New Delhi, April 25 (IANS): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved centrally-sponsored National Bamboo Mission (NBM) under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) for the remaining period of the 14th Finance Commission till 2019-20.
The CCEA has also approved empowerment of the executive committee for formulating the NBM guidelines and to make the changes, including cost norms, for various interventions with the approval of Ministry of Agriculture.
The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The mission is expected to establish about 4,000 treatment/product development units and bring an additional 100,000 hectare area under plantation.
An outlay of Rs 1,290 crore (with Rs 950 crore as central share) has been made for implementation of the mission during the remaining period of the 14th Finance Commission (2018-19 and 2019-20).
An official release said the scheme would benefit farmers and artisans engaged in bamboo sector including associated industries.
"Since it is proposed to bring about one lakh hectare area under plantation, it is expected that about one lakh farmers will benefit directly in terms of plantation," the release said.
The mission will focus on development of bamboo in the northeastern region and states such as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The release said that bamboo plantation would contribute to optimising farm productivity and income and enhance livelihood opportunities of small and marginal farmers.
It said the mission would provide quality material, contribute to climate resilience and help in creating employment generation directly or indirectly in both skilled and unskilled segments.
The NBM, which was started as a centrally-sponsored scheme in 2006-07, emphasises on propagation of bamboo with limited efforts on processing, product development and value addition and the weak linkage between the producers and the industry.
"The (restructured) mission would ensure holistic development of the bamboo sector by addressing complete value chain and establishing effective linkage of producers (farmers) with industry," it said.
