Mechanization of Lac Cultivation

Lac, a natural resin, is the secretion and protective covering of tiny lac insect species mainly of Kerria genus. Lac is produced in India, Thailand, Indonesia and China. Butea monosperma (palas), Zizyphus mauritiana (ber) and Schleichera oleosa (kusum) are the major commercial lac host trees in India. Mostly tribals of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, W.B., Maharashtra, M.P., Orissa, Gujarat and Assam carry out lac production. About 3 million people are involved in lac production in India. On an average, India produces 20 thousand tons of lac per year. It is an export-oriented product and 75–80% of India's total production is exported, which earns about $ 30 millions as foreign exchange annually. The lac production involves operations like-pruning of host trees, bundling of broodlac twigs, tying of broodlac on trees for infestation, removal of used up broodlac sticks (phunki) from trees, harvesting of crop and lac scraping. These operations are carried out manually with the help of locally available traditional tools i.e. pruning knife, axe, sickle etc. Lac production operations involve climbing on trees. Pruning, tying of broodlac bundles on host tree at different places. Harvesting and spraying of pesticides are done by men, while bundling and selection of broodlac, collection of phunki, collection of harvested lac sticks and scraping of lac encrustation from twigs etc. are carried out by women. To reduce drudgery and to improve the work output of the lac farmers, equipments/machines i.e. Tree pruner, Broodlac placement tool, phunki hook, Hand operated lac scraper, Pedal operated lac scraper and Motor operated lac scraper, have been designed and developed which are discussed in the paper.