Bamboo Agroforestry

Agroforestry is a land-use systems and technologies where bamboo and other woody perennials are designed into land management of agricultural crops and/or animals. This is arranged to interact with each other to bring benefits to both agriculture and biodiversity.

Through this man-made management design to create the diversification in farming systems, it is targeted at mitigating climate change and its disruptive challenges.

Bamboo is a multipurpose plant from the grass family Poaceae, it can substitute for timber in many respects due to its lignified culms, and because of its fast growth, intricate rhizome system, and sustainability, it has become a plant with conservation value, able to mitigate phenomena that result from global climate change.

The programs we have developed over the last three decades are:

 

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Bambusa Beecheyana

Introduction to Bamboo

Bamboo is a giant grass, belonging to the same family as rice, wheat, cereals and sugar cane. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant unmatched by any other plant in nature. Some species of bamboo can reach 40 meters in height in only a few months time. There are some species which can grow faster than 1 meter per day. Bamboo is a very hardy plant and can be easily propagated.

Through various propagation techniques, we have developed regional nurseries in Malaysia to expand our Bamboo4U Campaign to allow Malaysian to plant tropical bamboo for carbon sequestration that is also a resource for human food and animal feedstock.

Our nurseries are currently operational in the following States of Malaysia:

  • Kelantan
  • Tregganu
  • Negeri Sembilan
  • Sarawak
  • Sabah
BAMBUSA BEECHEYANA

In South East Asia, Bambusa beecheyana is the bamboo specie commonly chosen as a commercial crop due to its unique advantage and resource for human food, animal feed, paper, timber related products and much more.

Bambusa beecheyana is endemic to Myanmar and was introduced to Thailand as a commercial crop in the late 1970’s and in the mid 1980’s, it became a specie which gained popularity among rural farmers for its commercial value.

In the mid 2006, Bambusa beecheyana popularity spread to Indonesia where it was introduced for planting into bamboo plantations. Similarly, it was introduced to Malaysia in 2008. Today, Bambusa beecheyana is grown in large scale in Laos and Cambodia.

One of the major advantages of Bambusa Beecheyana is the regeneration quality of the clump. Unlike most tropical clumping bamboo, of which the culms cannot be harvested when it is too young, it will affect the regeneration of the clump.

Bambusa beecheyana culm can be harvested 12 months after planting. This makes this specie of bamboo an ideal resource for human food and animal feed. When the bamboo reaches its 6th year, the culms are an invaluable resource for timber related products. The versatile culm age usage, makes this bamboo specie ideal for commercial use among rural farmers.

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Why bamboo?

Bamboo is also an essential resource for many other organisms living in our soils. The most common organism is invertebrates, the common earthworms. Earthworms consume the bamboo leaves and convert the organic matter into rich soil nutrients.

Bamboo is an important grass (poaceae) inextricably linked to our human societies, providing the resource for shelter, food, animal feed, paper, composite and much more. The range of its use is hardly rivaled in the plant kingdom. It is regarded as the plant of a thousand uses.

Bamboo are complex plants that can be difficult to identify or classify, but given its ecological and economic importance, correct identification is critical to their conservation and development and a robust phylogenetic classification system underpins identification. At Carbon Xchange, we present a history of bamboo classification, discuss bamboo habitat and silviculture. We also present an up to date classification of bamboo based on synthesis of the most recent systematic work in this fascinating and charismatic group of giant grasses.

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Bamboo & Oil Palm Plantation

Bamboo in Oil Palm Plantation
In 1999, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) embarked on a large scale outreach program to study tropical bamboo silviculture design within an oil palm plantation. The research project was developed with Golden Hope Plantations in Bradwall Estate, Siliau, Rantau, Negri Sembilan, Malaysia. 

We took the opportunity to study the growth of the bamboo from 1999 to 2011 to gain a better understanding on soil biodiversity. In particular the natural soil-nitrifying bacteria Nitrosomonas.The sustainable development goal of the project was to evaluate on a pathway to design a future generation of oil palm plantation that are grown without synthetic chemical fertilizers. The extensive use of synthetic chemical fertilizers is the main contributor to nitrate leaching into our soil and atmosphere. Creating a negative image for oil palm plantation. The introduction of tropical clumping bamboo and vetiver bamboo grass, as a companion crop was an approach to evaluate the possible long term benefits derived from this symbiotic relationship through the creation of living soils to sustain the production of fresh fruit bunches for oil production.

 

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