Build bamboo planting material delivery systems

At present, all three East African countries face a major shortage in availability of bamboo planting material, a fundamental requirement for industry development. For example, to protect against siltation alone the Blue Nile, the Amhara Agriculture Bureau plans to plant 30 million bamboo plants for erosion control, with current nurseries producing less than 1 million plants per year. INBAR will work with national focal points and designated local civil society and private sector partners in each country to build the capacity of existing bamboo/forestry nurseries to produce high quality planting material. This will include support to introduce new bamboo species, where appropriate, based on the findings of the market studies. China will also provide technical assistance and provide experts to assist in bamboo nursery development or upgrading, as well as downstream delivery systems to farmers. By the end of the project 15 nurseries upgraded or established with 2.135 million plants produced and distributed by the end of the project – Ethiopia (5 government nurseries – 2 million plants; 2 village nurseries – 20,000 plants), Kenya (5 village nurseries – 50,000 plants), and Uganda (5 village nurseries – 50,000 plants); 3 INBAR-developed containerized micro-tissue culture household units set up, with one in each country producing 5,000 plants each per year by the end of the project. During Year 1 of the Programme (Oct 2016 to Dec 2017); Six bamboo nurseries located at (1) Arbegona (SNNPRS region); (2) Bambis (Benishangul-Gumuz region); (3) Bibugn (Amhara region); (4) Haro-Wonchi (Oromia region); (5) Maryem (Tigray region) and (6) Debrazit (Forest Research Centre) were upgraded with co-finance activity from INBAR SLMP II project. These nurseries had produced 1,087,680 bamboo plantlets. A total of 28 village / micro/demonstration nurseries were established and /or facilitated, and total of 144, 132 bamboo plants were produced in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. During the year 2 (Jan - Dec 2018) the programme supported 33 nurseries. Out of which, 18 large scale nurseries produced a total of 816,251 bamboo plants, 15 small / micro scale nurseries established produced a total of 136,375 bamboo plants. During Year 3, the programme supported production of 1,130,224 bamboo plants. Seven (7) tissue culture experts from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda were trained on bamboo tissue culture in India.