Mode of Operations |
CIBART programs
uses technology to take a practical approach to development issues. If
the Internet brings communities in remote outposts face to face with experts
in many countries, then GIS helps it identify bamboo-rich areas and map
out resource management policies and action plans. For instance, Filipino
design experts, European buyers and African bamboo scientists have been
linked to remote regions of the country. Some even had direct interfacing
with communities that have had limited contact with even urban Indian
visitors. |
Before venturing
into any state, CIBART ensures that all the backward and forward linkages
are in place. In each state, it sets up an independent Daughter
Organization—as a not-for-profit company—to professionally
manage bamboo and cane activities. The majority shareholders in this company
are the community. This local organization then builds up extensive linkages
down to each village, backed by field technical resource centres at the
sub-district level. At the other end of the chain, links with buyers as
far away as Europe are established. |
CIBART periodically
conducts experts-led policy workshops for the development of the bamboo
sector in different states. Such workshops aim t kick-start policy measures
that would lead to sustainable livelihoods, define role and opportunities
that bamboo offers in different sectors, and help plan appropriate bamboo-based
interventions and value-addition methodologies. |
Training programs
for awareness raising and capacity building form another regular feature
of CIBART’s activities. Workshops for awareness raising are organized
to inform and educate those who work with government and non-government
organizations on the opportunities that bamboo offers in different sectors
for socio-economic development. Capacity building workshops involve specific,
targeted training on the scientific and technical aspects of bamboo such
as: propagation and management of sympodial bamboos; bamboo product design
and development for artisans; industrialized process flow for bamboo-based
industries; properties of bamboo as a construction material and building
of bamboo-based structures; etc. |
For the Indian
bamboo sector to be a global supplier, it should be able to supply quality
products in volume. Currently the sector predominantly depends on manual
processing, which cannot meet these two criteria. CIBART views semi-mechanization
of processing activities, without disregarding the socio-economic character
of the bamboo sector, an imperative for the upgrading of the sector. It
is therefore working with machinery manufacturers to design and fabricate
bamboo processing machinery, which would help standardize processing steps
and keep wastage to a minimum. |
The current thrust
on bamboo, with focus on higher value addition in new and traditional
sectors, necessitates establishment of plantations of a large scale. A
major hurdle in this path is the acute short supply of quality planting
materials of economically important bamboo species. CIBART is planning
to set up a network of small-scale tissue culture production centres throughout
the country. CIBART will explore the possibility of tie-ups with commercial
tissue culture companies for this. This network will link to another network
of micro-nurseries, which will field-harden tissue-cultured plants and
market the plants to plantations. |
Although India
has a rich and ancient tradition in the use of bamboo, information resources
on the status and use of bamboo in the country are very limited. Under
an INBAR project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), CIBART is documenting the current technologies—both traditional
and new—that help livelihoods of the millions in the country. This
documentation, when completed, would provide all details required to make
an investment decision in any of the documented areas of bamboo utilization.
It will be used as a valuable resource in the network of learning centres
that CIBART will eventually set up to serve the knowledge needs of the
bamboo sector in the country. |
Bamboo sector,
with active support from governments and donor agencies, is becoming increasingly
dynamic. CIBART is alert to the changing needs of the sector and the stakeholders,
and constantly reviews its strategy and methods to reflect this dynamics. |
