It is a perennial crop that provides year round income. Bamboo is earthquake -proof, has great tensile strength than steel, and withstands compression better than concrete. It is a sustainable energy source that produces 1kwh of electricity from 1.2 kg of bamboo. Bio – ethanols are also being produced from bamboo. It can withstand drought as well as flood.
To tap the potentials of Bamboo, the Union government launched the National Bamboo Mission (NBM). The main aim of the Mission is to encourage, promote and support the Bamboo sector in a comprehensive manner through a multidisciplinary, multi department and multi- dimensional integrated approach to provide economic benefits to the people.
The Mission envisages promoting holistic growth of bamboo sector by adopting area-based, regionally differentiated strategy and to increase the area under bamboo cultivation and marketing. Under the Mission, steps have been taken to increase the availability of quality planting material by supporting the setting up of new nurseries and strengthening of existing ones.
Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India is implementing the restructured National Bamboo Mission in 23 States keeping in view of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers income and “Har Medh Par Ped.” Government provides subsidy for bamboo plantation under the Mission.
Assam is the largest producer of bamboo in the entire country.
Two third of the growing stock of bamboo located in the North-Eastern States. So far, 208 numbers of bamboo product development and processing units have been established under National Bamboo Mission in Assam and other North Eastern states. In Assam, several large and small bamboo based ethanol plants are coming.
The Numaligarh Refinary plans to commission its bamboo based ethanol plant this year in partnership with two European firms. Bamboo based ethanol plants can contribute to India’s objective of achieving 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
