Policy Update
Ayan Bordoloi
Background
Bamboo is a special species in the Indian rural economy and the ecology. Bamboo is a tender healthy grass that grows rapidly and can provide both tensile strength and versatility and is both fast-growing and renewable, supporting livelihoods in agriculture, forestry, handicrafts and modern manufacturing, at the same time, and is called “green gold” or “green steel.”
India has the largest amount of bamboo in the world, and is ranked as the second most diverse country after China, but despite this, India has been a net importer of finished bamboo products for decades, with raw bamboo growing in abundance in the country’s forests and farmlands. The primary policy challenge that the National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has aimed to solve is the gap between resource endowment and value capture, stemming from colonial forest laws that singled out bamboo as a “tree”, felling and transport permits, and lack of a robust processing system and market network.
This Policy Update documents the journey of the Mission from its inception in 2006-07 to its current extensive restructuring in 2018-19, and reviews the performance of the Mission against three related goals: increasing the resource base through plantation on non-forest land, consolidating the post-harvest and processing value chain and boosting market linkages and incomes for farmers, artisans and micro-enterprises. It uses official reports of progress, Parliamentary answers and industry data to evaluate the progress of the bamboo economy and the ongoing gaps in it in India.
The Original National Bamboo Mission (2006–07 to 2016–17)
The National Bamboo Mission was started in 2006-07 as a centrally sponsored scheme with an outlay of around Rs.500 crores under the Ministry of Agriculture. The Tenth Plan and Eleventh Plan would cost 568 crore. It was mainly limited to propagation and cultivation – planting nurseries and planting under JMC and VDCs on forest and non-forest lands. During the period of its implementation over a decade, the scheme reported plantation coverage of approximately 3.62 lakh hectares, with only an estimated 1.25 lakh hectares being planted on non-forest land, and 1,466 nurseries being established.
The Mission, however, was mainly a plantation-based intervention, with little emphasis placed on expanding processing capability, markets or industry linkages, resulting in bamboo planted often not being able to be harvested, treated and sold efficiently. The scheme was subsumed under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) during 2014-16 and thus its own distinct identity and efforts to promote it are lost.
Two things were key. In 2017, an amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, redefined bamboo as not being a “tree” if it is cultivated on non-forest land, eliminating a felling or transit permit requirement for cultivators to harvest and move their own bamboo, which was a longstanding barrier to private bamboo plantation.
Second, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a comprehensively Restructured National Bamboo Mission (RNBM) as sub-scheme under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture with Rs. 11 billion outlay on 25 April 2018 (including Rs. 1,290 crore for the rest of the Fourteenth Finance Commission cycle (2018-19 and 2019-20), it was followed by an additional allocation of the same size (950 crore as the own shares) for 2020-21 to 2022-23.
The re-structured Mission was clearly focussed on the entire value chain, from planting material, cultivation, primary processing and treatment, to product development, branding and linkages with the markets, comprising a cluster-based “hub (industry) and spoke (farmer)” model with a view of bringing producers into closer contact with processors and buyers.
Functioning
The following is a list of the core objectives in the Restructured NBM:
- Expand bamboo plantation area on non-forest state and private land with the objective to improve farm income, climate resilience and providing raw materials for industries.
- Enhance post harvest value chain management through primary processing units close to production points, treatment and seasoning plants, preservation technologies and market infrastructures.
- Encourage product development according to the market demand, and promote the diversification of bamboo-based product development, such as: manufacture of furniture, handicrafts, agarbatti (incense) sticks, engineered bamboo boards, and bioenergy.
- Rejuvenate underdeveloped bamboo industry through reorientation of previous efforts, forward linkages and build effective linkage between producers and industry.
- Promote entrepreneurship, capacity building, and skill development particularly for the Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and start-ups.
One unique feature of the Mission is the system of its financing, whereby individual farmers are paid a capital subsidy of up to Rs. 50 per cent. Up to 100 per cent subsidy support is available for the establishment of nurseries, treatment units and product-development infrastructure by eligible entrepreneurs and government agencies, while 1.00–1.20 lakh per hectare is offered as subsidy support for plantation. The funding formula for Centre and States is 60:40 in most States, 90:10 in North-Eastern and Himalayan States due to their disproportionate contribution of bamboo resources in India and 100 per cent of the funds in Union Territories, national level agencies and Bamboo Technology Support Groups (BTSGs).
Table 1: Central Assistance Pattern under the Restructured NBM
| Category of State/Agency | Centre : State Funding Ratio | Farmer Subsidy (Plantation) |
| General category States | 60 : 40 | 50% (up to ~Rs. 1.0–1.2 lakh/ha) |
| North-Eastern & Himalayan States | 90 : 10 | 50% (up to ~Rs. 1.0–1.2 lakh/ha) |
| Union Territories / National agencies / BTSGs | 100 : 0 | Up to 100% for institutional infrastructure |
Source: Restructured National Bamboo Mission Operational Guidelines; PIB (2018, 2025).
Performance
The scale of implementation is still relatively small given India’s bamboo potential, but there is some measure of progress in the last two or three years, and this is clearly on the rise, now that the Mission has been restructured and the legality of bamboo reclassification has been established nine years ago. As of December 2024, progress in physical development is 408 bamboo nurseries, including 14 accredited bamboo nurseries, 60,000 ha of non-forest area under bamboo plantation, 104 bamboo treatment and preservation units, 528 bamboo product development and processing units and 130 bamboo market infrastructure facilities.
Figure 1: Cumulative physical progress under the Restructured NBM as of December 31, 2024.
The level of change is notable: the restructured phase has constructed about four times more processing and product-development facilities (528) than combined treatment and market-infrastructure facilities, and indicates real efforts to counter the imbalance of planting in the past compared to the lack of downstream facilities. Despite this, the rate of growth of the area has remained relatively low.
The Lok Sabha reply in March 2022 reported a total plantation area of just about 23,756 ha of non-forest in the restructured Mission since 2018-19; this brought the total plantation area to 60,000 ha by December 2024, with an additional 36,000 hectares planted in the last two and a half years. The actual achievements over the past 7 years against the initial goal of 1 lakh (100,000) hectares in the first two years of the restructured Mission (2018-19 and 2019-20) are far from the target.
Figure 2: Comparing area coverage across the erstwhile (2006–17) and restructured (2018 onward) phases of the Mission.
Implementation has also been unevenly distributed geographically. The Mission aims to focus on States (mainly the North-Eastern region and Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) where the bamboo situation is the most ecologically and commercially advantageous and the funds are disbursed only on the basis of the Annual Action Plans submitted by the States, thereby being highly dependent on the State-level administrative capacities and priorities. Perhaps most importantly, the restructured Mission has not been implemented in West Bengal, indicating that a design that involves the central government and relies on the States can leave gaps even in areas that have historically been rich in bamboo resources.
Impact
Effect on Farmers’ Livelihoods and Value Chain
Not just afforestation but generating livelihoods throughout the value chain, ranging from cultivators to harvesters, primary processors, artisans and entrepreneurs, is the Mission’s stated objective. The findings from State-level implementation are somewhat complicated but instructive as to what is effective.
Organised Cultivation and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)
The Mission has facilitated organised cultivation in Assam through farmer producer organisations (FPOs) like Ampri Orange, which has engaged 609 farmers over 585 hectares and identified 18 further FPOs in 14 districts. In order to meet one of the most prevalent bottlenecks found in the initial phase of the Mission, the lack of quality planting material of commercially important species, ten nurseries were established at Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat.
Artisan Incomes and Industry Linkage
The early results of the components of handicraft promotion have been signs of increased income, even if small. Training of artisans in conjunction with EPICHA has created sales of approximately Rs. 3.65 lakh. The daily income of artisans is 300–350. A Memorandum of Understanding on buy-backs and skill training between Mission and Cycle Pure Agarbatties is a good example of how the Mission was intended to link smallholder producers directly into established manufacturers, in preference to increasingly disjointed local markets.
In 2012, Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli Agarbatti Project was started and has been expanded with State funding; the project employs 90 per cent women, 32 centres, and Rs. 10,000 per month per beneficiary. Its 5000 and cumulative turnover is more than Rs. 10 crore. According to industry reports, if the skill is upgraded along with a market linkage, the monthly income of artisans can be increased by Rs. 8,000 to Rs. This range is between 18,000 and 24,000, which suggests that the value-chain approach, with full implementation including training and access to quality inputs and guaranteed off-take, can contribute to raising incomes of the poor, not just supplementing them.
Employment Potential
The government’s estimates suggest that the Mission could provide employment to more than eight million rural people when fully realised, while estimates by industry suggest the current bamboo economy (including informal and unorganised sectors) provides employment to between 10.3 lakh and 1.2 crore people, mainly in Assam, Odisha and West Bengal. The differences in these estimates reflect a monitoring and data gap in that there is no robust and regularly updated census of bamboo dependent livelihoods to which the Mission’s employment claims can be independently verified.
Market Development & Industry Outlook
The scope of bamboo utilization in India is very small as compared to the demand. Domestic demand is estimated to be about 26 million metric tonne per year while domestic production is about 18-19 million metric tonnes annually creating a significant gap in supply which is partly bridged by imports, especially to the Agarbatti (incense stick) industry. The estimated market value of the agarbatti sector alone which is the biggest consuming industry by volume of bamboo in India is estimated to be Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,500 crore roughly .
While the import duty was imposed on bamboo-sticks when the import restrictions were reinstated in 2020, the import cost of domestic bamboo has been kept below 25 per cent, which is a price hike of 10 per cent for the imports, despite the price hike. The import duty was imposed on bamboo-sticks when the import restrictions were reinstated in 2020, however, the import cost of the bamboo-sticks has been kept below 25 per cent, a price hike of 10 per cent for the imports.
In this context, the overall Indian bamboo market is estimated to have the value of Rs. In 2022, the total is 50,135 crore and it would be expected to increase to approximately Rs 71,745 crore. According to the estimates by the company, Grand View Research, the revenue is projected to reach $71,745 crore by 2030 with CAGR of approximately 4.6 per cent.
The value-added data from exports reflect more modest but increasing value added – exports of bamboo products valued at approximately Rs. In 2023, the export volume is Rs. 3,500 crore, out of which, the export of bamboo furniture alone is estimated at Rs. While India’s share of bamboo exports is still below 5 per cent of the world’s bamboo exports, and much lower than that of China and Vietnam (which account for more than 60 per cent of the world’s bamboo export shipments), the cost of the exports is 2,500 crore.
Figure 3: Projected growth in the value of India’s overall bamboo market, 2022–2030.
Such disparities between resource base and export performance highlight a structural characteristic of India’s bamboo economy, that it is still a raw material and low value added sector. Finished goods, such as furniture, engineered boards, flooring and packaging, earn three to five times the raw bamboo with a unit value, but are not a significant portion of the total output.
The Mission is making progress to alleviate this, building investment capacity in processing and product-development units (528 units as of December 2024) that must be scaled up to equal the volume of raw plantation, which will require ongoing, multi-year investment in cold-chain equivalent treatment facilities, design capacity and brand building — an area in which the Mission’s financial envelope is relatively low compared to its ambition.
Emerging Issues
Slow expansion of area: Area covered by actual non-forest plantation (60,000 ha as at December 2024) is far lower than the target of cover within one lakh hectares within 2 years which was set at the Mission’s launch in 2018, due to land availability constraints, bamboo gestation period and its low uptake at the State level. Fragmented and State dependent implementation: The progress of the scheme is subject to the capacity of the States and their political concerns since it is centrally sponsored and works through State Annual Action Plans: For instance, in West Bengal, a State with a high bamboo potential, the restructured Mission has not been implemented at all.
Despite protective tariffs, continued reliance of the agarbatti sector on imported bamboo sticks shows that primary processing of bamboo, in the immediate vicinity of plantation areas, has yet to help meet the demand-supply gap for industrial-grade bamboo. Weak data collection and monitoring system: The employment estimates vary between roughly ten lakh and more than a crore workers and lack a bamboo resource and livelihood census which is regularly updated, to allow for independent verification of outcome claims from the Mission and targeted subsequent investment at the next level precisely.
Limited market share in global value added exports: India’s export basket is restricted to a few categories of bamboo-based products, with the most significant category being products related to ‘agarbatti’ and the total market share in the world is less than five per cent, although India is the largest producer of bamboo in terms of area. Even with the scaling up of investment at periodic intervals, the Mission’s outlay (which is a few hundred crore per multi-year cycle) is small as compared to the investment required to make India a hub for manufacture of value added bamboo products, which includes investment in tissue-culture nurseries, design/branding capacity, treatment infrastructure, and cold storage-equivalent seasoning facilities.
Way Forward
Improve accountability at the State-level by making clear the linkages of the release of funds to the targets of the Annual Action Plan, and publish physical and financial progress dashboards at the State-level – to bridge the gap between States that have implemented the Mission well and those like West Bengal, which has not done so at all.
In the short-term focus on processing and treatment infrastructure rather than raw plantation targets; India faces a problem not with bamboo but with capacity to treat, season and make it available as raw material for industrial use — a challenge which is directly faced by sectors like agarbatti manufacture which are highly dependent on imports.
Increased scale of tissue culture and accredited nursery network; only 14 of 408 nurseries established by December 2024 are accredited and there is a need to increase scale to produce certified, disease resistant planting material which is essential to closing the 7-8 million tonne domestic gap in demand and supply. Include market access intervention at a deeper level within the platform of e-NAM, rural haats and APMC registration and promote specific export products such as bamboo furniture, bamboo flooring, bamboo construction composites etc where India has a small market share in the world.
Establish a bamboo resource and livelihood census that is held in conjunction with the India State of Forest Report cycle and results in more reliable and up-to-date estimates of bamboo area, standing stock and employment (rather than the currently “wide-ranging and unverifiable” estimates) to enable evidence-based scale-up. Scale and scale more to improve livelihood objectives than plantation subsidies – for instance, the FPOs led by the artisans in cases such as the Gadchiroli Agarbatti Project and the Assam Orange FPOs (Ampri) have shown that the livelihood objectives can be met more effectively by deepening the FPO and SHG-led cluster model in combination with ensuring a buy-back facility for the artisans than with plantation subsidy alone.
Integrate the Mission with the opportunities of climate change and carbon markets, such as the generation of voluntary carbon credits from bamboo plantations and bamboo-based products as alternatives to plastic and energy intensive products like steel and cement in construction, as per India’s climate commitments. In conclusion, eight years after transitioning from a plantation-only to an orientation towards the bamboo value chain, the National Bamboo Mission has made good progress, if not complete, in evolving from a plantation-based to a value-chain-based Mission, through its increased processing and product development facilities, and the development of new livelihood models in States like Assam and Maharashtra.
However, the difference between the Mission’s aspirations and its actual achievements is significant: the area of expansion is lagging behind the goals of the Mission; the implementation of the Mission is also uneven in the States; and despite possessing the world’s largest area for growing bamboo, India is still importing raw material for bamboo products.
The Mission will need to shift from a subsidy-disbursement scheme to a more monitored and data-driven investment programme on the value chain; and recognise that farmer income, processing capacity and export competitiveness are all outcomes that can be measured. If properly managed, bamboo presents a unique policy window for India: a single crop that can help boost rural incomes, reduce the dependency on imports, and contribute to the country’s climate resilience and low-carbon industry.
Selected References and Important Links
Press Information Bureau. (2018). Cabinet approves restructured National Bamboo Mission. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, 25 April 2018.
https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?lang=2®=48&relid=178895&utm_source=chatgpt.com
Lok Sabha. (2022). Starred Question No. 197: National Bamboo Mission, due for answer on 15 March 2022. Government of India.
https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/178/AS197.pdf?source=pqals&utm_source=chatgpt.com
Lahiry, S. (2018). The story of National Bamboo Mission. Down To Earth, 4 July 2018.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/amp/story/agriculture/the-story-of-national-bamboo-mission-61016?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Government of India. (2018). Operational Guidelines of National Bamboo Mission. Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare.
https://nfs.inroad.in/policy-viewer?id=GNCNAA000233&utm_source=chatgpt.com
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). (2025). India’s Green Gold: Exploring India’s Bamboo Industry. 27 June 2025.
https://www.ibef.org/blogs/india-s-green-gold-exploring-india-s-bamboo-industry?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Bamboo Research and Training Centre (BRTC). (2026). Bamboo Industry in India: Market Size, Types, State-wise Production & How to Start in 2026-27. 18 May 2026.
https://brtc.org.in/blogs/bamboo-industry-in-india-market-size-types-state-wise-production-how-to-start-in-2026-27/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Sharma, T. (2023). How to Start a Agarbatti Making Business in India – Market Size, Export from India. Dial4Trade, 6 April 2023.
https://www.dial4trade.com/knowledgebase/how-to-start-a-agarbatti-making-business-in-india-market-size-export-from-india.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com
NITI Aayog. (2021). National Workshop on Bamboo Development Mission: Concept Note. Government of India, 30 December 2021.
https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-08/Concept_Note_Bamboo_Workshop.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
About the Contributor
Ayan Bordoloi is an intern with IMPRI, currently pursuing his master’s in political science at the University of Delhi. His research interests lie in federalism, tribal governance, and Northeast India’s political landscape.
Acknowledgements
The author extends sincere gratitude to the IMPRI team for their guidance and support, along with the reviewers Dolly Kaushik and Sandra Menon for their valuable feedback and insights.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organization
