It has wedged in my awareness since I had read the book The Conspiracy to Perpetuate Poverty, and indeed there is. Since then, as we came into discussions, what we can do as average individual to bowdlerize the rancorous cycle of poverty, we crossed into an inkling that a program or project should be modern and sustainable. Modern – since the needs of the poor people should be addressed with effective and efficient methods, Sustainable – means that it should harmonize with the environment, does more good than damages, it should be on extended span that could last a lifetime, to say the least. And it should be an Agri-based design since our Province is an agricultural site. Invited in a stakeholders on a consultative meeting at DTI Davao City last 2008, for the future of Modern Bamboo Industry here in Mindanao, and particularly in Cotabato Province, it becomes a pinwheel until today, the ardor is still sweltering on this bloke, that Sustainable Modern Agriculture could be done partly through the less regarded bamboo grass. Sustainable it was since bamboo has a lifespan of 120 years. Modern it was, since it is the future or the replacement of timber products for bamboo could be processed with par excellence with wooden finished products and much stronger than steel. Market? This is also the big question that crossed along the discussions, why we should buy bamboo matchsticks, bamboo toothpick, bamboo pencil and bamboo paper from foreign manufacturers? Home demand is the market, Filipinos are fond of eating and needs something to pick the remains that stuck between their teeth, there are 98 million Filipinos and take the market share of 30%, you should be producing 78 million toothpicks daily used after three meals a day, Why, we have the highest literacy rate and an elementary pupil is consuming ten (10) pencils in just four months, my grade one child did it. Carpenters used it as markers, farmers records with pencil and paper for the sale of their rubber cup lumps and palm oil. We are using paper in our offices, test papers, broadsheets, sample ballots and voter’s receipt, legal and binding agreements, and congressional resolutions as a material for “putting it into black and white”. We use daily the matchsticks to burn fuel to cook foods. And the rest of the products that a magnificent bamboo could make, explore our imagination and use bamboo to convert those abstract into realism. Food Security and Threats on Weather Cycle – frequent flooding is upsetting staple crop productions caused by denuding of the forest reserves, pest attacks vibrant crops since they do not have forest canopy to nibble for. Our fruit industry was immensely affected due to climate change, weather had changed that our fruit bearing trees could not bear to bear fruits anymore…. blame it to erratic weather. Moreover, with the development of bamboo industry as sustainable livelihood, we are NOT perpetuating poverty since the cycle of life of a bigger bamboo specie is 120 years, rarely human could reach this age. With this lifespan, a bamboo cluster could surely support up to fourth generation of the family. Bamboo is clocked at 1.2 meters of growth per day, in just two days, grows taller than an average Filipino.If it is planted in a massive scale, what bamboo forest can do compared to most sought after tree species for charcoal production? No hardy plant can exceed the growth performance of bamboo, in just 4 months, it is a grown up, full grown plant. Bamboo could protect our environment. Plant it as a fence or riverbank support, a contour line, as landscaping/ornamental plant or mere shading. It is exhaling 35% more oxygen compared to other plants. To understand the symbiotic relationship of human and nature, we just give a little time and a little knowledge in planting bamboo as carbon sink, the bamboo could give us a hundred fold of benefits. Bamboo doesn’t need pesticides and fertilizers for the entire growth period. Bamboo farming has lesser expense, lesser hassle and burden, and fewer pollutants. We will take care of our environment and it will reciprocate the same, a thousand fold.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 00:23:28 +0000
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