Authors:Milind Digambar Patil
Abstract:Exploring indigenous traditional methods of crop production provides new perspectives and insights to its conservation and improvement. Though there are several publications on modern bamboo cultivation aspects, records on age-old practices of cultivation and clump management are rare. To study the traditional aspects of cultivation, management and utilization of Dendrocalamus stocksii (Munro), a study was conducted in Sindhudurg district, the south Konkan region of Maharashtra state. D. stocksii is one of the endemic bamboo species having its germplasm exclusively conserved in farmers' fields. Cultivation of D. stocksii is an excellent example of tree based land use system which derives sustainable benefits through protection of natural ecosystem. Farmers do not clear fell the existing natural vegetation at plantation site; large trees (>30cm diameter) are preferably retained. D. stocksii is traditionally being propagated only by vegetative means through rhizome-offsets as it does not produce seeds. The period of detachment and planting of offsets is confined during early fortnight of June with the progress of S-W monsoon in the Western Ghats. Long length offsets (>2.5m) are planted by staking them to the tree trunks 0 for stability. Offsets are strictly planted at around 70 of inclination such that its tip faces towards south which minimizes the southern heats of winter solstice. No synthetic chemical fertilizers were used other than organic. Farmers are following a unique 'clear felling and light burning practice to rejuvenate the flowered clumps. Indigenous crop protection measures against wildlife such as use of dead and decaying fish-waste for Langurs, use of human hairs for wild boars were reported. Harvesting of mature culms was found to be associated with low tidal events and lunar phases which make poles less susceptible to the insect attack. Harvested poles are then kept submerged in water for 6 to 10 weeks which enhances its durability up to 20 years. More than 40 different local uses and sociocultural customs associated with the species were documented.
Keywords:bamSpecies identification, DNA barcoding, phylogeny, sex determination, population geneticsboo farming, bamboo flowering, bamboo preservation, clump rejuvenation, vertebratepest management, Western Ghats