ICAR-NISA's Director Abhijit Kar mentioned the immense possibilities in Lac and emphasized the need to focus on its processing, so that the farmers' income can be doubled.

Kar said this during two day workshop which was jointly organized by the National Institute of Higher Agricultural Processing Edition (NISA) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), formerly Indian Lac Research Institute and PRADAN on June 18 and 19, in Ranchi, aimed at highlighting the potential of lac in strengthening rural livelihoods.

The workshop was jointly inaugurated on the first day by Kar, Jharkhand State Livelihood Mission's State Program Manager Khalid Hussain, Azim Premji Foundation's Binju Abraham, ICICI Foundation's, Srikant, and Lac farmers, experts.

On the first day of the workshop, through panel discussion and presentation, emphasis was laid on the status of Lac in the State and the problems in its cultivation and its solutions. Based on the suggestions received in the workshop, further strategy was made and it was decided to share it with important departments. 

Addressing the closing session on the second day of the workshop, Jharkhand State Forest Development Corporation's Managing Director, NK Singh emphasized the need for plantation of Lac's host trees on a large scale in the State, so that Lac cultivation can be promoted.

Former Director KK Sharma mentioned the abundance of suitable host trees for Kusumi and Rangini lac in Jharkhand, which are available in sufficient quantity with the tribal communities. He said that people can improve their livelihood by cultivating lac on these trees.

In this workshop, women lac farmer Turlan Dhan, Jaydev Mahato of Khunti, AGM DT Lugun of NABARD, MD Rakesh Kumar of JASCO LAMP, NISA Scientist, Achintya Pramanik, Binju Abraham of Azim Premji Foundation, State Lead of ICICI Foundation Shrikant Kumar, representative of NCNF, coordinator of Pradaan Kirti Bhushan Pani, Vijay Veeru, Sudhir Pal of Manthan, Chandoshree of Liv Foundation, Praneeta of Udyogini, Somnath of Tata Trust, Chaitanya Ganjhu, Basant Yadav of Sahbhagi Seva Sansthan, representatives of various civil society organizations and progressive farmers expressed their views. The program was conducted by Prem Shankar of Pradaan.