Bamboo Utilization Practices And Challenges Of Cottage Industries The Case Of Selected Towns In Ethiopia

Large amount of bamboo resource is found in both highland and lowland areas of Ethiopia. Even though the uses of bamboo stems culms are numerous its utilization in Ethiopia has been limited due to lack of awareness about bamboo resource utilization scarce technologies scientific knowledge about the species and its susceptibility to biological and physical deterioration. This study is therefore intended to describe the current status and constraints of bamboo furniture producing industries. The survey was done by adopting purposive sampling procedure in selected citiestowns. Snowball sampling was used for this study due to absence of registered information on Bamboo industries. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected mainly from primary sources. Closed and open ended structured questionnaires were used for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied to calculate frequency and other tests of significance. The study found that bamboo was one of the most neglected sector and its industries have low capacity and produce low quality of furniture products due to various barriers. Lack of training on improved bamboo technologies for drying and treatment during processing and producing furniture was found by survey result. Moreover the most common problems confronted were the borer attack on bamboo furniture and raw materials shortage of production space and lack of capacity with regard to toolsmachine and finance. The study implied the need to intervene and train bamboo cottage industries practitioners on improved bamboo technologies and capacity building.