BY STAFF REPORTER
Harnessing agricultural and other natural resources is one of the options for the economic development of countries like Ethiopia. Among the natural resources widely available in the country is bamboo.
Bamboo is known as an ancient grass with woody timber that covers up to three per cent of all tropical and subtropical areas. It is the world’s fastest-growing woody plant. It has the highest growth rate of all tropical plants. After emerging as a shoot, bamboo can complete the growing process in both diameter and height in 35–40 days.
The growth rate has been observed at up to one meter per day, that is, approximately 2.5 cm per hour. This extraordinary power of growth is due to the bouncy properties of the nodes and the intracellular structures of internodes.
Since time immemorial, bamboo has assumed an important role in the improvement of mankind. According to some documents, about one billion people around the world depend on the utilization of bamboo for their survival.
This amazing plant grows in tropical and temperate environments and is very hardy, not needing pesticides or herbicides to grow well. It is a type of grass and grows from its roots, when it is cut it quickly grows back with most species maturing in 3-5 years.
It is grown without pesticides or chemical fertilisers. It requires no irrigation. It rarely needs replanting. It produces 35 percent more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
Bamboo has many uses, mainly in construction (flooring, roofing designing, and scaffolding), furniture, food, biofuel, fabrics, cloth, paper, pulp, charcoal, ornamental garden planting, and environmental characteristics, such as a large carbon sink and good phytoremediation option, improving soil structure and soil erosion.
It is utilized for a wide range of day to day purposes, both as a wood related material as well as a source of food. It has been the foundation of a significant part of the world’s rural life and will remain so as the population increments.
It is broadly perceived as one of the most important non-timber forest products because of the high financial advantages of bamboo-based items. Bamboo grows three times faster than most different species.
Ethiopia is among the largest growers of the plant majority of which grows in Benishangul-Gumuz State. There are only three bamboo species of importance which are common in Africa. Two of these, Arundinaria alpine and Oxytenarnthera Abyssinia are indigenous, of which the later one is the common species grew at lower elevations from sea-level up 2000 masl and is found under savanna conditions with a dry season of three to seven months. It tolerates a wide range of soils, even dry and shallow ones, on which it attains smaller sizes, but will not grow on very heavy clays or saline soils.
Studies indicate that bamboo is a highly preferable plant as it is a highly versatile one. It can be used for many purposes like Building houses and other construction works, New age items as wood substitutes, Industrial items, furniture, Medicine, Paper and pulp industry, among others.
It is also preferred for construction due to its simple accessibility, simplicity of functionality and quality. Bamboo has an extremely quick development rate, so it has been viewed as reasonable for afforestation.
On the other hand, the use of bamboo woods as one low-cost construction material encourages countries to use bamboo in the development of cities and villages, which can greatly contribute to the development of the bamboo trade in the world.
The authors’ goals for authoring this review article are to describe the uses of bamboo plants in today’s life, clarify some of the mechanisms involved in bamboo growth and strength, and recall the key role of bamboo plants in improving climate change and global warming that have not been commonly mentioned.
Bamboo as a green and sustainable material plays an important role in new architecture so that in the future, an architecture based on a green building will be built with bamboo as one of its most important materials. In this case, bamboo is very familiar among scientists because of its energy savings, zero fossil emissions, and environmentally friendly characteristics.
The ability to use bamboo as a timber wood, with special characteristics such as being lightweight, low in cost, and having high performance, makes it a green material in construction and architecture. Flexibility and fracture toughness of bamboos come from the special cellular material in these plants.
Bamboo protects the planet. Bamboo forests can reduce the negative effects of global warming so that bamboo can store and absorb carbon and CO2 in its organs, and as one phytoremediation option, it can also detoxify environmental contaminations.
Bamboo binds the earth so that bamboo as biochar can improve soil structures; thus, bamboo has a protective role in decreasing soil degradation, including the reduction of biodiversity in soil nutrient depletion and soil erosion. Because bamboo has a high yield of lignocellulosic biomass in a short time, it is considered a good option for use as a biofuel.
Bamboo shoots, as a tasty food with high fibre content, have been eaten by local people in southern Asia, especially in China. Additionally, bamboo products obtained from bamboo shoots are used in traditional medicine to control many diseases, including diabetes and cholesterol. So, all of these factors indicate the importance of recognizing this tropical plant.
A look at the realities uncovers that reasonable and economical usage of bamboo will open up several chances particularly for the rural poor. Assisted by technology and research, would have a big role in creating an ever-increasing number of employment and as a crude material.
The Ethiopian Herald March 30/2021
