Traditional systems of bamboo management in some villages of upper Brahmaputra valley of Assam, Northeast India.

摘要

Assam in the north east of India is endowed with around 42 species of bamboo (Barooah and Borthakur, 2003) which are deeply associated with the cultural, economic and social aspects of life in the region. Growing bamboo in home gardens and groves is an age old practice in the villages of Assam. In homesteads, bamboos are grown in the back yards and in the periphery of the holdings which are mostly clump forming (Nath etal, 2009a). In most of the households, bamboo is considered as a secondary sourceof income; an investment for rainy days. Nath et al. (2009b) has reported the management systems associated with bamboo homegardens in Cachar district in the Barak Valley. In fact, cultivation and management of bamboo is also a common traditional systemeven in the upper Brahmaputra Valley; but poorly understood. Traditional knowledge based systems are generally valuable as they are established based on long term successful practices. However, before incorporation of traditional knowledge and practicesfor the development of programmes for the promotion of any crop, systematic assessment of such knowledge for their validity and relevance is required (Chandrashekara, 1996). Thus an attempt has been made here to analyse the scientific validity of certaintraditional bamboo management practices prevailing in the upper Brahmaputra Valley region.