The good news, however, is that the efforts of these different sectors are likely to be complementary, with huge potential to support each other. PlantSearch data on botanic garden/arboretum accessions has already been used to contribute to Crop Conservation Strategies for coffee and apples, and Hawai’i’s National Tropical Botanical Garden hosts the Breadfruit Institute, whose collections feature strongly in the Crop Trust’s Breadfruit Conservation Strategy. As this paper clearly shows, the botanic garden/arboretum community has a lot more to contribute, including data and material from many significant collections of socio-economically important taxa that are not present in the crop and forestry communities. Botanic garden/arboreta could support overcoming identified issues to using socio-economically important plants by being a source of seedlings, trainers of technical skills needed to grow and sustainably use plants, and raising awareness of the importance of plants in the landscape. As the new Global Biodiversity Framework emerges under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and as the dependency and links between biodiversity and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals become more explicit, it is essential that the various communities concerned with the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources work more closely together.The demand for bamboo and its products is growing rapidly while supply remains almost constant due to dependence on natural bamboo resources which are reducing in stock . To bridge the gap between demand and supply of bamboo, nft channel there is an absolute need for large-scale propagation of bamboo through appropriate propagation techniques .
Some of these propagation techniques include vegetative and seed-based propagation. Seed-based propagation has been very difficult owing to the relatively long timeframe it takes for bamboo to produce seed and the dormant nature of most bamboo seed.Vegetative propagation of bamboo through culm cuttings has been observed to be the simplest and most cost-effective method developed over the last few decades.Asia remains the most bamboo rich region in the world. It has been estimated that 20 million hectares of bamboo exist in India, China and Myanmar . Most of Asia’s bamboo products are supplied from natural forests, including China, India and Myanmar where 99% of bamboo products are supplied from natural bamboo forests . China continues to be the largest bamboo rich nation in the world, having 500 species in 40 genera distributed in 7.6 million hectares of forest land . In sub-Saharan Africa, bamboo is increasingly becoming an important resource owing to its ability to perform different functions . Its multifunctional nature has made it a friend to both local peasants living in villages across the sub-region as well as urban dwellers who enjoy bamboo finished products like chairs, tables, cupboards, flutes, cups, spoons and many more . However, there are also some communities especially in the rural areas which see bamboo as an invasive species worth destroying. These communities have destroyed large expanses of bamboo forest through burning or wanton cutting in a bid to do away with what they consider as a worthless and invasive plant species.
The International Bamboo and Rattan Organization through its educational and sensitization missions in the sub-region has reduced some of these negative perceptions about bamboo and many of these reticent communities are now increasing preserving bamboo resources in their communities. Bamboo agroforestry systems are growing across the sub-region as peasant farmers integrate bamboo in their farming systems . In Cameroon, bamboo is one of the many non-timber forest products which had been neglected in the past . With increasing awareness raised especially by INBAR and owing to dwindling forest resources, bamboo has become an important alternative . Bamboo supplies a plethora of ecosystem services as well as semi-finished and finished products like chairs, tables, flutes, cupboards, beds, cups, and many other ornamental products . The bamboo sub-sector in Cameroon has gained a lot of momentum especially with the spread of INBAR’s activities across the country through partnerships with universities like the University of Dschang, as well as ministries like the ministry of forestry. The creation of a bamboo factory in Yaoundé is equally a step in the right direction. With bamboo having huge potential to drive the economy of Cameroon, the question flying in the air is: where will the bamboo resources come from? Bamboo in Cameroon is mainly found in nature, which means supply will dwindle in the future if measures are not taken to increase the existing bamboo stock. To ensure a sustainable supply of bamboo, there is an absolute need to domesticate bamboo which can be done through the adoption of proper propagation techniques. It is within this framework that this study comes in. The study was carried out to understand how a substrate consisting of dark soil, manure and sand in a ratio of 1:1:1 in three propagation beds could affect different growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. The objective was to foster the propagation of B. vulgaris in order to ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base and contribute towards improving the livelihoods of rural bamboo-dependent communities.
Three propagation/shelter beds with an area of 1.20 m wide × 5 m long were used for this experiment. The propagation substrate consisted of dark soil, manure and sand in a ratio of 1:1:1. The use of a similar substrate across the three propagation beds was done purposely in order to determine how good it was for the propagation of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris considering that the substrate is easily accessible and cheap, and could be used easily by peasants in rural communities to propagate B. vulgaris. However, more work is being done presently to test different substrates in order to see the most appropriate for the propagation of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. Culm cuttings of bamboo with lengths of 1m were collected from the bamboo forest of the Foréké-Dschang escarpment located some 9 km from Dschang urban centre. Once the culm cuttings were brought to the nursery of the University of Dschang Botanic Garden, both ends of each of the culm cuttings were filled with mud made up of a mixture of moist soil and cow dung in order to limit evapotranspiration and prevent water from seeping into the cuttings. The cuttings were then placed in staggered rows in the propagation beds, reversing the orientation of the buds each time, with a distance of 10 cm between the cuttings. Each bed contained 50 culm cuttings. Each culm cutting had 2 to 3 nodes—the growth points for the new plants. Two weeks after the culm cuttings were placed in the propagation beds and after the growth parameters started showing signs in the propagation beds, a mechanism to collect data for the different growth parameters was set up. This system was based on simple random sampling. In each of the monitored beds, at least 30% of the cuttings, i.e. 20 of the 50, were selected randomly. Each culm cutting was labelled . Thus, 60 culm cuttings were monitored during this study for 21 days after the start of their growth. Each labelled plant had its growth parameters collected daily from 7:00 am to 9:00 am. These parameters were diameter, height, number of leaves, and the number of mature sheaths on the shoots emerging from the culm cuttings. The materials used included: a folding saw for collecting cuttings, calipers for diameter measurement and double decameter for height measurement. Data was collected using a data collection sheet and imputed into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis.In Cameroon, hydroponic nft little or nothing has been done to understand the different propagation techniques of bamboo.
Considering that almost all the bamboo resources from Cameroon are collected from the wild, bamboo propagation will have major implications on the resource base and rural livelihoods. First the propagation of bamboo will help to increase the existing stock of bamboo thereby reducing pressure on the natural stock of bamboo. This will go a long way to ensure the sustainability of naturally growing bamboo stock as wanton cutting of wild bamboo forest has resulted in dwindling supplies. Secondly, bamboo propagation will encourage the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems as farmers will be given propagated bamboo plants to plant on their farms. One of the main hindrances to the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems is the unavailability of good bamboo seedlings. Bamboo agroforestry is a best practice that can help enormously in the fight against climate change, contribute to land restoration and improve livelihoods through the provision of different ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, soil fertility improvement and provisioning services like food, fodder, fuelwood, fibre and income. Thus, the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems will improve environmental sustainability while enhancing rural livelihoods. Last but not the least, bamboo propagation will allow local communities to understand that bamboo is a viable resource worth valorizing. In the past, mainly tree species especially fruit trees especially fruit trees have been propagated. The propagation of bamboo will show peasant communities that bamboo too is as valuable as tree species. Studies conducted in Cameroon by Degrande et al. , Takoutsing et al. , Takoutsing et al. and in Nepal by Yadav et al. have shown that the development of nurseries for the propagation of different species geared towards distribution to peasant communities is the surest way to ensure adoption and improve rural livelihoods. These studies were however carried out mainly on tree species with no consideration of bamboo species. Our study therefore comes in to fill this research gap.The demand for bamboo and its products is growing rapidly while supply has been dwindling due to dependence on natural bamboo resources which are reducing in stock. To bridge the gap between demand and supply of bamboo, there is an absolute need for large-scale propagation of bamboo through appropriate propagation techniques. This study was carried out to fill this research gap and ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base especially the resource base of B. vulgaris.
Findings showed that different growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris evolved almost in like manner in three propagation beds containing a similar substrate of dark soil, manure and sand in the ration 1:1:1. A follow up project will use different substrates in the three propagation beds to see the degree of variations in the growth parameters in order to propose the most appropriate propagation substrate for culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. Descriptive statistics for growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris showed little or no differences across the three shelter/propagation beds. ANOVA test statistics showed no statistically significant variation between growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris and three propagation/shelter beds, implying that the different growth parameters were relatively similar across the three propagation beds which could be attributed to the use of a similar substrate in the three propagation beds. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that an inverse relationship exists between diameter and height, diameter and number of leaves, diameter and number of sheaths implying that as diameter increases, there is a plausibility of height, number of leaves and number of sheaths decreasing and vice versa. A positive or direct relationship existed between height and number of leaves as well as height and number of sheaths, implying that as height increases, there is a plausibility of number of leaves and number of sheaths increasing and vice versa. There was also a positive or direct relationship between number of sheaths and height as well as number of sheaths and number of leaves, implying that there is a plausibility of increasing number of sheaths resulting in increasing height and number of leaves and vice versa. The existence of these direct and inverse relationships could be attributed to the rapid growth rate of bamboo, the substrate used, the species of bamboo and the duration of the data collection period. The study recommends more large-scale propagation projects of B. vulgaris in particular and other bamboo species in general in order to ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base. We are currently undertaking a follow up project where we are using different substrates in different propagation beds in order to propose the most suitable method for propagation of B. vulgaris and other bamboo species. We equally intend to do a more long term study of the growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris in order to have more concrete findings.