National Bamboo Mission to cut down imports approved

NEW DELHI: With aims to cut down on import of bamboo products and enhance the income of farmers, the government on Wednesday approved a Centrally sponsored scheme – National Bamboo Mission. The Centre has allocated Rs 1290 crores to implement the scheme. The scheme would be implemented during the remaining period of the 14th Finance Commission, which concludes in 2020.

The Mission as approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The National Bamboo Mission would work on establishing a complete value chain to link the bamboo growers with the industries. Incidentally, India is a net importer of bamboo products from the East Asian countries.

The CCEA has also entrusted the task to formulate norms and costing of various interventions under the Mission to an executive committee under the Union Minister for Farmer and Family Welfare Radha Mohan Singh.

The CCEA note maintained that the Mission would aim to bring one lakh farmers under its ambit. The scheme would work on plans to ensure bamboo plantation on one lakh hectare of land across the country.

The scheme would target select states, including North-east, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat for plantation of bamboo.