Fresh allocation to boost National Bamboo Mission

Aizwal, Oct 29 (UNI) Aiming to boost National Bamboo Mission(NBM),the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared a new Rs 568.23 crore Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with 100 per cent Central assistance for North Eastern states.

Industry department officials here today informed that the new CSS on NBM with special focus on North East would be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation.

The scheme, with an outlay of Rs 91.37 crore during the current fiscal, would be implemented during the current financial year and the next four year of the Eleventh Plan.

The Mission is envisaged to cover 1.76 lakh hectare area under bamboo plantation activities over a period of five years and currently 8.96 million hectare forest area of the country contains bamboo amounting to 12.8 per cent of the forest cover, sources added.

According to plans, about 505 nurseries and three Tissue Culture Laboratories would be set up to produce sufficient planting material, which estimates to generate employment of 50.4 million mandays of work by the plantation works alone.

Main objective of the NBM is to promote the growth of the bamboo sector through area based regionally differentiated strategies, besides increasing the coverage of area under bamboo in potential areas along with to promote marketing of bamboo and bamboo-based handicraft.

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