Agricultural Research Institute Pusa The Cultivation of Lac in the Plains of India(Tachardia lacca Kerr)

There is very little comprehensive information regarding the industry as pursued in the Plains of India and from what I have seen there are reasons to believe that this aspect of the industry is very widespread in the Plains and provides means of subsistence to thousands if not millions of the poor illiterate masses -especially the aborigines who inhabit the outskirts of forests or the interior [...] Hitherto the lion's share of the profits has gone to the middlemen factors which contribute very little to the resuscitation of the industry and amelioration of the condition of the poor illiterate cultivators who in some localities risk their lives for the sake of a few lb. [...] With the fall in prices as was the case from 1909 until July 1916 the interest flags and the attention of the cultivators and others interested in the development of lac cultivation is directed to other sources of income. [...] In other parts the host plants of the lac insects are present in abundance but the climatic conditions and the absence of a sufficient and regular supply of brood-lac are a serious bar to the extension of cultivation in these areas. [...] The kusumb tree though not very common all over the lac-producing tracts grows well in clayey soils by the sides of nallahs and rivers in the interior of forests especially in the Singbhum Division in Bihar and Orissa and in the Chattisgarh Division of the Central Provinces.