New Delhi, Sep 8 Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday released a logo for the National Bamboo Mission (NBM) while inaugurating 22 bamboo clusters in nine states.
These clusters are in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Karnataka.
In his address at the virtual launch, Tomar said that the country is now gearing up to increase the export of bamboo products.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always striven that local industries should be protected and make progress so that local artisans get a source of livelihood.
"The government's goal in the bamboo sector is being achieved with the concerted efforts of all stakeholders of the mission. Keeping in consideration, the importance of bamboo, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 was amended in 2017 to remove bamboo from the category of trees... as a result, now anyone can undertake cultivation and business in bamboo and its products," he added.
The import policy has also been modified to ensure progress of the bamboo industry in the country, the Minister said.
Tomar said that the use of bamboo has been an ancient tradition in India and it is now being supported with modern technology and youth are also being given training.
He called upon the states to take forward the objectives of the NBM which would contribute to the Prime Minister's call of an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat through an Aatma Nirbhar Krishi (self-reliance in agriculture).
The support being given by the mission to local artisans through locally grown bamboo species will also actualize the goal of Vocal for Local, he said.
The restructured NBM was launched in 2018-19 for holistic development of the complete value chain of the sector, and is being implemented in a hub (industry) and spoke model, with the main goal of connecting farmers to markets so as to enable producers to get a ready market and to increase supply of appropriate raw material to domestic industry.
The winner of the logo contest, Sai Ram Goudi Edigi of Telengana was selected from 2,033 entries received on MyGov platform from across the country. The logo portrays a bamboo palm in the centre of a circle composed of half a wheel, representing industry, and half of farmers, depicting the objectives of NBM. The logo's green and yellow colour symbolises bamboo, which is often termed "green gold".
( With inputs from IANS )
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