Bamboo is usually associated with Asia.

But Samoa is now growing bamboo in trials that could see it become a valuable new crop to supplement the country’s agricultural produce.

Clement Paligaru: They gently sway in the breeze that sweeps across Samoa's main island of Upolu.

Only a handful of bamboo groves are found here. But a growing number of Samoans believe these tall members of the grass family could hold the key to future prosperity.

Semau Iakopo, farmer: People like me, the poor one, can use it to fix a chair or table You can make money and you build your own house with bamboo.

Clement Paligaru: The high cost of importing timber for construction is forcing Samoans to consider alternatives.

Semau Iakopo: There are no other trees in our forest to make timbers, house.

Dr Walter Vermeulen, Matuaileoo Environment Trust Incorporated: Samoa like many other Pacific countries have exhausted their hardwoods so we are importing timber from overseas, made in New Zealand, at an increasing pace over the last 10 years.

Clement Paligaru: A group of regional and non-government organisations, in partnership with the University of the South Pacific, is exploring the potential of a new bamboo industry for Samoa.

Dr Walter Vermeulen: You can use the bamboo just as is for construction material or as furniture making material. But, one of the more exciting things is to make chipboard, and compress the bamboo chips and make all kinds of building materials out of it.

Michael Sweedman, tissue culture technician: It's a good building material that requires relatively less processing than softwoods like pine or certainly hardwoods.

Clement Paligaru: Bamboo is also fast growing.

Michael Sweedman: This one popped out of the ground a week ago. They do grow up to a foot per day.

Dr Walter Vermeulen: It is probably the ideal climate for bamboo to grow. Bamboo of course is a grass so it grows prolifically and it keeps growing for up to 100 years so it is an ideal crop for sustainable development.

Semau Iakopo: These are very easy plants to grow, to transplant. Less than five years. But plant for the trees for the timbers, 20 years - more than that.

Clement Paligaru: Bamboo can become a weed but Samoa is trialling clumping species, not the damaging running bamboo.

Dr Walter Vermeulen: Our immediate objective is to plant a critical mass of bamboo so that we would be in a position to say, within so many years, we can guarantee so many cubic feet of bamboo per year. And then, of course, we have the next step, of creating an industry.

Michael Sweedman: We'll take a section of the plant, a nodal cutting.

Clement Paligaru: Scientists at the University of the South Pacific's Alafua Campus in Samoa are researching building stocks of suitable bamboo species using tissue culture.

Michael Sweedman: You can use this tissue culture, micro-propagation to create exponentially larger numbers of plants.

Clement Paligaru: In the sterile laboratory, the cuttings are cleaned and prepared; the healthiest stem sections are chosen and cultivated, not in soil but in culture. It's a way of breeding consistent varieties for farmers. It's also insurance against disease in the field.

Michael Sweedman: Samoa used to produce the majority of the world's taro. It was their primary export and they went down to single figures - percentages - within a few years of the taro blight coming in. We're trying to prevent that happening with bamboo by being able to have clean germ lines stored within the laboratory.

Clement Paligaru: Not far from the Samoan capital, a farmer's co-operative at Vailele is trialling bamboo on .4 hectare plantation. These plants will be ready for harvest in another year.

How long did this one take to plant?
Semau Iakopo: Oh only two years - very fast

Clement Paligaru: The villagers are already propagating more from this grove.

Dr Walter Vermeulen: The simple investment of a couple of hundred tala and setting up a quarter acre, or half an acre, one acre, of bamboo which in the long run, within seven to 10 years, will give the farmer a regular income for very little work of maintenance.

Semau Iakopo: I am going to make my house of bamboo. To show all the people of Samoa.