Use of the local resource and skill is important in less developed economies for generating income and employment opportunity. Bamboo is one of the inputs which are used for making daily utility items, for construction of houses and buildings and for making furniture, compound fencing, small bridges, scaffoldings, etc. In India, Bamboo is abundantly grown in certain regions, especially in forest area. Though there is a potential for commercial cultivation, it is yet to be explored in a large scale.

The art of using Bamboos in day to day life has a history of more than 5000 years. Millions of villagers in India have developed skill to use bamboo for construction of their houses, to make furniture and house hold items, Cowsheds, Poultry sheds, Goat farms, protecting agriculture land by constructing fences and gates etc. Introduction of cement and steel during the last 50 years has virtually killed the Artisans working with Bamboo. Government's restriction on the trade of Bamboo put limiting factors in commercial cultivation. Thus, in spite of the large potential, cultivation of the same is yet to pick-up in India. Govt of India launched Bamboo Mission to encourage both cultivation and for the use of Bamboo in a variety of activities.

Realising the gravity of subject, Habitat, an NGO addressing innovation in the construction of low cost houses for the last 23 years took up bamboo as one of the important building materials and carry out need based Research and Development (R&D) to make optimum use of Bamboo and to sharpen the skill of the craftsmen. Currently, Habitat's R&D Programme focuses on the following objectives.

Objectives

• Use of Bamboo and its value added products in building construction activities.
• Treating Bamboo to optimize its life and strength through various methods.
• Testing the strength and life of various varieties of Bamboo for various load bearing, thatching and for the use of partition walls, staircase reelings, flooring and to replace steel rods and use bamboo frame in minor RCC work.
• Experiments on Bamboo with environment friendly paints, varnish and colors.
• Sharpening the skill of Artisans & Craftsmen working with Bamboo and improvement of their skill and design of products in association with Design Schools and Professionals.
• Making awareness campaign on the utility of Bamboo among prospective users. Developing model buildings and encouraging Artisans to work on alternate Civil Engineering Designs. And constructing Role Model Buildings for Social Change Agents, Artists, Senior Administrators, Film personalities etc

Strategy
Habitat use the following strategy for building appropriate partnership and to translate the above objectives

• From its Net Surplus, Habitat deploys certain amount of resource to address regular activities under its R&D.
• Overtime, it has developed a bank of Committed Professionals who dedicate their efforts for translating the above objectives.
• As an NGO, it encourages the use of Bamboo by both Public and Private Sectors. For this purpose, awareness creation campaigns through visual and print media are used.

Future Scope
There is large scope for widening the use of bamboo both in urban and rural area. There is also wider scope for product diversification and use of bamboo in different type of construction. In the supply side, farmers can be encouraged to cultivate bamboo in less fertile land, uncultivated land, bunds, canal and road sides etc. Different variety of cultivation practices prevail in India under commercial cultivation. There is a scope for identifying the best practices, documentation and replication of the same to the farmers. There is also scope for suitable pest treatments, strengthening and to optimize the life of bamboo used in various activities. There is also scope for further sharpening the skill of Artisans and to strengthen the Supply Chain of Bamboo and to diversify the end products. Of late, there is an increasing awareness among the public for the use of environment friendly inputs in construction and to make utility items. Thus, there is better market for Bamboo products in future. Habitat would like to address the opportunity. This is a mighty task and therefore, we love to have supportive collaboration to address the following Agenda.

Agenda

• Partnership to carry out the R&D Programs
• Partnership for technology and skill transfer
• Partnership for development of creative designs for utility items, developing building structures using Bamboo and to develop innovative products.