Monday, July 26, 2004 R&D props up the struggling bamboo sector By Stella A. Estremera
FOR a country where bamboos grow wild, it's a wonder why the bamboo industry remains in its infancy, tied down to supplying low-value needs like banana props, fishpens and backyard chicken coops. As admitted in the Bamboo Information Network (Bamboonet), the databank for the bamboo sector within the Department of Science and Technology website, "The bamboo processing industry has been in existence for quite sometime. However, this sector's influence in the country's economic development has been, at best marginal."
Dabawenyo balikbayan Eddie Romero, who was harping on the potentials of bamboo when he returned from a long stint abroad, admitted the state of the bamboo industry in the Philippines is "a tragic".
"We have an abundance of bamboo but we don't know much about it. It is so common that we ignore its potentials," he said. The Bamboonet noted that the bamboo industry in the country generally caters to agricultural requirements like fish pens, banana props, and other low-value applications like scaffoldings and fences.
The bamboo processing industry, on the other hand, is at best very small and thinly spread across the archipelago.
There are three highly acclaimed Filipinos, however, who have seen and tapped the potential of bamboo: New York-schooled 2003 TOYM awardee Architect Ed Calma of Lor-Calma Design and Associates, who designed the 1,032 square meter Philippine Pavilion in the Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany that was primarily made of laminated bamboo or plyboo; A-one Architect Francisco "Bobby" Mañosa who has been designing upscale houses, including his in Ayala-Alabang using bamboo as aesthetic and structural material; and Engineer Pete Niego who owns Barriotika Rural Technology in Negos Occidental that makes more than a hundred different bamboo products from furniture to small novelty items.
As Bamboonet said, there is a bamboo processing industry but very small and thinly spread. The potentials of the industry, however, have not remained unnoticed. In fact, it has a history of being given institutional support by the government since 1956.
This year, scientists from the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) studied bamboo for its various applications like as construction materials for walls, panels, roof, and trusses, and as material for furniture, handicraft and decors.
After this, FPRDI teamed up with the Cottage Industries and Technology Center (CITC) to study bamboo as possible substitute for plywood, pulp and paper, and other architectural applications. The studies showed that bamboo has all the potentials matched with high tensile strength or a high ability to adapt to tension--said to be 28,000 per square inch (psi) as compared to steel that has a tensile strength of only 23,000 psi.
Bamboo then should have grabbed the limelight decades ago when studies proved bamboo's height ensile strength and various high-value applications, and much more after government declared a partial ban on logging. But there were very few takers, although the very few ones are notable figures like the three men enumerated above.
"There was a technology 30 years back (in Davao City courtesy of a certain Mr. Dalisay) but it was way ahead of its time. It did not succeed because it was too early for its time," Mr. Romero said.
Government, particularly FPRDI, is not giving up though and has joined forces with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Central Queensland University. In this effort, FPRDI has as local partners the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and its Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, and the Mariano Marcos State University.
This effort is geared toward appropriate management schemes to rehabilitate old bamboo clumps--the same bamboo clumps whose potentials have not been fully tapped for several decades--as well as maintain high productivity in managed plantations. This time, the scenario is not about a vast minimally used resource, but a dwindling one.
Initial reports from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development-Department of Science and Technology (PCarrd-DOST) show that the project developed better management practices and increased shoot production in clumps through clump thinning, fertilizer, mulching, and irrigation. Specifically, drip irrigation, culm harvesting management, and mineral nutrient uptake rates effectively improved bamboo stands.
Bamboo produces new shoots annually, and these shoots become erect culms. Culms become taller and thicker than the previous year until they reach the maximum culm length and diameter. High quality culms are those that are straight, 10 meters or longer; average quality are those that are shorter than 10 meters but not shorter than 8 m and relatively straight; low quality are those of smaller and shorter culms and usually crooked.
"It generally takes five to eight years for bamboo to form a complete canopy," a PCarrd article said. A financial analysis done by Uriarte and Pinol (1994) showed that establishing a bamboo plantation could be profitable although there's a six-year germinating period before the first commercial harvest.
Positive return is promised from year six to ten. This can even extend to 25 years or at the maximum, 50 years, as bamboo clumps, especially of kauayan tinik, remain productive for as long proper plantation management is observed.
The financial analysis by Uriarte and Pinol in 1994 showed that a one-hectare bamboo farm has a net present value (NPV) of P50,657, a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.82 and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 31%.
A sensitivity analysis also shows that profitability is twice more sensitive to a change in the price of bamboo poles than to the change in production cost. The analysis noted four cost centers: nursery operations, plantation establishment, protection and maintenance, and harvesting and hauling.
Fifty percent of the total cost is incurred in the first year for nursery operations, plantation establishment and some maintenance activities. The remaining cost is spread over the next four years, funding more planting activities in the second year and maintenance and protection in the second to fifth year.
Once break-even is reached by the fifth year, the cost of maintenance and protection can already be offset by bamboo sales. Clearly, there is profit in bamboo, whether in planting or processing. But there has to be a ready processing industry to encourage more planters, and this is what government is hoping to achieve by bringing in research and development into the picture.
In fact, it is holding the 4th National Bamboo Congress in the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan City from November 10-12, 2004 where trends and innovations in the bamboo industry will be showcased. With initiatives like this, it is hoped that more attention will be given to this ubiquitous grass that has long stood in the background as backdrop of the Philippines' rural scene and not much else.
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