Superbamboo to combat desertification and poverty

The drought-resistant bamboo species, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, can successfully be used for erosion control and windbreaks. It is an efficient tool in the combat of desertification and, because of its numerous applications and high economic value, it has a lot of potentials to alleviate poverty.

Oxytenanthera abyssinica is rarely managed systematically, but weeding of newly established clumps, and removal of overhead shade, is recommended.

Spacing of nursery raised seedlings has been 3.8 m × 3.8 m or 5 m × 5 m in experiments and in arboreta. In mixed plantations with hardwood trees the spacing is 6 m × 6 m.

Clumps take up to 6 years (from rhizome offsets) or 8 years (from seedlings) to reach the stem harvesting stage.

From the third year, thinning (50% of shoots from previous years) appeared justified in a planted stand in Kenya, because individual stems were smaller when stem numbers were high.

A pure stand of Oxytenanthera abyssinica contains up to 750 clumps and 30,000 stems per hectare.

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With great pleasure I recommend the visitors of my blog to take a look at the website and to do a Google-search on 'Oxytenanthera abyssinica' for more info about this fantastic bamboo.

Johan van de Ven and I are convinced that this superbamboo can play a remarkable role in the combat of desertification. Its economic value can lead to an extraordinary improvement of the standards of living of the rural population in Asia, Africa and South America.