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DOST-FPRDI’s For. Robert A. Natividad was one of the speakers to the above group of attendees at the most recent seminar of the Carolina Bamboo Garden in Antipolo.
Conducted last March, the “16th Learn and Earn from the Bamboo Experts” was a coming together of housewives, businessmen, restaurateurs, engineers, doctors, musicians, and farmers who wanted to know how to raise bamboo and make money from it.
Natividad is the resident expert on bamboo processing and utilization technologies in the training courses organized by businesswoman Ms. Kay Gozon Jimenez. Since 2006, the seminars have inspired hundreds of bamboo enthusiasts all over the country to plant thousands of bamboo propagules in their farms and gardens.
Bamboo is one of the country’s most important non-timber forest products, with an estimated global market of USD 18 billion. Its fast growth and excellent properties make it an ideal substitute to wood for furniture, handicrafts, construction material, and chemical products.
Realizing the value of the resource, DOST-FPRDI has made bamboo processing and utilization one of its priority research and development programs.
The program seeks to develop products and technologies to maximize the use of every part of the plant; design and fabricate cost-effective machines for efficient bamboo processing; improve the properties of bamboo using advanced procedures; and transfer generated technologies to client industries and rural communities. (Rizalina K. Araral, April 20, 2017)#
