It absorbs water faster than most plants
and is used in some parts of the world
for cleaning sewage. Even more important,
it soaks up heavy metals. It is a potential
answer to polluted waters. It is
nature’s fastest growing woody plant, with
some species achieving the phenomenal
growth rate of one metre a day! Its culms
(poles) are the strongest, lightest natural
material known to humankind. A square
metre of flooring derived from this “wonder
plant” will sell for as much as US$ 100,
while in Southern Asia it is used for reinforcing
concrete and for scaffolding on
skyscrapers.
No other woody plant matches bamboo’s
versatility in environmental conservation
and commerce. It is a viable replacement
for both hardwoods and softwoods. Its
growth rate is three times that of eucalyptus,
and it matures in just three years.
Thereafter harvests are possible every
second year for up to one hundred and
twenty years.
India has some twenty million acres of
commercial bamboo that account for 60%
of the country’s massive paper requirements
and much of its commercial timber
needs. Over two million tons of edible
bamboo shoots – rich in vitamins and low in
carbohydrates, fats and proteins - are
consumed around the world every year,
mostly in Asia.
However, bamboo remains an untapped
resource in Africa, a state of affairs that the
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) hopes to
help remedy through a pilot project in
Kenya and Tanzania, in collaboration with
the Kenya Forestry Research Institute
(KEFRI) and the Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology. The project aims
to create awareness on the environmental
and economic benefits of bamboo in the
Lake Victoria basin, and hopefully popularise
it throughout the region. Lake Victoria
is the world’s second-largest fresh water
lake. Its shores are dotted with large urban
centres that discharge domestic and industrial
waste into its waters.
Interestingly, this member of the grass
family is not new in Kenya. “Kenya’s water
catchments were once covered in bamboo,”
says Prof Chin Ong, a hydrologist with
ICRAF. “However, most of these forests
have since been cleared”.
ICRAF has taken a first step towards
the revival of the plant by introducing the
giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus giganteus)
into selected pilot sites in Kenya (Nairobi,
Western Kenya) and Tanzania (Musoma).
This commercially attractive species can
grow in areas traditionally used for sugar
cane and coffee cultivation, thus providing
an alternative or additional cash crop.
Arundinaria alpina, a species of bamboo
native to Kenya, will yield as many as
20,000 culms per hectare per year, with
each culm growing to a height of 12 metres
(40 feet). Most species in fact grow to over
30 metres (90 feet) at full maturity.
Kenya has
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| Giant bamboo at a farm in Thika, Kenya (about 40 km from
Nairobi).
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| A bamboo shoot |
few privately owned commercial
timber
plantations.
Most of the
country’s
timber
comes from
government
forests
managed by
the Forest
Department.
However,
these forests
have been
severely
over-exploited
with
only limited
replanting.
Timber firms
are now
reportedly
forced to
import the
product from
the Congo and
Tanzania to
manufacture hard
and soft
board.
The country's leading
paper manufacturer,
PanPaper of Webuye, is also
reportedly using plantation
softwoods to fuel its boilers
and make paper pulp. With
its rapid growth and high
woody fibre production,
bamboo would supply both
industrial needs.
At the household level,
bamboo would be a valuable
source of firewood and
charcoal. It yields more than
7,000 kilocalories per
kilogram, equivalent
to half the yield from
an equivalent
amount of petroleum.
Some species of the
plant have large
thorns, making them
ideal for security
hedges. Others grow
tall straight culms
that form ideal windbreaks
that can be
sustainably harvested
annually. And
of course edible
bamboo shoots would
be a nutritious addition
the family table.
These shoots, mild
and very crunchy,
can be eaten raw or
cooked. KEFRI already grows
several high quality edible
varieties.
Bamboo rhizomes
anchor topsoil along steep
slopes and riverbanks, very
effectively controlling erosion.
Bamboo leaves,
sheaves and old culms that
die and fall to the ground
decompose and create a
thick humus layer that
enriches the soil. Studies in
South East Asia and Kenya
have also shown that natural
bamboo forests have
excellent hydrological functions
that promote soil
health.
Some species of
bamboo absorb as much 12
tonnes of atmospheric
carbon dioxide per hectare,
a valuable asset to deploy
against global warming.
But bamboo is vulnerable
to insects and fungi and
its service life can be as low
as one year when in direct
contact with the ground.
However, this can be remedied
by appropriate design
and cautious use of environmentally
friendly preservatives
such as boron, according
to TRADA (Timber Research
and Development
Association). In April 2004,
fears were also expressed
that flowering bamboo would
trigger famine in Northeast
India, arising from an upsurge
in rat populations.
Bamboo can be propagated
from seeds, though
most species flower just once
every fifteen to one hundred
and twenty years. More
viable mass propagation
techniques include tissue
culture, rhizome cuttings and
vegetative cuttings.
For more information,
contact c.ong@cgiar.org
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“A man can sit in a bamboo house under a
bamboo roof, on a bamboo chair at a bamboo table, with a
bamboo hat on his head and bamboo sandals on his feet. He can
at the same time hold in one hand a bamboo bowl, in the other
hand bamboo chopsticks and eat bamboo sprouts. When through
with his meal, which has been cooked over a bamboo fire, the
table may be washed with a bamboo cloth, and he can fan
himself with a bamboo fan, take a siesta on a bamboo bed,
lying on a bamboo mat with his head resting on a bamboo
pillow. His child might be lying in a bamboo cradle, playing
with a bamboo toy. On rising he would smoke a bamboo pipe and
taking a bamboo pen, write on a bamboo paper, or carry his
articles in bamboo baskets suspended from a bamboo pole, with
a bamboo umbrella over his head. He might then take a walk
over a bamboo suspension bridge, drink water from a bamboo
ladle, and scrape himself with a bamboo scraper (handkerchief)”.
Quoted from A Yankee on the Yangtze. William Edgar Geil.
London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1904. In Yangtze Patrol. Kemp
Tolley. Annapollis: U.S. Naval Institute Press. 1971. Page
268.
Contributed by Stella Muasya
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