Cabinet approves restructured bamboo mission with outlay of Rs 1,290 cr

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday approved a restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) with an outlay of Rs 1,290 crore for two years, a move aimed at benefiting one lakh farmers, said an official release. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Centrally Sponsored Scheme of NBM under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) during remaining period of 14th Finance Commission (2018-19 and 2019-20), it said. “An outlay of Rs 1,290 crore (with Rs 950 crore as central share) is provisioned for implementation of the Mission during the remaining period of 14th Finance Commission,” the release said. [caption id=“attachment_4445373” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bomboo cultivation. Representational image.[/caption] The CCEA meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It also approved empowerment of executive committee for formulation of guidelines of the NBM and to make the changes therein, including cost norms for various interventions as per the “felt needs” and specific recommendations of states. “It is proposed to bring about one lakh hectare area under plantation and it is expected that abut one lakh farmers would be directly benefitted in terms of plantation,” the release said. The Mission will focus on development of bamboo in limited states where it has social, commercial and economical advantage. The states include, the North Eastern region, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “The Mission is expected to establish about 4,000 treatment/product development units and bring more than 1,00,000 ha area under plantation,” the release said. Giving further details about the restructured NBM, it said the Mission strives to increase the area under bamboo plantation in non forest government and private lands to supplement farm income and contribute towards resilience to climate change. It also strives to further product development, rejuvenate the under developed bamboo industry and promote skill development along with capacity building.