Bamboo Rice Farming, Cultivation Practices

Bamboo Rice Farming:

Bamboo Rice is the ripened seed or ripened fruit of the Bamboo tree or else Bamboo rice is the fruit of Bamboo trees. The Bamboo rice is produced after flowering stage followed by fruiting. It is special rice that is produced from a dying Bamboo shoot. Many of us are unaware of this Bamboo Rice, What is Bamboo Rice made out of, Bamboo Rice Cultivation, Health benefits of bamboo, How to identify the Bamboo Rice shoot and other queries related to Bamboo Rice and Bamboo Rice Cultivation. Therefore, in this mostly we have come up with all the information about bamboo Rice and Bamboo Rice farming.

Bamboo is a tree that may grow even up to 60 to 100 years. It is one of the perennial trees. However, the Bamboo tree flowers only at the stage before it dies. But, the Bamboo tree undergoes mass flowering or gregarious flowering at the age before dying. The edible nature of the bamboo rice or bamboo fruits is identified from some tribal areas where tribal people used to eat bamboo rice. Bamboo Rice is a seed that is formed from the flower of the Bamboo tree before the end of its lifespan.

Bamboo Rice Tree

• Bamboo Rice Plant is a woody tree with a hollow stem having internodes which are divided by nodes known as Culms.
• The leaves are slender, thin having long leaf margin.
• However, the leaf pattern may show small variations among the various Bamboo species.
• The Botanical name of Bamboo Tree is Phyllostachysbambusoides.
• It is commonly seen in countries like India, China, Myanmar and most of the south Asian countries.
• There are almost 1250 species with 70 to 75 genre of Bamboo trees.
• It can grow up to 40 to 45 m height.

Untold Bamboo Rice – Story:

The flowers are a rare variety of seeds similar to Rice or cereal grains hence the name Bamboo Rice. It came to known from the tribal areas of Kerala nearest to Kanyakumari Forest ranges of Wayanad Sanctuary. The Wayanad sanctuary where some tribal people lives is a rich habitat for Bamboo trees in India. Bamboo Rice harvesting and selling is a major source of income for some groups of the tribe. Many of them used to have Bamboo Rice as medicine also from which it became famous.

Read: Importance of Bee Pollination in Agriculture.

How Bamboo Rice Tastes:

Bamboo Rice seems like Paddy seeds and tastes alike to Wheat.

Bamboo Rice Tree Propagation:

Bamboo is mostly propagated using stems. The selected Bamboo tree for bamboo rice shoots are cut down at specific areas and planted into the soil and it gives rise to the new Bamboo tree.

The flowering of Bamboo Rice Tree: Almost all the Bamboo trees undergo flowering stage only before its death or before completion of its lifecycle. The lifecycle of Bamboo trees may vary up to 120 years of age. The bamboo rice is only produced after the flowering stage. Even many Botanists or scientists are unaware of this phenomenon of Bamboo Rice trees.

Bamboo Rice Farming:

We can grow bamboo trees on our farm. Red soils are most suitable for Bamboo rice cultivation. However, we can also grow them on varied type of soils. In addition, we can also grow Bamboo trees as border crops that act as an effective windbreak in Fruit orchards and other commercial gardens. When we go for complete Bamboo rice cultivation, it is good to go for 5m X 5m spacing range. At the age of harvesting of approximately 35 to 40 years, the bamboo Rice Farmer can get 5 to 5 tonnes per ha land. The species Melaconnabambusoidesflowers and fruits at the age of 30 to 32 years.

Harvesting in Bamboo Rice Farming:

Harvesting is done after fruit setting or after ripening of the seeds. There are also some developed verities where we can go for 2 to 3 harvestings. Harvesting is done by cutting the whole culm from the bottom and cutting the profuse flowered areas at the top of the Bamboo shoot. The flowers are suspended from the tops of the shoots at the age of harvesting. The reason for the mass mortality of Bamboo tree after flowering is unknown.

Bamboo Rice Processing:

The debris of flowers is removed after harvesting and sundried. The Bamboo rice or Bamboo fruits are collected and polishing is done even though it may not be necessary. It is further stored as similar to the storage procedure of cereal grains.

Bamboo Rice Plant Names:

Bamboo tree is called by various names in different areas. It is known as Mulyari in Hindi, Moongil in Tamil, etc..

Bamboo Rice tree species suitable for bamboo Rice cultivation

• Phyllostachysbambusoides
• Bambusa vulgaris
• Bambusabalcooa
• Dendrocalamusstocksii

Bamboo Rice Recipes:

• There are almost 80 to 90 recipes of Bamboo Rice.
• We can cook various types of food recipes using Bamboo Rice as similar to Cereal crops.
• Bamboo Rice Kheer which is made as similar as Rice Kheer.
• Bamboo Rice Pongal or Bamboo Rice Kitchidi.
• Bamboo Rice Upma.
• In addition, you can also cook non-vegetarian recipes with Bamboo Rice.

Health Benefits of Bamboo Rice:

There are many health benefits of Bamboo rice by which it became famous and prominent in the recent past. There are also many reasons to have Bamboo Rice in our daily diet. However, the health benefits of Bamboo Rice is known from the tribal areas of India where they used to eat bamboo rice during illness and suffering from various diseases. Below are some of the health benefits of eating Bamboo Rice in the recent past.

• Tribes and tribal people in Kanyakumari forests do eat Bamboo Rice in order to overcome their fertility problems in them.
• The protein content in Bamboo rice is higher than Wheat and Rice.
• Bamboo Rice heals joint pains, rheumatic pains and back pains, etc.
• It is the healthiest option to cure diabetics in some tribal regions.
• It is a good nutrient treasure for babies above 5 years.
• It controls the cholesterol levels in the human body.
• Bamboo Rice is a good source of Vitamin B6.
• It has the lowest or no amount of fat contents.
• Bamboo Rice is a good detoxification agent and also improve the reproductive health of the human body.
• Bamboo Rice also improves appetite and improves digestion.
• It is fiber-free rice.
• It contains good amounts of Ca and Sulphur.
• In addition, it also has anti-diabetic properties.

Disadvantages of Eating Bamboo Rice:

• There are fewer disadvantages or side effects of eating Bamboo Rice as compared to the benefits.
• It may be harmful or undigested if not cooked properly before eating.
• It is not good to feed the Bamboo Rice to the Children regularly below 10 years.
• Avoid feeding Bamboo rice to children below 6 years.

Conclusion: This is all about Bamboo Rice farming and the Benefits of Bamboo Rice in India. Bamboo Rice Cultivation may not be popular in our country, but knowing its health benefits, the bamboo rice may become a famous food across the country like some other varieties of Rice. One can also go for commercial cultivation of Bamboo Rice in large areas to earn huge profits in Agrifarming Business.

Read: Community Gardening Ideas.