Jacaranda Integrated Agro-industry, a local company engaged in agricultural husbandry, has started germinating 100,000 bamboo seedlings to be distributed to farmers.

The seedlings are germinated at a nursery in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Regional State. Jacaranda is growing the seedlings with Real Green Vision Generation Ethiopia, a local charity organisation that works on improving vegetation coverage on the areas affected by erosion to rehabilitate the environment. The agreement between the two parties relies on an equal share of the 100,000 transplantation seedlings.

The project aims at expanding lowland bamboo plantations in areas that are exposed to erosion and making it possible for farmers to generate income by selling the seedlings, according to Belete Mamo, founder and executive director of Real Green Vision, which was established in 2017 and then re-established two years later.

Bamboo is known for being fast-growing, easy to work with, strong, straight, light, combined with extraordinary hardness and range of size. It is also suitable for several purposes and can be used at all levels of industrial activity including small craft-based industries.

"There is a high imbalance between demand and supply in the bamboo agribusiness in Ethiopia,” said Demelash Wogayehu, founder and manager of Jacaranda, which was established in 2008 with paid-up capital of 30 million Br.

In the partnership, Real Green Vision will train staff in bamboo seedling preparation on nursery sites and implantation and expand the number of preparation nursery sites. It also pays fees for the workers and staff who are working on the site of bamboo seedling preparation.

Jacaranda’s role is reserving and availing land for nursery sites for bamboo seedling preparation and expanding nursery sites of bamboo seedling preparation in the Arsi Zone, Dodota Wereda. Out of the 15ha Jacaranda possesses, 850Sqm of it is dedicated for the germination of bamboo seedlings. Jacaranda secured the land from the Arsi Zone on a rural land rent basis, which is 115 Br a hectare for 20 years.

In the preparation of four nursery sites, more than 100 previously unemployed people have benefited directly from the project. From these, 30 are working at the site in Jacaranda, which previously exported to Yemen and Oman and generated 17.5 million Br. However, political instability in the country pushed the company to quit working until it restarted the business last year.