Authors:Singh, C.J; Rawat, G.S; Jain, S.S; Bisht, N.S
Abstract:India has the largest area under bamboo forest/plantations yet its domestic bamboo based industries are swinging in shortage of raw material availability. Around 66 per cent of bamboo resource (growing stock) of the country and 20 per cent of the world is grown in the North-eastern states. The aggregate production of bamboo in the country, both from government as well as private land, falls short by 50 per cent of what is actually required to meet the total annual demand of various bamboo based industries. Major consumers of bamboo in the country include construction sector, paper industry, handicrafts and small and cottage industries. Presently the largest consumer of bamboo in the country is construction sector with annual consumption of 3.4 million tones. Production of bamboo from private land is mostly utilized for domestic purposes. The bamboo economy of the country is still in nascent stage (4% of the global bamboo economy) and is likely to shoot up in near future owing to big programmes like National Bamboo Mission, National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA), initiated by Government of India. The present paper discusses the national scenario of demand, supply, existing demand gap and possible strategies to be followed to bridge the gap and improve the bamboo resource of the country.
Keywords:bamboos; consumers; demand; forest plantations; forest products industries; reviews; suppl