Preferential Use of Bamboos for Industrial Production of Incense Sticks

Abstract

The incense stick or agarbatti stick is used exclusively for religious purposes in almost every home in India, but now it is being used worldwide for its medicinal values. Bamboo, popularly known as green gold or poor man’s timber, is a multipurpose, fast-growing woody species, which occupies an essential place in the people’s diverse phases of life and culture. The primary concern of the different stakeholders of the bamboo sector is identifying the right choice of raw material to maximize incense sticks’ production. On the other hand, the market functionaries take advantage of farmers’ lack of knowledge of the demand–supply situation and make substantial margin money. Therefore, the paper evaluates the preference for the notable species, age, and the part of the culm of bamboo used for the industrial production of incense sticks. In Tripura, India, the investigation indicated that all study parameters were significantly different among the species, viz., Bambusa polymorpha, Bambusa vulgaris, Bambusa cacherensis, Bambusa tulda, Bambusa balcooa, Melocanna baccifera, Dendrocalamus asper, and Dendrocalamus longispathus. Among the bamboo species, Bambusa tulda is the most preferred one having a mean Likert scale of 4.89, followed by Dendrocalamus longispathus (4.06), B. cacharensis (3.54), B. polymorpha (3.50), etc. The most preferred age of bamboo culm is three-year-old culm (4.32), followed by four- and two-year-old culms. Therefore, it can be concluded that the middle portion of three-year-old culms of B. tulda should be preferably harvested to become the raw material for the agarbatti industry for better outturn and profit.