Y Care International gives go-ahead to lac resin cultivation project

5 January 2004

Marginalised young farmers in Jabalpur, central India, are to benefit from a new lac resin cultivation project to increase their incomes.

The programme, based in a remote tribal area, is being run as a new initiative by the local YMCA, with funding and support from Y Care International, the international relief and development agency of the YMCA in the UK and Ireland.

Lucy Hayter, Y Care International’s Programme Co-ordinator for Asia, said: “This work will give young people the skills to cultivate and market Lac in Jabalpur State, and to mobilise community groups so young people can share these skills with their peers.”

A project team visited 10 villages in Mandla, a large tribal district of Madhya Pradesh, and selected a cluster of four of them to be the base for the new programme.

Lac cultivation, which for centuries has been a traditional livelihood, existed in the area decades ago, but the knowledge of how to cultivate it has since been lost.

Uneven rainfall in the area during the monsoon season makes crop production unpredictable, and causes hardship for local people, many of whom are forced to leave the area to find other work. Lac production can give farmers the extra income they need.

Lac is a natural resin, secreted from the lac insect. India is the largest producer and exporter of Lac across the world – about 85 per cent of lac production is sent overseas. Its uses are widespread across a variety of industries – from food processing to cosmetics and the electrical industries.