Bamboo Economy Helps Zimbabwean Farmers To Earn Living

HEADLANDS, Zimbabwe, 17 Sept (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) �:Once considered a parasite that feeds on forests, bamboo has become a major source of living for farmers in Zimbabwe.

In eastern Manicaland province, farmers like Hapias Shwede, 52, have switched to grow bamboo, which is used in building houses, furniture, pulp, charcoal, while also addressing climate change issues.

Coinciding the World Bamboo Day which is being observed on Friday, a woman farmer Mavis Sithole from Mount Selinda, 56, told Anadolu Agency that she along with other women has been earning hundreds of Dollars by selling bamboo to indigenous furniture manufactures.

"We have stopped using poles from trees to construct our huts now. We use bamboo which even when cut down, quickly shoots up than other trees which take years to grow back," she said.

In Manicaland's Chipinge district, a decade ago six women had come together to form Mount Selinda Women's Bamboo Association to promote bamboo plantation and entrepreneurship.

According to the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) � an intergovernmental organization �, the bamboo economy in Zimbabwe has grown to $60 billion and has turned into a credible income generator for rural communities.

Unlike other trees, bamboo plants are known to be naturally growing and sustainable ones, thereby addressing climate change issues, said climate change expert Happison Chikova.

"Bamboo grass absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as carbon reduction. The woody grass can also be used as firewood and saves other indigenous trees from being used as fuel," he said.

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Zimbabwe had been losing on an average 327,000 hectares (808,034 acres) of forests annually from 1990-2010. He said with the attention now turning to fast-growing bamboo, the country may recover its lost forests.