Starter Kit. Idea 448 of 500. Cluster 23
Bamboo grown on degraded land and made into flooring, panels and furniture for export
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home. Much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe transport, working hours) can be sold as a service, and the industries that would employ it can be built.
The first step
Find a landowner with degraded land who would plant bamboo under a shared agreement, and ask the Forest Department which kinds grow well there. Buy finished bamboo panels as samples and show them to furniture makers and builders here. Ask what they would pay for the same, made locally. The proof is a written agreement for the land and one buyer's letter of interest.
- Who pays first
- A furniture maker or builder who wants a hard, light material for floors and panels at a steady price.
- What leaves today
- Degraded land earns nothing; bamboo grown on it and made into panels here leaves as finished goods, not raw material.
Ask first
- Forest Department. Ask which bamboo kinds suit the land and whether harvesting or transport needs a permit.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers abroad look for bamboo flooring and panels.
Check before you spend
Confirm the right to use the land in writing, any permit for cutting and moving bamboo, and the standard export buyers expect.
Find out these three numbers
- How long before planted bamboo can first be harvested?
- What price do buyers pay for bamboo panels?
- What machinery does a small panel workshop need?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.