Challenges

Rural communities in Africa often lack access to education and knowledge necessary to create linkages between stakeholders in the private sector, which hinders the creation of agricultural value chains. The production of bamboo in particular suffers from a lack of awareness of the economic and social potential of the crop, which is reflected in the poor performance of the product in African production and international trade. There is therefore a need to boost the production of bamboo in African economies and make it familiar to the African farmer in order to unlock its true potential.

Toward a Solution

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) and China’s efforts involve the transfer of knowledge, skills and solutions from Asian bamboo farmers to potential African cultivators, improving the entire value chain of this perennial, highly resilient and highly tolerant crop from planting to processing. The programme targets over 30,000 smallholder farmers and community members as an attempt to include bamboo in the portfolio of crops either to enable communities to take advantage of the plant to break into the biomass and energy product markets or to enable farmers to sell timber and components for cash. 

The project works by enhancing connectivity between bamboo technical experts from the countries involved for capacity-building and development of high-quality standards. With China in the frontline and a focus on Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Madagascar as beneficiaries, the initiative seeks to diversify the economies of these countries and promote industrialization while also being in alignment with the principle of crop rotation, facilitating the restoration of degraded areas that can be used for food production. Furthermore, voluntary guideline standards will boost a sustainable bamboo trade in and beyond the four beneficiary countries, with impacts on intra-African and Sino-African trade flows. As for the method of implementation, three study tours in China and two regional symposiums in Africa will be carried out, which will have a strong emphasis on fostering linkages with China’s One Belt One Road Initiative as well as with the construction of public-private partnerships for technology transfer. 

The outcomes are expected to build on previous Asian experiences and foster innovation in African smallholder farmers’ activities to: (a) reduce poverty and increase employment, especially for women and youth; (b) reduce land degradation and restore thousands of acres; (c) transform bamboo into a mainstream crop with attention from national policies, business strategies and development programmes; (d) increase industrialization, intra-Africa and Sino-Africa trade, investments and exchanges; and (e) improve the energy security of smallholder farmers through the production of bamboo charcoal briquettes. As for concrete results, since 2010, IFAD-supported grants in Ethiopia and Madagascar have seen 2,194 new livelihoods created and 665 hectares of bamboo plantation established, with IFAD loan projects engaging to scale up results. 

This programme draws on the South-South cooperation between China and Africa and within Africa itself to scale up sustainable, climate-smart, smallholder-based bamboo value chains in Africa. It builds on International Network for Bamboo and Rattan networks and 20 years of IFAD investments, which have successfully validated smallholder bamboo value?chain models and technologies in multiple countries. Worldwide, these models have created 250,000 new rural jobs, benefiting primarily women and youth.