Agartala: India's first course in value addition to bamboo products, intended to meet demands of the international market, will be introduced in Tripura University in collaboration with the textile ministry's Bamboo and Cane Development Institute (BCDI), officials said here on Monday.

"The theoretical part of the post-graduate diploma course would be conducted in the university campuses while the practical and hands-on training part would be done at the BCDI under the guidance of foreign experts," university Vice-Chancellor Arunoday Saha told reporters.

According to Saha, bamboo technology and design experts from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan would conduct the training.

The Tripura University, which was conferred central university status in July 2007, Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BCDI to conduct the one-year course from the 2010-11 academic year.

"The new course would be industry- and job-oriented. After completion of the course the students would be able to prepare value-added bamboo products, which would be consumer and demand driven," BCDI officials said.

They said that the value addition and designing would be aimed at meeting the demands of international market.

"Bamboo products of life style, domestic and products useful in everyday life have extreme demand in the national and international markets," said R.K. Shrivastava, executive director of National Centre for Design and Product Development (NCDPD), another wing of the union textiles ministry.

"Proper use of bamboo resources with the use of modern technology can give a big boost to the economy of the northeast India as apart from the domestic market, there is tremendous potential for exporting bamboo products, particularly to European countries and the US," he said.

Of the 1,250 bamboo species throughout the world, India has 145. Bamboo forests in India occupy approximately 10.03 million hectares, which constitutes almost 12.8 percent of the total forest area of the country. About 28 percent of the total bamboo area of the country is located in northeast India.

"The distribution of species and the quantity of bamboos, however, is uneven and more than 50 percent of the bamboo species and 66 percent of growing stock, out of about 80.42 million tones, occurs in northeast India," an official document said.

"There are about 1,500 documented applications of bamboos. The major ones are use in building materials, agricultural implements, furniture, musical instruments, food items, handicrafts, large bamboo based industries (paper pulp, rayon etc.) and packaging." IANS