UP to set up Common Facility Centres for bamboo cultivation

LUCKNOW: State government will set up Common Facility Centres (CFC) for promotion of bamboo cultivation and bamboo craft. The centres are proposed at Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Mirzapur, Saharanpur and Jhansi.
CFCs will provide farmers, who are growing bamboo on their own land, and artisans, who are making bamboo craft, everything under one roof.
Centres will provide technical know-how and training, processing equipment, raw material and an exclusive bamboo market. It will provide training to forest department staff as well.
The state is making the strides under National Bamboo Mission (NBM).
The multi-objective scheme, NBM, was launched in 2007-08 to promote growth of bamboo, developing new varieties, giving impetus to research, promoting bamboo handicraft, setting hi-tech nurseries, managing pest and disease in the plant, increasing income of bamboo growers, developing marketing network for bamboo products and making access to raw material easier for artisans.
In 2017-18, UP was questioned on its poor performance under the mission, said sources in the forest department.
State had not done much in ten years except growing bamboo on forest and non-forest land.
The scheme gained momentum in 2019-20. Bamboo was sown on forest land and also private land of farmers willing under high density bamboo plantation scheme.
The mission is being implemented in 38 forest divisions including Bundelkhand and Vindhyachal region. There are 32 districts covered under the mission, including Muzaffarnagar, Ballia, Sonbhadra, Sitapur, Bareilly, Rampur, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Obra, Renukoot, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Barabanki and Jaunpur.
Bambusa balcoa, Bambusa nutans, Bambusa bambos, Dandrocalamus hamiltonii and Dandrocalamus giganteus are the high quality varieties the state is growing.
Bamboo nurseries in Mirzapur, Lalitpur and Pilibhit have been set up.
Bamboo cultivation is now covered under agri-forestry, said sources.