Bamboo proves its worth as timber
LUSH tracts of bamboo spread across southeastern Zimbabwe’s Chipinge district, where the tall plant is increasingly seen as green gold by villagers.
They are harvesting it commercially while helping preserve the country’s fast-dwindling forests.
Bamboo is native to Zimbabwe, according to Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe, a research organisation specialising in underused plant species.
The giant grass stays green all year round, and its woody, hollow stem grows again rapidly after it is cut down.
In countries like China, bamboo has long been an industrial crop, but it is only now gaining popularity among agricultural entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe, who are promoting it as an alternative to traditional timber.
For villagers like Natalia Sithole, 27, a mother of three from Chipinge’s Mt Selinda, growing bamboo has proved a reliable safeguard against poverty.
Sithole, who started eking out a living from bamboo at the age of 17 after having her first child, sells the plant to people around the country who use it to make products, earning her about $120 (R1 600) a week.
“My life has changed for the better thanks to bamboo, and I’m managing to support even my poor parents and siblings, besides my own children,” she said.
The Chipinge agricultural office said about 580 women in the district were growing bamboo commercially.
Just as important to some Zimbabweans are the environmental benefits.
The plant is proving a boon to the country’s dwindling forests, where an estimated 330 000 trees are lost each year to deforestation, much of it for commercial reasons.
Environmental experts say the rate of forest loss would be far higher were it not for the bamboo in areas like Manicaland province.
Zimbabwe’s environment ministry said about 85 000 trees were saved each year through the use of bamboo.
Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe bamboo consultant Louise Bragge said: “Bamboo can help rural communities become less vulnerable to poverty and climate change when people include the grass in sustainable forestry and agro-forestry.”
Bamboo thrives in wet areas like Mt Selinda, but agriculture experts say it can also tolerate harsher conditions.
Government agricultural extension officer Regis Mhandu said: “Bamboo is drought-resistant as it has roots that grow slightly deeper, enabling it to reach out to more water underground.”
In Mt Selinda, villagers use bamboo in place of timber for a range of products, from household furniture and cooking utensils to toothpicks and even coffins.
Many buyers of bamboo products, like Melford Dhliwayo, say they have fallen in love with items made from the grass, and are pleased they help reduce deforestation.
“Furniture made from bamboo is quite durable even for outdoor use, unlike wood, and this means forests now are at [less risk] of being destroyed,” he said. – Reuters