National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has launched an MIS (Management Information Systems) based reporting platform for agarbatti stick production to collate the locations of stick making units, availability of raw materials, functioning of the units, production capacity, marketing, etc.

With the help of this module, the linkages with the industry will be synergised better to enable seamless procurement from production units and information gaps can be plugged. 

National Bamboo Mission (NBM), the ministry of small and medium enterprises (MSME), Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and  states, together with industry partners, have stepped up focused support to enable India to become self-reliant in the agarbatti sector and also modernising the sector.

National Bamboo Mission

Bamboo is a versatile group of plants which is capable of providing ecological, economic and livelihood security to the people. 

India has the highest area (13.96 million ha) under bamboo and is the second richest country, after China, in terms of bamboo diversity with 136 species (125 indigenous and 11 exotic).

In spite of the growing stock both within and outside forests, India is a net importer of bamboo. It means that there are great opportunities to harness the market potential by increasing its production and ensuring the establishment of a proper value chain ecosystem.

In most of the hilly states, bamboo is used as building/construction material, besides, having a potential niche market in other countries as well with various traditional and an ever-increasing range of contemporary uses and applications in industries like construction, furniture, textiles, food, energy production, herbal medicine, etc. This is especially important from the potential of bamboo-based livelihoods and employment for rejuvenating the rural economy and doubling of farmers’ income.

The National Bamboo Mission (NBM) was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme in 2006-07 and was subsumed under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) in 2014-15 and continued till 2015-16.

The restructured NBM was launched in April 2018 for holistic development of the bamboo sector through a cluster-based approach in a hub (industry) and spoke model to harness the opportunities by providing backward and forward linkages among the stakeholders – linking farmers to markets.

The NBM is a sub-scheme of the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) under the umbrella scheme Krishonnati Yojana.

The operational guidelines of the NBM provide inter alia assistance for treatment, establishment of markets, incubation centres, value added product development and processing, development of tools and equipment, research and development, both in the government and private sector, which would include startups also.

Major objectives of the NBM:

• To increase the area under bamboo plantation in non-forest, government and private land to supplement farm income and contribute towards resilience to climate change as well as the availability of quality raw material requirement of industries.

• To improve post-harvest management through the establishment of innovative primary processing units near the source of production, primary treatment and seasoning plants, preservation technologies and market infrastructure.

• To promote product development keeping in view market demand, by assisting R&D, entrepreneurship and business models at micro, small and medium levels and feed the bigger industry.

• To rejuvenate the underdeveloped bamboo industry in India.

• To promote skill development capacity building, awareness generation for development of bamboo sector from production to market demand.

• To realign efforts so as to reduce dependency on import of bamboo and bamboo products by way of improved productivity and suitability of domestic raw material for industry, so as to enhance the income of primary producers.

NBM is streamlining its interventions to enhance domestic industrial activities as well as augmenting the farmer’s income with support from technical agencies and facilitative steps. 

Direct subsidy of 50 per cent is given to farmers at Rs 1 lakh per ha, 100 per cent to government agencies and also to entrepreneurs for setting up various product development units, etc. 

At present, the Mission is executed in 21 states, including states of northeast region through the respective State Bamboo Missions. 

Agarbatti industry in India

• The current consumption of agarbatti in the country is approximately 1,490  tonnes per day. However, per day production of agarbatti in India is just 760  tonnes. The deficit is met through imports primarily from China and Vietnam.

• The import of raw agarbatti increased from 2 per cent in 2009 to 80 per cent in 2019. In monetary terms, the import of raw agarbatti in India increased exponentially from Rs 31 crore in 2009 to Rs 546 crore in 2019 due to reduction of import duty — from 30 per cent to 10 per cent — in 2011. 

• This hit the Indian agarbatti manufacturers hard and resulted in closure of nearly 25 per cent of the total units.

• In August, 2019, the government imposed restrictions on imports of agarbatti and other similar products amidst reports of significant increase in inbound shipments from countries like China and Vietnam.

• It revived hundreds of agarbatti units in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and several northeast states. It also prompted the local traders to import round bamboo sticks for manufacturing of raw agarbatti. This resulted in an increase in import of bamboo sticks from Rs 210 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 370 crore in the year 2019-20.

• In June 2020, the Centre decided to increase import duty on bamboo sticks from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

• While 136 varieties of bamboo are found in India, the Bambusa Tulda variety — which is used for making agarbatti sticks — is abundant in the northeast region.

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