UP targets bamboo plantation across 5 000 hectares along Ganga banks

Lucknow, Oct 29 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary S P Goyal on Thursday directed officials to set a target to plant bamboo across 5,000 hectares along the Ganga and its tributaries during next year's plantation drive.

    "This will increase bamboo availability, promote environmental conservation and create new opportunities to enhance farmers' income," an official statement quoted Goyal as saying at a meeting on the National Bamboo Mission.

    The forest department is undertaking bamboo plantation along riverbanks under efforts linked to the Namami Gange programme, the statement said.

    At the meeting, officials discussed the possibility of including the National Bamboo Mission in the department's carbon credit programme to link bamboo cultivation with environmental conservation and carbon emission reduction.

    Goyal stressed the potential use of bamboo in manufacturing particle boards, medium-density fibreboard, and other wood-based products, saying such applications could promote bamboo-based industries and help farmers obtain better prices.

    According to the statement, the forest department has undertaken plantation and established high-tech nurseries, small and large nurseries, and tissue culture laboratories since 2019-20 under the restructured mission.

    Common facility centres are being operated through self-help groups, while bamboo treatment and processing units, carbonisation plants, furniture-making units and incense-stick manufacturing activities are being run by farmers, entrepreneurs and farmer producer organisations.

    These initiatives are creating opportunities for value addition, local employment and higher incomes, it said.

    Principal Secretary (Agriculture) S M Sundaram, Principal Secretary (Forest) M P Agrawal and other officials attended the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)