The Mission has carried out extensive testing and an assessment of inherent characteristics of Indian species of bamboo. The results were matched with existing and potential uses of bamboo.
Based on this exercise, and taking into account availability and dispersal of bamboo species, the Mission has evolved a recommendation for focus on 16 commercially significant species.
India is well endowed with resources of bamboo, the second largest in the world. Bamboo grows on millions of hectares of forest land, in homesteads and on private plantations. There are almost 130 species in India, spread across 18 genera.