Kokrajhar, Feb. 22: A group of young farmers in Chirang district have taken up cultivation of lac ( Ziziphus mauritiana) on plum trees in the river bank areas in a big way.

Starting in 2014, the cultivation has already yielded the desired result much to the delight of the farmers.

Dominic Basumatary, chairman of Aie Valley Lac Producers and Allied Agro Marketing Cooperative Society Limited, who started cultivation of lac in his residential compound, said the society has cultivated lac in some villages of Chirang district and had expansion plans.

He said an group of eight young farmers, all members of the society, had received training in lac cultivation at the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Technical experts from the institute also visited the sites of lac production in Chirang and said the region had huge potential, Basumatary said.

He said the society would receive 1.5 tonnes of broodlac from the institute, which would be distributed among 150 farmers of the area.

He said the people of the region had no idea about lac culture though it had a vast potential in the area and could help to reduce the problem of unemployment in the region.