Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Director CSIR-IHBT encouraged Farmers to cultivate bamboo to increase their income paving the way to make Bamboo a commercial crop.

CSIR-IHBT, paving the way to make Bamboo a commercial crop for Farmers through National Bamboo Mission

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) Palampur conducted three workshops of two-days each on “Capacity Building in Bamboos for Agriculture Officers, Artisans and Farmers of Himachal Pradesh” in association with State Agriculture Department and CSIR-Integrated Skill Initiative Programme.

More than 145 trainees comprising agriculture officers, artisans and farmers of nine districts (Kangra, Hamirpur, Shimla, Bilaspur, Solan, Una, Sirmaur, Chamba and Mandi) of Himachal Pradesh participated in these workshops.

The program was designed to make trainees understand different aspects of bamboo cultivation and value-added product manufacturing.

Besides lectures by experts, the participants provided practical demonstrations and hands-on training for field preparation, cultivation practices, charcoal preparation, incense stick making, fiber extraction, food processing, tissue culture and insect pest management through. The trainees also visited state-of-art bamboo museum established in the institute to showcase value added bamboo articles and products.

Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Director CSIR-IHBT also interacted with the participants and encouraged them to cultivate bamboo for increasing their income. He informed that the CSIR-IHBT is working relentlessly to promote bamboo sector under the “Restructured National Bamboo Mission” with financial support from Department of Agriculture, Government of Himachal Pradesh. In addition to cultivation, Dr Kumar stressed upon the skill upgradation of agricultural staff and farmers for value addition of bamboo through manufacturing of diversified bamboo products. He also assured continuous support by the institute for the growth of bamboo sector in the region.
CSIR-IHBT faculty Dr. Vipin Hallan, Dr. Gireesh Nadda, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, Dr. Rohit Joshi, Er. Mohit Sharma, Dr. Jeremy Dkhar, Dr. Robin Joshi, Dr. Kiran Devi, Dr. Rimpy Dhiman and Mr. Ajay Kumar gave lectures and provide training to the participant during this workshop.