Abuja – Mr Ibrahim Adebayo, the Desk Officer and National Focal Person of the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), has said that bamboo is an alternative source of domestic cooking energy.
Adebayo stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
He decried the increasing rate at which trees were felled and used as cooking fuel.
According to him, the charcoal produced from bamboo can be used in place of trees as it is smokeless and not injurious to women that cook with firewood.
“Bamboo can be an alternative for wood. Bamboo is a grass and not a plant; the more you cut it, the more it grows.
“If you have hectares of bamboo, you are sure that the hectares will remain like that for a long time; generations upon generations will still meet that bamboo there.
“If you plant a bamboo this year, in the next three, four years, it is ready for harvest unlike trees that can take forty, fifty years to grow.
“Bamboo charcoal is smokeless and it is not injurious to women that cook with firewood.
“Charcoal made from bamboo is an alternative.’’
“As am talking to you now, there is no established plantation of bamboo and rattan in Nigeria.
“All bamboo and rattan that we have are all naturally grown; there has never been a properly managed plantation established in Nigeria.
“What government needs to do is to set up a pilot or demonstration site.
“Government can do that. We have the potential.’’
Adebayo said that the world market for bamboo was worth $15 billion, with China owning more than 50 per cent of the market share.
He said that Nigeria had the capacity to generate billions of dollars from the production and sale of bamboo.
The desk officer added that many European and Asian countries were prepared to take advantage of the abundant bamboo and rattan available in Nigeria.
He stated that Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest rate of deforestation.
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“As am talking to you now, there is no established plantation of bamboo and rattan in Nigeria.
“All the bamboo and rattan that we have are all naturally grown; there has never been a properly managed plantation established in Nigeria.
“What government needs to do is to set up a pilot or demonstration site.
“Government can do that. We have the potential.’’
Adebayo urged the Federal Government to formulate a policy that would encourage and promote bamboo and rattan production in the country.
He appealed to media professionals to collaborate with the network in sensitising the Nigerian public to the economic benefits of bamboo and rattan production. (NAN)