18So much studies have been done on rice, the country’s staple food. But there’s another grass that deserves equal attention since it doesn’t only help in food production but stabilizing the warming of the planet caused by climate change.
That grass is called bamboo, touted to be “the poor man’s timber.” These days, it is given the accolade as “the green gold of the forest.” With the rapid disappearance of forests in the uplands, bamboo is now “one of the country’s most important non-timber forest products.”
“This quick-growing and versatile plant to the grass family has become popular and widely accepted as the closet material that can be used as substitute to wood, not only in the country but worldwide,” reports Eirene Grace C. Zaragosa in an article published by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD).
“Bamboos highly contribute to the national economy of the Philippines by generating foreign exchange and rural employment,” writes in The PCAARRD Monitor, a publication of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
All over the globe, there are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo, generally known as kawayan in the Philippines. There are eight commercial species grown in the Philippines and most of them can be found in Iloilo, Davao, Bukidnon and some parts of Luzon.
Bamboo is the most diverse group of plants in the grass family, and the most primitive sub-family. It is distinguished by a woody culm, complex branching, a generally robust rhizome system and infrequent flowering. “Bamboo is not a weed, it’s a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant,” commented Steve Lacy.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri sees bright future not only for bamboo production but the bamboo industry in general. For one, the bamboo industry can generate numerous jobs and for another, it can be a top exporter and dollar generator.
“With only a handful of countries competing in the bamboo industry worldwide, there is a great potential for the Philippine bamboo industry to get the bigger pie in the world market and be on the top export products of the country,” Zubiri said.
The website of Bamboo Philippines shares this information: “The stable worldwide demand for wood and the increasing interest in sustainably produced timber further boost the potential market for industrial bamboo products. Among many Western consumers, bamboo is inherently sustainable resource. Thus, industrial bamboo is seen to compete for hardwood in the twenty-first century.”
Currently, the total area of bamboo stands ranges from 39,000 to 53,000 hectares, which are mostly sporadic or in patches along backyards and beside riverbanks in forest lands, some private lands, and rarely in pure commercial stands.
“The potential production from these areas of bamboo stands has been estimated at an average of 36 million culms per year,” Zaragosa writes.
One good thing about bamboo is that it can help control soil erosion. The environment department reports that about a billion cubic meters, or around 200,000 hectares of one-meter deep topsoil, are lost annually due to erosion.
“Soil erosion is any nation’s enemy – far worse than any outside enemy coming into a country and conquering it because it is an enemy you cannot see vividly,” commented Harold R. Watson, former director of the Davao-based Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC). “It’s a slow creeping enemy that soon possesses the land. We must consider ourselves in a state of emergency; our topsoil is all going…”
American authors Lester R. Brown and Edward C. Wolf contend that soil erosion threatens food production. In their book, Soil Erosion: Quiet Crisis in the World Economy, they contend:
“The loss of topsoil affects the ability to grow food in two ways. It reduces the inherent productivity of land, both through the loss of nutrients and degradation of the physical structure. It also increases the costs of food production.”
The two authors continue: “When farmers lose topsoil, they may increase land productivity by substituting energy in the form of fertilizer. Farmers losing topsoil may experience either a loss in land productivity or a rise in costs (of inputs). But if productivity drops too low or costs rise too high, farmers are forced to abandon their land.”
One of the best ways to control erosion is by planting bamboos in areas susceptible to erosion so food production can continue. In a study conducted by Alexia Stokes, Adrien Lucas and Luc Jouneau which was published in the American Journal of Botany, it was found that bamboo is useful in controlling landslides, land degradation and soil mass movement.
In addition, the study shows bamboo helps improve the quality, moisture and stability of the soil.
Another contribution of bamboo in food production is through its shoots (those new culms that come out of the ground). In Asia, the bamboo shoot is a delicacy. In the Philippines, for instance, it is made into pickles, fresh lumpia, or simply cooked with coconut and shrimps. In Thailand, bamboo salt seasoning and bamboo salt soybean paste can be bought in the public markets. The Taiwanese consume as much as 80,000 metric tons of bamboo shoots per year to make pickled bamboo shoots, one of their most popular fares.
The young shoots are a good source of vitamins and minerals. Nutritionists claim that bamboo shoot is low in carbohydrates and crude fat, and it has plenty of crude fiber, making it an ideal vegetable for people who want to reduce. Eighteen amino acids are reportedly present in bamboo shoot. Just a warning: shoots of some species contain toxins that need to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely.
“With the increasing awareness on the many health attributes and recipes one can make out of bamboo shoots, it is now gaining popularity within the broader population and in the global market,” Nimfa Torreta in a news dispatch released by DOST. “There is also a worldwide interest on bamboo shoots because of the growing population of Asian ethnic origin around the world who have particular preference and taste for Asian food.”
Bamboo shoots have a huge market potential. Export of bamboo shoots from Thailand in 1994 was pegged at US$29.50 million. Japan has a steady market of 250 tons per month while Australia imports 6,000 to 12,000 tons of canned bamboo shoots annually. (To be continued)
