Authors:Sruthi Subbanna, SyamViswanath
Abstract:The past decade has seen an increasing impetus of growing bamboo in India. There has also been an increase in availability of micropropagated plantlets in substantial quantities. Both the reasons combined is making farmers explore bamboo cultivation as an alternative to traditional agriculture and horticulture crops. In this stusy, the economics associated with growing two bamboo species viz. Bambusa balcooa Roxb., a relatively new addition in the Konkan belt of Maharashtra and Dendrocalamus stocksii Munro., traditionally grown bamboo species in the region have been studied. The study projects that the potential of economic benefit from D. stocksii (₹ 2,28,473 or $3,147 ha-1 year-1) which is relatively greater than that of B. balcooa (₹ 1,99,715 or $2,752 annually ha-1year-1) and could primarily be attributed to greater number of new culms that emerge annually in D. stocksii (16.5±0.81) as compared to B. balcooa (7.2±0.58) for medium density block plantations. The input cost for growing the two bamboo species also varies considerably and better B/C ratio (6.02 and 5.70) was observed in D. stocksii as compared to B. balcooa (4.00 and 3.93). The study indicates that although both species are beneficial to the farmers, higher culm emergence and better culm and clump characteristics makes D. stocksii a better option in financial returns. Better market opportunities in terms of utility and demand also favour this species in the Konkan belt of Maha
Keywords:Dendrocalamus stocksii Munro., Bambusa balcooa Roxb., Konkan, Economics, bamboo