50,000 people involve in bamboo crafts production

50,000 people involve in bamboo crafts production

RAJSHAHI, Aug 10: More than 50,000 people are involved in bamboo crafts production and most of them are women and aborigines and bamboo products are their main sources of income in over 1,000 villages of the region, various environmentalists and researchers here viewed, reports BSS. They mentioned that around 30,000 other people are completely dependent on bamboo crafts trading for their livelihood. Dr Redwanur Rahman, Associate Professor of Institute of Environmental Sciences of Rajshahi University, said time-fitting measures should be taken to protect and flourish the bamboo craft, which remains in the doldrums in northwestern region of the country for a long time because of the declining demand for the products. Talking to BSS here he said need-oriented steps should be taken to create demand for the bamboo products in local and regional markets and remove the obstacles that arise in producing the goods. The manufacturers collect bamboo from local markets and sell the processed items locally while small traders purchase the items from different villages and sell those to various regional markets. However, manufacturers frequently deprive them from gaining minimum profit due to multifarious reasons particularly the higher price of bamboo, irregular supply of raw materials and lack of communication between different markets. On the other hand, the bamboo products are gradually losing demand due to rapid expansion of plastic industry, Dr Redwan said. He, however, said the bamboo baskets are widely used for carrying betel leaf and other seasonal fruits especially mango, tomato, papaya, guava and jujube and demand of the bamboo handicrafts have enhanced to a large extent during harvesting and marketing of the fruits. Prof Dr Bidhan Chandra Das of Department of Zoology of Rajshahi University recommended initiating urgent steps to promote the sector by identifying its existing problems and finding out possible solutions which may play a positive role in poverty alleviation of the disadvantaged group of people. Market expansion of environment-friendly bamboo products and successful manufacturing of those can eradicate their poverty. Interested nursery owners should be given necessary training on bamboo sapling production and branch cutting method, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute and the Social Forestry Department, to enhance bamboo production. Importance should be given on conducting survey in different high price markets including Dhaka and other commercial hubs to build linkage between the wholesalers and producers. Apart from this, necessary efforts are needed to make the local bamboo products familiar to exporters for exporting those in the global market. Foyzullah Chowdhury, Director of Barendra Unnayan Prochesta, favored government level measures for sustainable development of the sector through expansion of businesses at private level. He viewed that the bamboo traders, product manufacturers and businessmen should be brought under the existing micro- credit programmes for more expansion of the neglected sub-sector. If these measures are taken, he said adding the bamboo growers, traders, manufacturers and businessmen would be benefited equally and this would supplement the government's poverty alleviation efforts as a whole.

Source Link: https://goo.gl/7779Jf

Source: Daily News Today

Updated Date: 8th January, 2017