India is the second largest bamboo producer in the world. After agriculture, bamboo is a major sector that generates income and employment especially in the remote, rural and backward regions of the country. For the northeastern region, bamboo is an even more important and vital resource.

The bamboo stock of the north eastern region constitutes nearly 66% of the nation's bamboo assets. Bamboo is a unique and highly renewable resource with multiple uses. It is the best natural engineering material, excellent for soil management, energy efficient and excellent in carbon sequestration. It provides direct benefits in income and employment in rural and backward region at all levels ranging from plantation, artisan use, primary processing and downstream industrial activities. More than 70% traditional housing uses bamboo as an important structural material.

The NMBA, a constituent of NECTAR, has been intensively engaged in the development of new technologies and applications in the bamboo sector for promoting rapid industrialization in the field. The scope of work has ranged from better technologies for propagation and cultivation of bamboo to its varied industrial uses in areas such as bamboo composite boards, pre-fabricated buildings and structures, bamboo furniture, stick making, charcoal production, gasification and products such as health and hygiene solutions, thermo-plastic composites, vinegar etc.

These initiatives have paved the way for industrialization of the sector and have been responsible for raising the income levels and providing employment to a large number of people in the poor and backward regions of the country.

To promote awareness and knowledge of the technologies and applications in the bamboo sector among entrepreneurs, users and institutions, NECTAR has documented and produced a large number of monographs, reports, manuals and other printed material on many subjects relating to the bamboo sector.

The list of these documents and publications is given below: