Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that in order to provide more benefits to the farmers of the State with less effort and less risk, the forest department is encouraging the cultivation of bamboo and making them prosperous by providing grants.
Shah informed that in the last financial year, 3,597 farmers had planted bamboo in 3520 hectare area by the MP State Bamboo Mission Board. A grant of about Rs 7.20 crore was made available to these farmers.
In order to make the self-help Groups self-reliant, 83 self-help Groups planted an area of 1020 hectares under MGNREGA.
The Forest Minister informed that in the current financial year, more than 3 thousand farmers are planting bamboo in an area of 4443 hectares.
For this, a grant of Rs 10.60 crore will be given. Similarly, 46 more self-help groups have been added this year as compared to last year. In this way a total of 129 self-help groups are planting bamboo in an area of 2428 hectares.
From the fourth year of planting, a minimum of 10 bamboos per year grow to a height of about 40 feet. In this way, the same numbers of bamboos are available from 40,000 plants. Each bamboo is sold for Rs 100. The beneficiary can get a crop of Rs 40 lakh from their sale.
Transportation expenses are also not incurred as buyers of bamboo take the crop from the field. Apart from this, the productive farmer gets one thousand quintals of dry bamboo leaves per acre in the fourth year.
High quality compost manure is also made by burying this leaf in the ground. It is used in vegetable and other types of farming.
Chilli, capsicum, ginger and garlic crops can be grown in the middle of bamboo rows. In the bamboo row, less water is needed for these crops and there is no adverse effect in summer, which leads to good production.
The farmer can submit his application through online at ebamboobazor.org or in the office of the local forest officer.
On cultivating bamboo, the beneficiary gets a grant of Rs 120 per plant in three years. A grant of Rs 60 is available in the first year, Rs 36 in the second year and Rs 24 for the third year.