Budaya
Bamboo Culture in the South Pacific
Bamboo Culture in the South Pacific
By F.A. McCLURE
Section of Plant Introduction, United States Department of Agriculture
THE possible impact of the introduction of bamboo culture on the future economy of areas such as the Pacific islands is a matter deserving serious consideration. The importance of bamboo in the economic life of people in large areas of the Eastern Hemisphere and the steady emergence of bamboo into certain certain phases of modern industrial development such as paper making and the fabrication of laminated bamboo products, not to mention the large potential (and at present very inadequately supplied) market in the United States for bamboo in diverse forms for interior finish, handicrafts, prefabricated picket fences, etc., leads to the assumption that bamboo might be used as an effective means of improving the domestic economy of the Pacific island peoples.
This article has appeared in the January 1956 issue of the Quarterly Bulletin of the South Pacific Commission, an advisory and consultative body set up in 1947 by the six goverments responsible for the administration of Island Territories in the South Pacific region (Australia France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America). The commission’s purpose is to recommend to the Member Goverments means of promoting the well-being of the people of these territories. It is concerned with social, economic and health matters. Its headquarters are at Noumea, New Caledonia.
Bamboo occupies such an important place in the human economy of some regions, particularly in southeast Asia and adjacent islands, that the majority of the people would be utterly destitute without it. In vast areas, bamboo is the one material that is sufficiently cheap and plentiful to fill the tremendous need for economical housing. It is at the same time so versatile that from it are made hundreds of objects in daily use in the home and in the pursuit of a livelihood. Moreover, it requires no elaborate and costly machinery for its harvesting, or transportation, or for the manufacture from it of the thousand and one articles that fill the needs of the people. The general utility knife that every man possesses serves for all but the most refined operations.
The exploration of the potentialities of bamboo as an expanding resource for the Pacific island peoples calls for judgment based on past experience in numerous fields or disciplines, and for exploratory activities of several kinds.
The number of localities and their degree of dispersion as well as the total area in which operations may be undertaken will be determined by the funds and personnel time that may be allotted to the enterprise. The actual selection of particular communities and areas will require a careful consideration of ecological and economic settings. These must be evaluated in terms of immediate needs and calculated potentialities. Immediate needs may relate to the land: need of conservation of soil and water, need to improve existing patterns of utilization, etc. immediate needs may characterize the state of the population: need of new sources
Importat consideration of limiting factors
Limiting factors must be weighed. Among these will be the nature and extent of the land area available to a given community. Low annual precipitation, inadequately developed (geologically young) soil, and high salinity are apt to be encountered frequently. Any one of these factors could exclude the possibility of growing bamboo. It is not possible, however, to give the precise boundary at which each alone, or any combination of them may operate to block the successful cultivation of bamboo or make its trial inadvisable. There are indications that certain bamboos will tolerate unrecorded extremes of drought: dendrocalamus strictus, Bambusa vulgaris and B. ventricosa, for example. The degree of tolerance to salinity that any bamboo may display has not been studied. It is presumed, however that initial activities will be undertaken where the conditions at least appear to be favorable.
As a first step, a survey to determine the identity, condition, abundance and utility of the bamboos already introduced in the Pacific islands would be of the greatest value. This information would obviate the waste involved in introducing valuable kinds already locally available. A perspective comparable to some years of actual experience could be developed by an on the spot study of the history of their introduction and the present state of the plants, as well as the nature, extent and success of their exploitation in the local economy.
The chances for improving land-use patterns, and local opportunities for utilizing bamboo, will vary from area to area.
The cultivation of bamboo is closely related to the needs of the land. Oriental bamboo growers claim that the technical properties and lasting qualities of a given bamboo are generally superior when the plants are grown on soil of somewhat inferior fertility. They counsel against fertilizing a bamboo plant that is grown for its culms alone. From this it is to be inferred that it may be undesirable, as well as economically unsound, to utilize the most fertile agricultural lands for the cultivation of bamboos for timber production.
In the cultivation of tropical bamboos for the production of edible shoots, friability of the soil is of greater importance than fertility. The annual operations of clump renovation and subsequent hilling up of the earth around the base of the clump to etiolate the shoots are performed with greater ease and effectiveness if the soil is not too heavy. The application of prescribed soil amendments at the right times and in the right amounts to get maximum yield and quality is elsewhere considered a sound and economical practice. But it must be tested afresh under each new or distinct combination of ecological, economic and human factors.
Very little has been written about the potentialities of bamboo as a stabilizer of soil and controller of runoff from the angle of soil and water conservation or watershed stabilization. The dense shade cast by the plants keeps competition from weedy growth to a minimum. The abundant annual leaf-falls develops a deep mulch under the plants. This conserves moisture, contributes to the development of favorable conditions for the building of good soil, and promotes normal development of the plant. Furthermore, the culms may be harvested without seriously disturbing the mulch or the soil. I know of no other type of plant growth that can yield an annual crop and at the same time serve as an effective year-round long-term protector of watershieds.
Considering bamboo as it relates to the needs of the people, it will be useful to study the exploitation of bamboos from two distinct angles: that of present and potential uses in the immediate community, and that of export possibilities. Uses important in one cultural or economic setting might be viewed with no more than curiosity by persons from another milieu. Objects that have no use, application or value in the place where they are fabricated may bring a substantial price if exported to another area where either the bamboos are lacking or the essential skills have not been acquired, or labor costs are too high.
Uses for island fishermen
Island peoples often make a living from fishing. By virtue of its versatility bamboo can supply a great many of the fisherman’s needs. This has been demonstrated dramatically by the Chinese. If one looks up names relating to fishing in a Chinese dictionary it will be found that a great many of these complex terms (ideographs and pictographs) contain the symbol for bamboo. This fact signifies that even before their names were first reduced to writing, bamboo was employed in the making of the devices themselves. To mention only a few of them: traps, weirs, sluices, barriers, poles for hook-and-line fishing, spears, sea-anchors, floats, trays and poles for drying fish and baskets for transporting them, netting needles, poles for drying nets, punting poles, scaff-or dip-nets, including karojals, salambas, etc. the dredges, punting-poles, sieves and sea-anchors of oriental clam-dredging equipment are all made of bamboo.
Other uses may interest other sections of the population. Living plants of bamboo with suitable growth habit may be used for hedges, screens and windbreaks. Culms from certain bamboos may be used for to build houses, granaries, bridges, fences, corrals; furniture and household utensils of all descriptions; rain gutters and water conducting pipes. They can supply withies for the fabrication of cables, both heavy and light, and woven ware such as basketry, matting, sieves and trays. Coarser strips make sturdy crates for shipping pigs and poultry and garden produce; excelsior-like scrapings serve for stuffing pillows and mattresses, for caulking boats and toughening plaster. Refined fibres yield cellulose for paper or rayon; crude fibres are used for making cordage and sandals. Poles of various sizes are used for making ladders, lining-out poles, stakes for supporting trees, tool handles, rakes and miscellaneous garden needs.
Uses for foliage
The foliage of many bamboo is used as a major or supplementary source of fodder and bedding for livestock. The unopened leaves are used to make a cooling tea, probably rich in vitamin C. the branches of certain kinds make excellent brooms for outdoor sweeping. The culm sheaths, when of suitable size and texture, find many uses: lining sun-and rain-stopping hats, awnings and shipping baskets, and for making sandals. In india, the hard, even-grained rhizome of a conmmon species of Dendrocalamus is used to make polo balls.
An objective shich will have validity and pertinence, in the light of the foregoing observations, is that of locating and assembling an ample array of those kinds of bamboos that give promise of thriving here and there under given local conditions, and at the same time present technical characters that fit them for exploitation somewhere along the wide range of uses that has been cited.
Once established under favorable environmental conditions, bamboos generally require little or no attention beyond occasional thinning to keep the clumps in vigorous condition. If they are sufficiently well adapted, they will not die from lack of care, and they will always be there for experimental studies, propagation, and for future use if and when changing conditions or new technical developments open the way for additional channels of exploitation. It seems reasonable to suggest that living collections should be studied in a wide variety of ecological conditions, keeping in mind the dual function (production and conservation) as well as the basic principles of land utilization. After production has become commensurate with the local needs it may be desirable to undertake to supply outside demands as well.
Sumber : http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5380e/x5380e03.htm
