RAIPUR: The Government of Chhattisgarh to encourage the farmers for lac cultivation, will provide ‘lac crop loan’ with zero interest through District Cooperative Bank.

A loan limit of Rs 5,000 has been fixed for rearing lac on ‘Kusum’ tree, Rs 900 for ‘Ber’ (Indian Jujube) and Rs 500 for Palash (Tesu) per tree, an official communication said.

Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Cooperative Federation has taken the initiative to increase lac production. Indirectly, it would benefit the lac rearers.

Chhattisgarh is one of the highest producers of lac in the country. It produces 4,000 tonnes of lac. The estimated value is Rs 100 crore. The target production of the state is 10,000 tonnes which will generate an income of Rs 250 crore to the farmers.

The rates for procurement of ‘Bihan lac’ (seeding lac insects) has been fixed for the farmers. The farmers can procure ‘Kusumi Bihan lac’ (obtained from Ber tree) at Rs 550 per kg and ‘Rangini Bihan lac (obtained from Palash tree) at Rs 275 per kg.

To provide the seeding for lac production, farmers’ need to deposit the demand price as per fixed by the state government in advance till December 15.

The Federation has opened a training centre in Kanker to promote lac rearing in a scientific mode. Lac rearers are given three days institutional training, and on-farm training.

Apart from it, lac production clusters have been formed with three to five primary committee areas in 20 districts.

Two kinds of lac are found in the country, Kusumi (Kusum tree) and Rangini (Ber and Palash). The lac production occurs two times in a year, summer and winter.