ROBERT E. PERDUE, JR.
ROBERT E. PERDUE is a botanist in the Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland.
Bamboo has long been recognized as an acceptable raw material for the manufacture of paper. Utilization research increasingly indicates that this resource is not only well adapted to the production of most usual types of paper but is also suitable for the manufacture of special papers not readily produced from traditional raw materials. The unique physical and chemical properties of bamboo are responsible for technological problems that remain partly or completely unsolved. These problems are not insurmountable and additional utilization research, when justified, should lead to their solution.
Today there is great interest in the increased use of bamboo. Its acceptable technological properties, rapid growth, apparent ease of propagation, relatively short time required for new plantings to reach full production, and apparent high yield have fostered an image of bamboo as a potential gold mine for many areas with inadequate domestic sources of fibrous raw materials.
A recent FAO study1 reviews the role of bamboo in eastern Asia. The report elucidates the importance of this resource and recognizes the contribution that it can make to this area when more fully developed. Undoubtedly, bamboo holds similar promise for other areas with similar problems and similar environmental conditions.
1FAO. Timber trends and prospects in the Asia-Pacific region. Geneva, 1961.
Current interest in bamboo is directed partly toward the expansion and utilization of existing stands and partly toward the development of such a resource where bamboo does not grow or is not abundant. This interest exists in such widely different regions as the warm-temperate coastal plain of the southeastern United States and tropical areas of southeastern Asia.
The key bamboo problem today is production, The questions that arise are as simple as their answers will prove complex. Wherever consideration is given to the expansion or establishment of bamboo production the foremost questions are: Is this the most economical source of raw material? How will it compete with other raw materials? What species are best suited to large-scale production under local conditions? What are the most economical procedures for establishing new plantations? What practices must be adopted to assure sustained and profitable yields?
Biological and agricultural data now available are insufficient to provide a full and final assessment of the practicability of greatly increased production of bamboo. Much research is needed; but action cannot be postponed while waiting for research that might take 20 to 30 years. On the other hand, serious research on bamboo must not be postponed indefinitely simply because its major contributions may be remote.
Although many questions pertaining to bamboo production cannot be answered, a wealth of information, probably far more than is generally realized, is available. There is much of value in the literature although many seemingly original papers offer little more than a restatement of facts published previously. A great portion of the bamboo literature is published in European languages and thus is available to most researchers. But an appreciable part is published in other languages, especially Japanese, and for all practical purposes is unavailable.2 A perusal of the current literature reveals that little of the knowledge gained by Japanese investigators is available to the West and most western workers are entirely unaware of the research progress reported by the Japanese. Recent summary publications create the false impression that the bamboos are purely tropical plants, for all practical purposes limited in distribution to the Indian subcontinent and nearby areas. Western literature offers relatively little evidence of the importance of bamboo in the economy of the Chinese and the Japanese.
2An Important exception is the recently published work (in English) of Dr. KOICHIRO UEDA, ,Professor of Forestry at Kyoto University, Studies on the physiology of bamboo. Resources Bureau Reference Data No. 34, Science and Technics Agency, Prime Minister's Office, Tokyo, Japan, July 1960.
There must be much unpublished data available thanks to the experience and in the records of foresters and agricultural workers in countries where bamboo is an important component of the vegetation. For example, annual and field reports of many forest offices in areas well endowed with bamboo should prove valuable sources of such information.
Information is the answer to the bamboo problem. While new research must be initiated to produce critical data presently unavailable, full use must now be made of existing information. A program must be established to satisfy this need. The immediate objectives, by means of the establishment of an information service, should be:
1. to compile, evaluate, and collate all published and unpublished data on bamboo agriculture and forestry;2. to disseminate existing information through publication and other forms of communication
A great quantity of literature from many fields of agricultural and related sciences must be consulted. Translation from Japanese, Chinese, and perhaps other literature into English or another widely used language will be essential. It will be necessary to explore many unpublished sources and to seek out unrecorded information by direct contact with agriculturists and foresters throughout the world.
Merely to amass a voluminous quantity of information serves only the curiosity of the collector. The accumulated data must be critically studied and discriminatingly sifted. Important facets must be collated and evaluated. The gleanings must be organized into a form that can be expanded as new data become available and be made readily accessible. A well-organized mass of information will define the state of our knowledge and will serve as a basis for the development of new ideas.
The final objective of any information program is dissemination. In this case it is very evident that two methods of dissemination are essential: publication and consultation.
A comprehensive annotated and indexed bibliography is needed. Such a contribution with carefully prepared abstracts will lead the researcher directly to sources with original ideas and allow him to avoid the many seemingly original publications that contribute little or nothing new.
There is also a critical need for an authoritative compendium of information on the agriculture and general biology of bamboo. This work must be carefully compiled to make available in a single volume the most important knowledge. Such a compendium will be of. immediate practical value by making information readily available. Experience gained in its preparation will help point the way to the type of research needed and where it should be initiated.
Today, specialists with wide experience in bamboo biology, production, and utilization are urgently needed in many areas. A well-qualified consultant can be of useful assistance to those concerned with bamboo-production problems. A specialist can serve in an advisory capacity to agencies interested in the development or extension of bamboo resources by studying local and regional problems and by recommending the most logical approach on the basis of experience and available information. He can serve as a co-ordinator of geographically separated research programs. Such a consultant will become aware of critical voids in our knowledge and will be well qualified to recommend and plan essential research.
It is doubtful whether an adequately qualified biologist is available to serve as an adviser in this field.
While many individuals have had considerable experience with bamboo, their experience has in one way or another been limited to restricted aspects of the problem. As far as can be determined, no biologist has bridged the gap between the temperate and the tropical bamboos. No biologist has had sufficient experience with these two distinctly different bamboos to determine to what extent knowledge of one is applicable to the other.
A consultant or a consulting team should be developed to fill this void. The development of such specialists can most effectively be accomplished hand-in-hand with the development of an information program. An individual or a small group of individuals can advantageously be invested with the responsability for accumulation of information, its formal dissemination through publication, and its informal dissemination through consultation.
Although much can be accomplished by making better use of existing information, the full potential of bamboo as a raw material can be realized only through the development of a well-planned long-range research program. The research needs are many. Perhaps most critical are those revolving around the immediate necessity for improvement of cultural and management practices leading to increased production. Ultimately, research must determine to what extent bamboo is adapted to various areas where new raw materials are needed and what species are best adapted. It must determine how bamboo can fit into the raw material supplies of those areas to which it is well adapted.
Among "the most promising measures to ensure that bamboo plays its full part in the promotion of the welfare of the region," the FAO study already mentioned includes "the regional co-ordination of research and exchange of information relating to bamboo culture..." Such a measure can and should be a sound outgrowth of the full development of the information program suggested. This program will not only contribute immediately to a solution of the bamboo problem and point the way to the most critical research needs; it will also provide a sound basis for planning and carrying out that research.
It appears that no existing agency is vested with the authority or provided with the means to undertake a program of such international scope as that indicated here. Such a program will provide an exceptional opportunity for the initiative of a foundation or international body dedicated to the advancement of agricultural progress.
Comments in this article are directed specifically toward the development of a program concerned primarily with increasing the supply of bamboo. This program could concurrently encompass the field of utilization. However, production is the factor that most seriously limits the increased use of bamboo, especially for paper manufacture, and special attention should be devoted to that problem.
