Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ing branches and leaves as well as the main culms themselves. With every
part of the bamboo being used somewhere in the industry, individual busi-
nesses are able to buy only the exact part of the bamboo they require for
their particular product and achieve low unit costs of production despite
some of the world's highest farm-gate prices for raw bamboo. The effi-
ciency in material utilization has been made possible by the development
of relatively complex and geographically concentrated supply chains. The
strong competition for raw material among businesses means that every
part of the bamboo is used for the products of greatest added value and
businesses constantly strive to find ways to increase their efficiency and
value addition to the bamboo. The Chinese industry has also been relent-
less in its innovations in processing and machinery. These have allowed it
to achieve increasing labor productivity to offset the rising cost of work-
ers. For those outside of China, the efficiencies of the Chinese industry
have made it very difficult to compete with in export markets. Emerging
industries elsewhere often struggle with raw material utilization rates for
added value products of perhaps 15%-25%. The dramatically higher ef-
ficiencies in China mean that the sales prices of Chinese bamboo products
are often lower than the cost of production of similar products elsewhere-
where, despite big differences in the cost of raw materials and labor.
The financial viability of bamboo related commercial projects are an-
other problem we need to look into. The financial institutions are wary
of the facts regarding operational difficulties, logistics and supply chain
problem, track record of stakeholders, lack of developed market for bam-
boo products and lack of work ethics. In such a situation banks want in-
creased participation of all stakeholders and subsidy by the government.
In such a situation development of suitable, small but profitable industrial
investment opportunities in the bamboo and cane sector would be a neces-
sary first step of the development of the sector, and thereby employment to
the disgruntled youth. There is no National Policy on Bamboo.A National
Policy or Policy on Bamboo for the NER will definitely boost the value
added products made from bamboo. In NE State the state of Nagaland
Government's initiative to create the Nagaland Bamboo Development
Agency (NBDA) has made exemplary model in the country for institu-
tionalizing bamboo for community. Also made its highest effort to make
awareness of bamboo in the country by hosting the First “World Bamboo
Day” Celebration at Kisama, Nagaland on 18th September 2010 which
