Eye on more profit

Jamshedpur, May 10: Over a thousand villagers of Maoist-hit areas of East Singhbhum can now hope to fight the scourge of unemployment with the forest department planning to introduce livelihood programmes based on lac cultivation this year.

The Dhalbhum forest division has identified four blocks — Ghatshila, Potka, Musabani and Ghurabandha — where it will start talking to villagers and introduce lac cultivation as a viable means of earning a living.

“We have decided to encourage lac cultivation because there is a huge market for the product, which the villagers can encash. With a very high number of host trees, the district holds out ample opportunity for producing lac. We will start training villagers by the end of the month,” said Sanjeev Kumar, divisional forest officer (DFO), Dhalbhum.

The programme, an independent project of the Dhalbhum division, is aimed at discouraging deforestation and pushing for non-timber forest products by using available resources.

The forest department has already identified 100 self-help groups, each with 10 members, to take up lac cultivation in East Singhbhum, the first time such an effort would be initiated in the district even though lac cultivation is an ongoing activity in neighbouring Seraikela-Kharswan district.

Lac is resin produced with the help of insects on host trees. Once a lac-host tree grows, lac cultivation is undertaken. Lac-insects, or broodlac, is left on branches of trees and within a year, the branches are laden with lac. On an average, a tree can produce 10kg lac. Research has revealed that after proper harvesting, a farmer can earn anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 from a single tree.

By the end of the month, the forest department is scheduled to select master trainers and send them across to the Namkum-based Lac Research Institute. Once they are back, the master trainers would teach fellow villagers.

“Lac cultivation is lucrative. Hence, we are trying our best to promote lac production,” said Kumar.