Five-acre demonstration plot to raise awareness on bamboo cultivation

Coimbatore: City-based Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) is planning to set up a five-acre bamboo plantation on the Appakudal campus of the Kumaraguru Institute of Agriculture (KIA) in Erode.
The plantation will create awareness on bamboo species, cultivation practices and economic scope for tree growers and farmers in Coimbatore and Erode region, IFGTB officials said.
KIA and IFGTB signed an MoU earlier this week to plant five commercially viable bamboo species on the campus. The institute has allotted the land for 10 years. The species will be mostly thornless, making it easier to harvest and process, including Bambusa tulda, Bambusa vulgaris, Bambusa nutans and Bambusa balcooa.
“We will plant 800 bamboo plants across the five acres, approximately 150 each of the five species,” said Dominic Savio of IFGTB. “They will be planted at a five-metre distance from each other.”
IFGTB scientists will guide agriculture students at KIA to manage and raise the plantation. “We believe it will serve as a demonstration plot for almost 6,000 farmers in the region, who are into sugarcane cultivation, on commercially viable options of bamboo and for our students, who are interested in agroforestry-related or bamboo-related research,” said coordinator Saravanan. “IFGTB can bring or send farmers to see the plantation.”
The project is being taken up under the national bamboo mission, which aims to increase the area under bamboo cultivation. IFGTB has been approaching civic bodies and private associations to allot more land for bamboo planting and growing.